Mandala Magic

Mandala making is an addiction beware!

A mandala is the new doily.

Little circles of colour and pattern completed in an hour,

 perfect to satisfy any colour craving and the need for creativity!

They are beautiful around your home

 for use as table mats to protect furniture

or just alone to add a cheerful burst of colour and crochet!

This star doily is 9.5 inches / 24 cm diameter

 and is perfect for under a vase.

This granny star doily is a free pattern from the blog of

Sweet Sharna

it is really easy and suitable for beginners

 who have mastered the granny square.

If you don't want to make your own,

 you will find these for sale in my Etsy shop

HERE

I have been using the gorgeous colours of

Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK

and have put together 3 colour packs for you to suit all tastes.

Rainbow, pastels and Cath Kidston style

in my colour pack shop

HERE

Small mandalas are perfect for use as coasters.

These coasters are 5 inches / 13cm diameter.

This pattern is a particular favourite of mine as it is very thick.

It is from the book

Vintage Style Crochet Projects

 by Agnieszka Strycharska.

It is clearly written in US terms and has a lovely clear chart too.

I like to buy crochet books to give payment to the author,

 knowing how much time it takes to write a pattern and get it into print.

 However if you wish to search around

 you will find many free patterns for mandalas on

 Ravelry and Pinterest.

Classique cotton dk is a thick cotton yarn with a good twist.

 It does not split and it has a lovely natural cotton finish.

 The colours are just wonderful 

and as I said before mandala making is addictive!

Coffee and crochet is as always my favourite pastime

 and much pleasure is to be had matching my mug to my yarn!

This is another free pattern from the blog of

Crochet Millan

 called the Little Cherry Blossom Mandala.

It is a medium sized mandala 9 inches / 23 cm in diameter.

It is a wonderful step by step tutorial with photos and

 instructions in Swedish and English using US crochet terms.

When this pattern is made the mandalas curl,

 as you can see in the stack below.

So blocking is important to improve their finish.

I pin them out onto a foam blocking board (bought on ebay)

spray with cold water and leave to air dry over night.

The transformation is amazing!

Blocking is magic and well worth doing.

It really doesn't take long and when you get used to doing it,

 it just becomes part of the process.

There are stacks of these pretty colourful doilies

 here in my

 Etsy Shop

 waiting for new homes!

They are perfect gifts for Mothers Day, Easter, 

New Home, Birthdays

 or at any occasion when you may gift flowers.

Light weight and easy to post too!

When you have accomplished these smaller mandalas,

 you may like the challenge of a giant mega mandala!

These are super as a table centre.

They are fascinating to make, using a variety of stitches and colours.

This is another free pattern from the blog of 

Redagape

 called Mandy's Mega Mandala.

It measures a giant 16 inches / 40cm in diameter

 and will make a wonderful crochet statement in your home.

If I haven't yet tempted you to dig out your hook and get making,

 then take a look here at my 

Pinterest board

 for a collection of mandala patterns!

Wishing you all a happy hooky day

Heather

x x x

Crochet with Cotton

 This week I have been playing with cotton

very pretty cotton

in my favourite Cath Kidston colours

 

Stylecraft Classique Cotton

Playing with prettiness is such a treat

and was real holiday therapy 

for my last week off school.

I have been working on a commission of table mats for

The Sugar Plum Tearoom

in Ruthin N Wales, 

where I am running some crochet workshops

The pattern I am using is from an old copy of

Simply Crochet Magazine issue 12

written by the very talented Wink.

(I have adapted it slightly to make it flat 

to be suitable for sitting under glass table tops)

I've had oodles of fun playing with colours

and it wasn't long before I had a pile of ten mats

but looking very sad and curly

 it has to be said!

However a day later

 after some pinning and spraying on my blocking mats

just look at the transformation!

I must admit that I rather love these 

and am going to find them very hard to part with

and it seems that many of you do too!

So I do have plans to make more to sell in my

 Etsy Shop

 soon

My Easter holidays have been and gone now

and for now I have to go back to school.

Last week I had an amazing time

 taking The Spring Flower Blanket our Instagram Community Project

on its travels

It is now in the safe hands of the winning maker

Crafternoon Treats.

Crafternoon Treats

Kath has very generously chosen to raise money for

 Marie Curie Cancer Care.

The charity raffle has reached an amazing £6300

 and is open till midnight on 23rd April.

 If you would like to donate and have a chance to win

 this beautiful blanket click

  HERE 

I will be back next week with the final story of the blanket,

 the total raised and the winner of the charity draw 

happy hookin friends

Heather

X X X

Hexie love

Oh how wonderful summer holidays are for us teachers!

It is fantastic to have time to play

 to be me

 to indulge in yarny hooky pleasures!

I as you know am a Mathematician and get so much pleasure from crochet.

The shapes tessellate so perfectly and this gives me an immense sense of satisfaction!

Now the regular hexagon is a 6 sided polygon with equal sides and angles.

It is perfect for hooky creations yet is one I haven't used much at all.

So time to experiment ...

What better on a lazy sunny afternoon than sitting in the sun hooking daisies!

So my hexie making began.

 I didn't have a pattern so set about playing and came up with this!

As a small project a few of these hexies can be hooked up in no time

 and will make a lovely little table mat or runner.

I do love to fill my home with pretties!

I like to use Stylecraft Classique Cotton

 which has fabulous stitch definition

 and is

available in lovely bright summery colours.

 Its is a DK yarn but

 for mats I work with a 3mm hook to give a firmer texture

I must admit that I wasn't sure if I liked my table mat at this point

but it's amazing what a difference a good edging makes!

So yes the table mat stays

 and now has pride of place in Patchwork House!

As I know you will all be asking for the pattern

I have dug out a suitable suggestion from

Simply Crochet

magazine issue 5 on page 63

I am loving having time to peruse my stash of Simply Crochet magazines. Each time I look I find new patterns that tempt me. I would highly recommend it at £4.99 it is packed with patterns and lovely articles, features inspiration from our favourite hooky writers and bloggers and is always a total joy.

If you are not already hooked on the mag why not take advantage of this special offer which is open to my readers for the month of July, but

 HURRY HURRY HURRY

 it ends tomorrow!

You can take a trial offer of 3 issues for £5

WOW

isn't that fab!!!

Follow the link

HERE

and I'm sure you will not be disappointed!

In future I plan to write more patterns and tutorials and provide links for you all to find these easily on my blog. Thank you all so much for your encouraging comments and emails that help inspire me to continue with my work. The Patchwork Heart is moving forward in a new direction this new academic year. As I work full time it does not leave me as much time as I would like for making orders. I will be blogging more to share my work with the aim of encouraging and inspiring. Rather than taking orders I am now moving onto creating for my own pleasure, trying new ideas and patterns and writing and I will be reopening my Etsy shop in 2015.

Have a wonderful hooky summer

Heather

 XXX

Granny Emily

So excited!

At last I can tell you

 that I have been working with the lovely people from

Simply Crochet Magazine

as you all know

 I am a crochet addict!

I love nothing more than a weekend 

full of crochet therapy

 and

 it is always such a delight

 when the postman brings a new magazine!

I love trawling through my magazine stash

to find new patterns

 and

 inspiration

Simpy Crochet

have now also launched a new free app called

Granny Square a Week

where they are releasing a new

 free granny square pattern each week. 

This is available for Apple users

but

 others can also sign up to receive details by 

newsletter

the patterns are available in UK and USA crochet terms

You imagine my delight

 when I was given a preview of one of the granny squares

 to be released in their app

 and asked to trial it in my own colour combinations!

Here is

Granny Emily

oooohhhh

 don't you just love that deep swirling centre!

I was given the privilege of naming this square

and have named it after my lovely Mum

 who taught me to crochet as a child . . .

she is nearly 80 and still crocheting daily!

Oh what excitement

 to be able to give this square The Patchwork Heart treatment!

 I dived into my stash and decided to use

Stylecraft Classique Cotton

which comes in 18 lovely bright shades

it seemed only right

 to make these squares into a gift for my mother

 so I have chosen

 to use her favourite colours of pink and green

I'm often asked by readers what I do with the tails

and as you can see

 colour changing always makes for a lot of them!

I prefer to sew them

 in using a big darning needle at the end . . . 

think of it as embroidery

 and enjoy running them into the same colour stitches

 on the back of the square . . .

they will soon disappear

 and you will have a much more professional finish

 than if you crochet over them!

I decided to make Granny Emily

 in 4 different combinations of the 5 shades

I love to play with colour

and find it amazing how the squares look so different

when the colours are used in different orders!

I chose 2 brighter shades and 2 paler shades with the white

and notice

 that I kept round 3 white

 on all 4 squares to make them match!

the squares were then joined

 using the

 join as you go method

and finished with a little picot edging

Simpy Crochet

 have kindly given me permission

 to share the pattern for Granny Emily with my readers

Granny Emily in UK terms

2-ttr cluster (Yrh 3 times, insert hook in sp, yrh and pull up loop, [yrh and draw through 2 loops] 3 times) twice, inserting hook in same sp each time, yrh and draw through all loops on hook.

With Yarn A, ch8, join with a ss into a ring.

Round 1 Ch5 (counts as ttr), ttr into ring, ch1, (2-ttr cluster into ring, ch1) 15 times, ss to top of beg ch-5. Fasten off.

Round 2 Join Yarn B in any ch-1 sp with a ss. Ch1 (does not count as stitch), dc into same ch-1 sp, *ch3, dc in next ch-1 sp, ch3, (2tr, ch3, 2tr) in next ch-1 sp, ch3, dc in next ch-1 sp, ch3, dc in next ch-1 sp; rep from * twice, ch3, dc in next ch-1 sp, ch3, (2tr, ch3, 2tr) in next ch-1 sp, ch3, dc in next ch-1 sp, ch3, ss to first dc, fasten off.

Round 3 Join Yarn C in next ch-3 sp with a ss. Ch3 (counts as tr), 2tr in same ch-3 sp, *ch2, skip next ch-3 sp, (3tr, ch2, 3tr) in next ch-3 sp, ch2, skip next ch-3 sp, 3tr in next ch-3 sp, ch2, 3tr in next ch-3 sp; rep from * twice, ch2, skip next ch-3 sp, (3tr, ch2, 3tr) in next ch-3 sp, ch2, skip next ch-3 sp, 3tr in next ch-3 sp, ch2, ss to top of beg ch-3, fasten off.

Round 4 Join Yarn D in next ch-2 sp. Ch3 (counts as tr), 2tr in same ch-2 sp, *ch2, (3tr, ch2, 3tr) into corner ch-2 sp, (ch2, 3tr in next ch-2 sp) 3 times; rep from * twice, ch2, (3tr, ch2, 3tr) into corner ch-2 sp, (ch2, 3tr in next ch-2 sp) 2 times, ch2, ss to top of beg ch-3, fasten off.

Round 5 Join Yarn E in next ch-2 sp. Ch3 (counts as tr), 2tr in same ch-2 sp, *(3tr, ch2, 3tr) in corner ch-2 sp, (3tr in next ch-2 sp) 4 times; rep from * twice, (3tr, ch2, 3tr) in corner ch-2 sp, (3tr in next ch-2 sp) 3 times, ss to top of beg ch-3, fasten off.

Weave in all ends.

Granny Emily in USA crochet terms

2-dtr cluster (Yrh 3 times, insert hook in sp, yrh and pull up loop, [yrh and draw through 2 loops] 3 times) twice, inserting hook in same sp each time, yrh and draw through all loops on hook.

With Yarn A, ch8, join with a ss into a ring.

Round 1 Ch5 (counts as dtr), dtr into ring, ch1, (2-dtr cluster into ring, ch1) 15 times, ss to top of beg ch-5. Fasten off.

Round 2 Join Yarn B in any ch-1 sp with a ss. Ch1 (does not count as stitch), sc into same ch-1 sp, *ch3, sc in next ch-1 sp, ch3, (2dc, ch3, 2dc) in next ch-1 sp, ch3, sc in next ch-1 sp, ch3, sc in next ch-1 sp; rep from * twice, ch3, sc in next ch-1 sp, ch3, (2dc, ch3, 2dc) in next ch-1 sp, ch3, sc in next ch-1 sp, ch3, ss to first sc, fasten off.

Round 3 Join Yarn C in next ch-3 sp with a ss. Ch3 (counts as dc), 2dc in same ch-3 sp, *ch2, skip next ch-3 sp, (3dc, ch2, 3dc) in next ch-3 sp, ch2, skip next ch-3 sp, 3dc in next ch-3 sp, ch2, 3dc in next ch-3 sp; rep from * twice, ch2, skip next ch-3 sp, (3dc, ch2, 3dc) in next ch-3 sp, ch2, skip next ch-3 sp, 3dc in next ch-3 sp, ch2, ss to top of beg ch-3, fasten off.

Round 4 Join Yarn D in next ch-2 sp. Ch3 (counts as dc), 2dc in same ch-2 sp, *ch2, (3dc, ch2, 3dc) into corner ch-2 sp, (ch2, 3dc in next ch-2 sp) 3 times; rep from * twice, ch2, (3dc, ch2, 3dc) into corner ch-2 sp, (ch2, 3dc in next ch-2 sp) 2 times, ch2, ss to top of beg ch-3, fasten off.

Round 5 Join Yarn E in next ch-2 sp. Ch3 (counts as dc), 2dc in same ch-2 sp, *(3dc, ch2, 3dc) in corner ch-2 sp, (3dc in next ch-2 sp) 4 times; rep from * twice, (3dc, ch2, 3dc) in corner ch-2 sp, (3dc in next ch-2 sp) 3 times, ss to top of beg ch-3, fasten off.

Weave in all ends.

The lovely people at Simply Crochet magazine

 have also set up

 a special trial offer to my readers

Try 3 issues for just £5 when you subscribe 

* Receive 13 issues a year - saving £9.97 on your first 3 issues

* Direct delivery at no extra cost

* Receive a FREE gift on every issue

Terms & Conditions: 

This offer is for new UK print subscribers paying by Direct Debit only. 

You will receive 13 issues in a year.

  Offer ends: 31st July 2014

and you can take up this offer by following the link 

HERE

and now I must get back to my hook

sending you all lots of hooky love

Heather

X X X