A Couple of Things

 I've been working on a couple of things I'd like to share here. In my last post, I shared my latest crocheted blanket. Now I am making one for my youngest grandson, B. His favorite color used to be orange, but now it seems he likes yellows and golds as well. So this is the yarn selection. I am crocheting a ripple pattern from Lucy at Attic 24.

I think I posted that I was painting rocks during the pandemic. This is one of my latest rocks. I do lots of little pictures on rocks which I put positive messages on the back and we put them in a basket out front for neighbors to take. I believe we have done a few hundred rocks since we started.

On the sewing front, I was finally able to move ahead on the Penny Sampler Quilt. I am doing the Dutch version since I have already done the Nordic version a couple of years ago when Rachel offered it.

My quilt is all blues, pinks and a bit of red. So this is my tree. It was so fun to choose the fabrics for this block. I pulled all my fabrics back in the beginning, so I just go through the bin they are in for each new block assignment. We are in the home stretch with this year long project.

This is my faceted diamond block. I forgot to re-orient it. It will go longways on the quilt. The third block for September is the windmill, which I haven't downloaded to my computer yet, so I will do that soon so I can document that here. I am so excited to get this quilt put together. I have really been enjoying the monthly assignments.

So have a great weekend and stay safe and well. I will see you soon.

Crochet!

 So, in addition to sewing I also love to crochet. I have been crocheting blankets for the last 3 years, along with Lucy at Attic 24. She has so many lovely patterns and she is really good at explaining the techniques. She shows pictures of how things should look, which is so helpful. And her patterns are free!

This is one of her patterns I just finished, in my own chosen colors. This blanket is to be a Christmas gift for Miss N. Her favorite colors are pink and purple.

This is the Cosy Stripe Blanket. It is all double crochet, except for parts of the border. This is a picture of the final row of the border which give such a pretty little finish here.

Every two rows alternate between a plain double crochet and one with three stitches done in one spot skipping stitches on each side to give this unique look. I alternated between pink and purple on each row.

I started out using up bits of leftover yarns from other projects, but then I soon realized I didn't have enough of either pink or purple to complete this. So I found an on line source for the same yarn, here in the US.

I usually order all this blanket yarn from Wool Warehouse in the UK, but at the time, they weren't shipping to the US because of Covid.

I am very happy with the way this blanket turned out. These pictures are on my queen size bed, so this is a sizeable blanket. My daughter requested it be big enough so she could use it as she grew up.

And here is the little wooden button I put on all my crochet blankets. I found these on Etsy. There are many vendors on Etsy that sell something like this if you are interested in finding some for yourself. I hope you have a great rest of your week, and I will see you soon.

Happy Fall

 Well, now it is officially fall, or Autumn, if you prefer. Days are getting shorter, temperatures are cooling down a bit. It's awesome! Here's what I have been doing the last couple of weeks.

I made all these balls of fabric "yarn" from string scraps that I have been saving for the past two years. A number of years ago, Crazy Mom had a tutorial on how to crochet or knit a throw rug with these. I have made a few of them over the years. I want to do one more. This will be my last. I'm not saving these kinds of scraps any more.

This was the table as I sorted all the scraps. After I made the very first one, I decided to sort into color groups and I like the look it gives me much better.

It takes about 3 pounds of this yarn to crochet a decent size rug. The blue is the largest ball I have and you  can see it is close to a pound. I weighed all the balls and together there is 4.8 pounds, so this will be a sizeable rug.

I also finished this lovely EPP piece. I am going to look for a backing fabric so I can remove the papers and quilt it. I will finish the edges without binding. That should be interesting. 

I hope you are all doing well. I will be back with more projects to share.

Dear Dottie #2

 I have finally finished my second Dear Dottie quilt top. I think I know how I'm going to quilt it, so all I need is a backing now and I can pin baste.

Here she is in all her glory! When I made my first Dear Dottie, I made the baby size and I made it completely scrappy. No fabric used more than once. And I loved it, still do. But then I saw one on Instagram that used a more limited pallet and I couldn't get it out of my mind. So I decided to try it.

I found a bundle of fabrics from a collection I had in my stash, and I pulled a few others to add to it. I had to restrain myself from adding too much. I kept telling myself what I had would be enough. And truly I found limiting the amount of fabrics to be more difficult than just putting something else in that I felt it called for. In the end, I'm glad I did limit my fabrics. I love the effect.

I think I struggled when so many of the blocks were the same, or similar. That's where I had to tell myself it was fine and it looked good. And I think it does.

So, I now have 3 quilt tops completed and needing backs and quilting. It's going to take a while to get that done, but I love them all and cannot wait to see them quilted and on the bed. I hope you have a good rest of your week. Talk to you soon.