The Crochet Patchwork Blanket

Here is the story of the crochet patchwork blanket.

I know many of you have been enjoying following this make.    

My aim was to make something new for Patchwork House,

 to fit the king size bed, as all my blankets so far have been single size.

I spend a lot of time resting in the bedroom,

 it is a light, bright, colourful space where I find much peace and rest,

 so this blanket is for me! I chose the shades to match

 my 2 sets of bedding so it will coordinate perfectly each week!

The yarn used is Deramores Studio DK.

This is a favourite of mine as it has a superior fine quality.

 The yarn comes in 100g balls with a beautiful satin look and feel

 and I find that the slightly finer yarn gives fabulous stitch definition.

I worked with my favourite 3.5 mm hook

 but suggest you use whatever suits your tension.

 The hook recommended on the ball band is 4 mm.

The patterns for the blocks are from the book

200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton.

I really recommend this book as a good buy.

 It has clear written instructions

 and the patterns are written to mix and match together.

I bought the pink/orange cover as this is written in UK terms.

 I believe the blue/green cover is in US terms.

I worked 1 colour at a time

 and made as many squares as possible from 1 ball.

 Depending on the block this varied from 4 to 7.

 I was happy with this as I wanted to create a patchwork effect.

As I made the squares I kept measuring them,

 to make sure they all came out at the same size.

 It is very easy to adapt them by adding or removing a round of dc,

 to either increase or decrease the size.

I chose a mixture of floral blocks

and geometric blocks.

 You can choose any blocks you fancy from this book.

Here are the colours and patterns I used

citrine - 19 lacy cross

mustard - 35 tricolour square

peridot - 113 wisteria

fir - 129 anemone

aqua green - 189 willow

sky - 56 plain granny

blue velvet - 94 gothic square

lapis - 197 fretwork

peony - 16 waterlily

rose - 78 briar rose

blush - 89 spinner

fuschia - 8 popcorn flower

raspberry - 54 framed flower

ruby - 137 criss cross

wine - 46 meadow

you need 81 squares in total.

I used 100g of each of the 15 colours

 and 600g of the topaz for joining and edging.

The frequent change of colour and pattern

 made this a very interesting project,

 which was also very portable.

 When you have made a square a few times,

 the pattern is easily remembered 

and so it was great to pop my hook and yarn in my bag to hook out!

Every day I had much fun playing with my squares

 and looking at the cheerful colour combinations!

The stitch definition of this

 Deramores Studio DK

 is just wonderful.

 It has a fabulous satin feel and is dreamy to work with!

The yarn has an anti pilling finish too,

so I am really looking forward to seeing how it stands up to frequent use.

There's nothing quite like a pile of grannies!

This growing tower of squares on my fireplace was most attractive!

Finally the day came when I had enough squares

 and was ready to join. I made 81 squares for this blanket,

 which is big enough to cover a UK king size bed.

 I have used

topaz

for my joining and border colour.

When planning my layout I like to use a random arrangement.

I play crochet Sudoku and try to get just 1

 of any colour or pattern in each row or column.

First my squares were all edged

 with 1 round of UK dc as a foundation for the joining.

At this point you need to check

 that your squares all have the same number of stitches on each edge.

If they don't, don't panic,

 just use this dc round to increase or decrease as necessary.

I used the continuous flat braid join as my joining method.

It adds a lovely lace dimension to the blanket,

 looks very complex, but is in fact fast and so easy!

You can read my tutorial 

HERE

The continuous flat braid join is so fast

 and your blanket soon comes together,

 with only 2 ends from the start and the finish!

Every blanket needs a border

 just like a picture needs a frame!

To prepare for the border I made a foundation row

 of 3 trebles in each loop with 7 in a corner.

I used border 93 from the book

Around The Corner by Edie Eckman.

This book is written in US terms

 but it has excellent clear charts as well as written instructions

 and is easy to use.

2 months work

 has made me a beautiful patchwork blanket

 with lace join and edging.

I'm hoping that this will become a family heirloom!

It's time that I made some more blankets for my home and family

 to bring colour to our days!

I wish you all a happy hooky adventure making this lovely blanket.

You can get your colour pack

HERE

Don't forget to share your pictures in the

 Facebook group!

 I'd love to see what you are up to!

happy hooking

Heather

X X X

The Daisy Blanket

 Happiness has been flowing from my hook

 and filled the house with colour!

Judging by the love on FB and IG

 this blanket has made you all happy too!

I have used
Stylecraft Special DK
1 each of pomegranate, cloud blue, spring green, wisteria,
 turquoise, fondant, sherbet, saffron, magenta, apricot, aspen and shrimp
 and 2 cream for making the daisies and the border.

You can buy the yarn
HERE

Here are a few details of how I made my blanket

 to help you along.

I have used the daisy pattern by Tillie Tulip.

There is a tutorial HERE

I like to work in a production line system 

and so first make a pile of centres for the daisies.

 I used the bright yellow called citron for these.

Next I make them into flowers using cream to add the petals.

My blanket was approximately 110cm square

 and for this I made 100 daisies so 10 rows of 10.

 There is plenty of colour in the pack and you could easily make it bigger.I

Next the fun begins with the colours!

I line up 10 colours in the order I wish to use them

 and place a daisy on top of each.

 I can't help being organised it makes my heart sing!

I made the daisies into squares again using the Tillie Tulip pattern

and then used the join as you go method of attaching the squares.

 This is really fun and quick, you see the blanket appearing before your eyes!

There is a good tutorial here on

Attic 24 blog

if you have not learnt this method before.

I love the texture that this joining method creates,

it brings an extra dimension to the blanket and makes it very tactile!

Colour makes me happy

and every time I worked on this or even saw it in my room, it made me smile!

Planning the next row of colours was always my favourite part.

I line them up on the table,

 trying to have just 1 of any colour in each row

 ( I call it crochet sudoku!)

When the squares are all joined and the blanket is in 1 piece,

 it is ready for a border. To prepare for this,

I first make 1 round of cream using UK dc as a foundation row.

Where 2 squares meet the corners are rounded

 and so the edge is not straight.

 To level it out I make half a treble in the first corner

 and the same in the next corner,

 then finish them both off together creating just 1 stitch.

 You can see the stitch is longer than the dc on the sides of the square

 and so this makes the edge flat. I choose to crochet them together

 as this makes less stitches on the border so it will lie flat.

In the corners I made 3 dc.

You are now ready to choose your border.

I wanted a border that looked like the daisy and so used

border 140 from the book

"Around The Corner" by Edie Eckman.

This is written in US terms

 but is really easy to use as there are clear charts and instructions.

So there you go!

 Have fun making your daisy blanket.

Don't forget to share pictures of your makes inspired by The Patchwork Heart

in the

 Facebook Group

Thank you as always for your companionship on FB and IG.

I really love sharing my days with you all as I crochet along

Heather

x x x

Willow Blanket tadaa!

A few weeks ago

 I shared with you the delightful willow blocks I was making

Using the pattern from

200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton

I set about making 49 of these 6 inch squares

in beautiful shades of Stylecraft Special DK

using a 3.5mm hook

I have used

Stylecraft Special DK

1 each of claret, copper, spice, gold, mocha,

 meadow, teal, plum, grape and raspberry

with 3 dark brown for joining

The pattern was easily memorised

 and soon I was making without the book!

Loving the lace pattern

 which shows so clearly when the blocks are made in a single colour

I decided on a very simple join ...

working in dark brown I used dc with wrong sides together

 as I wanted the join to be minimal allowing the blocks to shine!

then for the border I chose something deep and lacey

from Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman

which you can buy from Amazon

I am absolutely delighted with this plain blanket

which has been made as a wedding gift.

It was lovely to have the opportunity

 to create something new and different

 which I know will inspire future orders.

I hope you like it too!

happy hookin

Heather

x x x