Photo Challenge Tuesday – Flower

Just a quick post to share this lovely challenge that I came across whilst browsing blogs both new and old. Isn’t it great to discover some thing new? I have followed Nanacathy for some time and have joined her in a previous photo challenge called Friday Fences, it was so obscure I just couldn’t resist, but that was way back in 2013.

My recent browsing led me to Wild Daffodil where the new photo challenge is housed, well actually it is only new to me, and now you of course, as it ran all of last year too. Basically you are provided with a theme and on the first tuesday of every month you post your contribution then leave a link to your post in the comments on Wild Daffodil’s blog post.

The blossom image above is not a new image but one that I have shared on a previous post here it’s right at the end of the post, not totally realted to the woolly content apart from being pink. It was just that it is my favouite tree in our garden, it only blossoms for about 3 weeks in a year and creates a whole lot of sweeping up once the blossoms fall but it is incredably beautiful for those 3 short weeks.

The photo above is more weeds than flowers and mostly dead at that, but rather beatiful in my eyes nevertheless. Anyway a friend once said to me that a weed is merely an uncultivated flower so on that note it does qualify, I will leave you to make up your own mind.

My last entry is a woolly one, I couldn’t resist as creating with yarn is what I love to do most, a very simple Sunflower.

So don’t think about just join the photo party visit Wild Daffodil  now!

Baby Blanket Centre Squares

Baby Blanket Centre Squares

Pretty in Pink Baby Blanket

and Little Boy Blues Baby Blanket

I have been asked many times for the pattern for the squares in the centre of these baby blankets and have been very pleased to share via email upon request. I have had the pattern written up for ages so I thought why not create a post to share the joy that I had in making them.

I hope the pattern is clear but if you have any questions just let me know

Centre Square Pattern

1. Chain 6 slip stitch into the first stitch to make a ring.
2. Chain 1 (counts as first dc) c 15 into the ring, slip stitch into the first chain made, 16 sts.
3. 4 chain, 3trtog into same st to make the first petal cluster, 3ch, miss next dc,

*tr 4 tog, 3 ch, miss next dc**  repeat from * to ** 6 more times, 8 petal clusters formed.

4. Slip stitch into the next 3 ch space, 1ch, 1 dc in same space, * 2ch, (3htr, 3ch, 3htr0 into next 3 ch space, 2 ch, 1 dc in next 3ch space, rep from * 3 times more, omitting dc at the end of the last repeat, slip stitch into first dc.

The final round is trebles and I think you will be able to follow that from the images. Any questions please let me know and I will be happy to help if I can.

Amish Puzzle Ball and Crochet Boots Swap

I was reading through posts one day and came across some lovely crochet slippers made by Simply Hooked with an offer I could not resist. A swap request, offering a pair crochet slippers in exchange for an Amish Puzzle Ball, “well” I thought to myself “I have made these puzzle balls before and I would love those gorgeous slippers”. So here it is ready to be shipped off.

And here are the said gorgeous slippers!

We exchanged emails and Simply Hooked agreed to my swap offer and chose the colours for the Puzzle Ball. If you haven’t seen one before I will try to explain how it works. You make twelve triangular pouches and three rows of lids. Each row of lids is attached to four pouches stuffing each pouch before finally closing it off.

So you end up with these.

First you interlock 2 of the finished rounds.

Then the last round fits into the gaps to make a round ball.

I love this pattern so much, they are quite quick to make and there are animal versions too. I made an Elephant shown in a previous post here.

If you fancy making your own puzzle ball you can download the free pattern from Ravelry Amish Puzzle Ball Pattern, there is also a flower version which is delightful. These two  patterns are kindly available free thanks to Dedri Uys.

The Elephant Puzzle Ball pattern is available to purchase on Ravelry too. Dedri is obviously quite dedicated, I talked in my post about how struggled a little with the elephant head and Dedri was kind enough to contact me and advise that she had altered the pattern and asked if I made one again would I let her know if it was better. How kind was that?

Charity Yarn Bombing – Part 3

This is the final instalment.

This was another of my favourites, I was so happy that I actually won the bid for it so we can keep it up at the surgery.

The wooden tree was made by a friend using a photo frame as inspiration. It stands 5ft tall made from MDF and stained with wood stain. I am currently making more leaves so it will look fuller, then the plan is to decorate it with snowflakes for Christmas.

Not sure if you can make this out but it is a real nest that we were given, it had been abandoned so no little birdies were dislodged from their home we promise. Debs made a little crochet bird to sit in the nest which was given a new home in our floal garland adorned tree.

 These were balls from a childs ball pool that we covered with yarn to hang like colourful woolly fruits.

 A pair of gnomes donated by Dean’s Garden Centre were yarn bombed and graced the front garden with their crochet flowers.

Then we had our safari theme, ok I know a koala does not really fit this theme but he is so cute we had to include him.

The colourful purple snake slithering along the branch. A little boy won the bid for him and when he collected his prize we were trying to help him choose a name. We were all suggesting names that would rhyme with snake like Syd, Sammy and Cyril, good names we thought. But no, “Bob” said the little chap, tied Bob around his waist and off he went. One very happy little man and a snake called BOB!

This colourful parrot was a great hit with all our visitors but sadly he was not available for bids, although his maker did offer for eggs to be laid and nurtured for baby parrots.

Cheeky monkey swinging on a crochet vine, his mate was sitting behind the parrot awaiting his turn on the vine swing.

Below all the activity on high there was an animal picnic going on.

Bunting and birds were hung and strung all around the building giving life to all the themes.

I have to finish by saying a final thank you to all of you who helped us achieve a display that in the end was more than we could have hoped. Both the Hospice and the Hospital are extremely grateful for the funds that we have all raised. And the patients too have continued to show their appreciation.

Thank you.

So here ends our Charity Yarn Bombing story………………….until next year!

Charity Yarn Bombing – Part 1

At last, some photos of the event to share with you. I have to start with a huge THANK YOU to all of you for your support and contributions, all of which were put to very good use and helped to make our little event a huge success. The displays were manned over the August bank holiday weekend when we had the majority of our visitors. All the items were given a number and visitors could place a bid to buy whatever took their fancy in a sealed box.

A couple of weeks before the opening we started to stir local folk and patients curiosity when the tree on the roadside was wrapped in a clourful blanket. Patient’s would come into reception and ask “is the tree poorly’? There is a bus stop opposite and we would giggle as we watched people waiting for a bus chatter and point inquisitively.

I will break the photos down into a few posts so they are not too long starting with the floral delights and the bunting. We had lots of floral garlands and bunting around the grounds and building, it added a wonderful festive air to the whole event.

We used many of the flowers we were sent to create these flower panels to hang from the hand rail at the front of the surgery.

A friend made the gorgeous pink potted flower, if fact she made 5 of them and another friend knitted little butterflies and bees to decorate them. They were dotted around the  garden and I have to say they looked amazing.

The Happy Flowers from the pattern on Attic 24 worked their colourful charm in flower troughs with the leafy trellis on the walls at either side with bees and ladybirds nestling in the leaves.

Next I will show you the seaside scene so come back soon!

More Happy Flowers

How beautiful are these? Sent to our Fantasy Garden charity yarn bombing project along with these little beauties, all sent from The Hook StookThe Happy Flowers are from the pattern at Attic 24 and will go on display along with my own Happy Flowers. Many thanks for your lovely contributions.

Leaf Garlands for the Flowers

I have been busy making leaf garlands to show off all the lovely flowers we are receiving.

Trying to make them in different shades of green for variety. This was the 3rd attempt and I added stems for the flowers which I really like.More parcels arrived today so I will be sharing more lovely contributions  at the weekend.

Potted Sunflower

This project was one of those things that just developed along the way. I have crafted mini plants using pipe cleaners many years ago and when I had finished making the sunflower head I thought it would be interesting to try and do a similar thing.

There are quite a few sunflower patterns available online but the one I used here is by Meladora’s Creations and is available as a video tutorial, it is really easy to follow and the beauty of a video is you can stop and start it as you move through the project.

I tried a couple of different patterns but this was the one that worked the best, the flower head really does look like a sunflower, I made a larger version too but I will show you that one later. The leaves were very quick and simple to make, each leaf is 2 joined together back to back to give them some body, using florist wire I attached them to a plant cane.  With the same yarn as the leaves I covered the cane from 2cm from the top to about 5 cm’s from the base.

I filled the terracotta pot to approximately a third of the way up with decorators filler and set the cane in the centre. I had use some card to keep it upright while it set. Then with brown yarn made a cover to serve as the soil.

Once fully set I stitched the sunflower head at the top of the cane.

The potted sunflower looks really at home in the garden with all the other foliage.

Do you remember the Sweetie Tree? This was made using the same principle apart from using the help of a friend to set the sticks in concrete as the flower heads of sweets were quite heavy. The possibilities are endless, go let your imagination run wild.

Cushion for Miss A

Trying to be good I have used up some left over squares from making my daughters blanket to make her a matching cushion. I use the term matching rather loosely as the squares used for the cushion are the patterns that were rejected from the blanket.

Luckily I had enough squares to make it a double sided affair so she can switch it around as the mood takes her.

If you want a peek at the full blanket post you can see it here.