Afternoon tea

This week has been a week of celebration

 as we marked my step fathers 85th and mothers 80th birthdays

the week begin with a family meal at a local restaurant

where they both enjoyed all the families coming together

then on my Mum's birthday I treated her to a vintage afternoon tea

here at Patchwork House

using my newly collected mismatched vintage china

Oh what a delight it was setting the table

 with such beautiful cups and saucers

and using the hand embroidered table cloths

 that my Mum had made in her youth

at last it was time to give her the blanket I had specially made

Emily's Garden

 has been featured in a previous blog post and you can read about it

 HERE

Mum is still crocheting every day at the age of 80!

She is a gardener too and so I had created this blanket especially for her

 in her favourite colours.

She was very pleased with the gift

and I was very happy to give it to such a good home

 where I know it will be appreciated!

Heather

X X X

Emily's Garden ~ a blanket of flowers

 This blanket has caused quite a stir

 amongst my followers on Instagram and Facebook, 

so here as promised are some details of how I made 

Emily's Garden.

The blanket is a gift for my mother's 80th birthday.

She loves flowers and is also a crocheter

 so I wanted to create something really special for her.

I used my favourite Stylecraft Special DK

this is so beautiful for blankets.

 It is soft warm and snugly,

 can be machine washed and tumble dried

 and is excellent value

It comes in a wonderful choice of over 80 shades

and you can buy it

HERE

I used

 soft peach, candy floss and pale rose

 lavender, wisteria and clematis

aspen, sherbet and spring green

cloud blue and parchment.

To create a garden

 I decided to use many different types of flowers

the first type was my frequent favourite

the starburst or sunburst flower

I use the starburst pattern by Jane Brocket

 which was in Mollie Makes issue 2

but there are many patterns for the sunburst available on the Internet 

try this one here

  

next I wanted to add depth to give the blanket a 3D texture

so  I chose these popcorn flowers

you can find the pattern 

HERE

there had to be roses in the garden

and these were such fun to make

this pattern is by Nicki Trench in the book

cute & easy crochet

for more texture I wanted petals

and these little pretties came from

a pattern by Nicki Trench in

Simply Crochet magazine issue 5

so with 80 flowers made for 10 rows of 8

 I was all set to join them into a rectangular throw

and I decided on a random arrangement 

as would be found in a cottage garden.

My favourite method for joining is using the

join as you go technique.

I originally learnt this using the fantastic tutorial from

  Attic 24

and developed my own method

 for continuous join as you go

joining the whole blanket without cutting the yarn.

You will notice

 that some are of my flowers are circles and others are squares,

 so to cope with this just make double trebles instead of trebles

 in the corners when joining the circles.

The continuous join method is so fast and easy 

and has the fantastic bonus of no ends to sew in!

I am really pleased with the 3D flowers

and the continuous join as you go

adds another lovely texture to the squares.

Finally a deep border to set off the flowers

 made using block stitch to incorporate some seeds of colour

you can find some instructions

HERE

Tadaa!

Emily's Garden is complete

 and I cannot wait to gift it to my mother Emily

on her 80th birthday

I'm sorry this is not a complete pattern

 but I am not yet a pattern writer and do not pretend to be!

 However I am happy to share

 my inspiration and the links to the patterns I chose

 so that you too

 may have a go at creating a garden of love.

Happy hookin!

Heather

 X X X

Playing with flowers

This week I am playing with flowers

combining different flower squares and colours

I am experimenting with 3D texture to add dimension

using shades of pink lilac and turquoise

This special blanket

 is a gift for my mothers 80th birthday next month

and is called

Emily's Garden

when complete I will write up the pattern

 giving links to the granny squares used

Don't forget

 to take advantage of the super offer from 

Simply Crochet Magazine

which you will find in my previous blog post

HERE

you can get 3 issues for £5 !!!

Have a great hooky week my friends

HEATHER
XXX