The Granny Rose and Hello April

 I love April it's my favourite month of the year, longer nights and warmer weather but as I'm writing this there is snow falling outside, amazing really when you think that the temperatures were more than 10° higher last week, looking back to last year we had snow in April then too. At least I know that there won't be much more of it and it will get warmer. 

Looking back on March  I am happy to say that I did manage to complete everything that I said I would and a little bit extra too.  The last thing I made was another 24" square for the comfort blankets.

The Granny Rose 

I love this rose and have used it quite extensively in the past if you want to take a quick peek you can see more of my granny rose projects below. Back then, I thought it would be a lovely idea to make a blanket for my bed using this design and I set about making dozens of these roses and then crocheting them into granny squares, then other things took over and they got put to one side.  I have resurrected  these and joined them into a larger square, I think that they look really pretty and would make a lovely centrepiece for a larger blanket.

More of the Granny rose...

A Poncho For Joanie

My Family Think I've Lost The Plot

When Two CALS Meet

Granny Rose Cushion

The Granny rose pattern can be found on the lovely Astri's blog Apple Blossom Dreams.

Other Things

The trees just beyond my garden border have worried me since I moved in here over four years ago, I do love trees but when they plant them they do so without any thought of which type of tree would suit the space.

Taken yesterday as you can see a dull wet day with the odd snowfall.

These will grow over 20 feet high if left unchecked, already their roots have grown half way down my garden towards the house, I can't dig the soil because of the roots and the decking is buckled in places because of them. My garden is South facing but these trees completely block the sun when they are in full leaf.  A few years ago I asked the council if they would trim them and they refused so my neighbour and myself  took matters into our own hands and got someone to trim them for us.

Taken through my bedroom window, my heart was in my mouth watching him and he stayed up there in the midst of falling snow and sleet showers too working for over four hour on my side alone.

I've just snapped this photo below while the sun is shining you can see the difference, they don't look very pretty now but I'm sure that they will, as soon as they put on new branches and leaves in the Summer.

As I was driving home along the sea front this morning I saw this rainbow and I quickly parked the car and took a picture of it.

You can hardly see it in the photo, it looked so much nicer in real life . 

My March 

To do in April

• Give you my thoughts about waterfall crochet.
• Make at least one baby blanket.
• Embroider the birth month flower daisy x2
• Make an Easter display
• Continue with my Spring garland.

I'm sure that lots more inspiration will come a knocking.  What are you planning for April?

Well I think it's time for a little bit of Italian study, I have learnt a few words which is better than nothing at least a few things have sunk into my brain, a few random words that on their own don't mean very much at all, ah well at least I'm trying 😀

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, take care until next time.😘😘

A Bed Runner, Embroidery and Inspiration strikes Again

 It's another beautiful sunshiny day out there and I can't wait to get outside and do some garden tidying, as always I'm full of good intensions but always seem to get side tracked with one thing or another.

Can you remember last week I mentioned I had intended cleaning my car but my next door neighbour had parked beside me so I put it off because his car was so close, can you believe when I looked out a couple of hours later there he was washing his car he certainly didn't let the close proximity of my car stop him it's a pity he didn't wash mine too haha.  I did manage to wash mine earlier in the week, I'm getting the spring cleaning urge at the moment and while it's there I have to make the most of it because it doesn't last long, it's amazing how a bit of warm sunshine can motivate you.

On the crafting front I have finished the bed runner ta da.....

I enjoyed making this so much, granny squares are always a big hit with me and if there's a circle in the centre then so much the better.

I made this with yarn that I had in my stash except for one small ball of dark green, I had run out and had to buy more to finish it off, luckily you can't tell the difference between the different brands of yarn. 

Stats

Each square weighs in at 9 grams and the whole bed runner weighs 406 grams 

It measures 20"X48" and as you can see below it's the perfect size for a single bed. 

Bed runners are made for people with dementia to enable them to recognise their own bed. 

You can find the circle in a granny square here, I have used it before as you can see in the blankets below

Wades Blanket

The embroidery is coming along nicely too, I find embroidery so relaxing it's lovely to pick it up and sew a few stitches when I have a spare minute or two.  I have finished one of the daffodils I'm embroidering, this is part of  A Year Of Flowers SAL hosted by Stitchdoodles, I started it last month which means I have to try and sew the January and February flowers to catch up. if I don't it doesn't matter I can continue over to next year.

The other daffodil is nearly finished, the free pattern for this can also be found on Stitchdoodles under Birth Month Flowers here hopefully this will be finished by the end of the month.

Inspiration continues to strike, I have seen this beautiful Polygon in Mosaic crochet the designer is called Vio Vieux and she hasn't even written the pattern yet but she intends to hopefully quite soon because I would love to make it.  If you would like to see more of her designs you can find them here on Ravelry 

I have still to finish my Bunny garland for the u3a meeting next Wednesday, I'm thinking a few carrots would finish it off nicely 

and I'm in the process of making another 24" square for the Remember me blankets.

For those of you who have expressed an interest in the Geometry Lessons SAL with Mikey don't forget it starts next Monday the 28th March.

Right I'm off to cut my grass the first cut of the year.😊

Take Care until next time 😘😘

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Bed Runners Are In!

 Who would have thought it, well certainly not me that's for sure.  As far as I was concerned a bed runner was something you encountered in a hotel.  So what is a bed runner and what is their purpose ?

A bed runner is a long narrow piece of fabric, and it's used to enhance the appearance of an otherwise plain bed or to enhance the décor of the room.  

In a hotel setting it's also there to protect the bed as visitor may lie on top of the bed without removing their footwear. ( I would never do that!)

The first time I made one of these was in this post, it was used to enable people with dementia to  recognise their own bed, probably in a care home setting.

When my daughter in law mentioned that she had bought new curtains and would like a bed runner to go with them my mind started racing,  her birthday was coming up so I thought that this would be the ideal thing to make for it. 

I asked my son to send me a photo of the curtains without her knowing and then picked out a colour from them, I was a little nervous because choosing colours from a photo is tricky.  I knew that the bed cover was white so whatever I chose would go with the bed but getting the shading right to match the curtains was a different matter.

I didn't have a lot of time to make this and I had to wait for the yarn to be delivered  so it had to be an easy pattern, something that wasn't too complicated and I could work up quickly. 

Because the curtains had a lot of detail I decided to make it in one colour, if  I'd had more time to think I may have done differently. 

Once I'd finished making it, I enlisted my daughters advice about the border and made quite a few samples for her to see.  She thought that the grey edging made a nice contrast and picked up another colour in the curtains.

Stats

I worked this C2C using a 5mm hook and 850 grams Stylecraft Special Aran in shade Camel

For the border I worked one round in trebles (dc US) and I worked crab stitch or reverse dc for the final round with a 4.5mm hook and I used Stylecraft Special Dk in grey. 

It measured 60cm x 240cm

It was lovely to make because it was just mindless crochet, I do love working C2C because it's so quick and you can get the exact size you want effortlessly.

My DIL had painted a picture to hang in the bedroom to go with the curtains too 

I decided to paint a little rock to go with it

She sent me a photo of her bed with the bed runner in situ and I'm pleased to say she was delighted with it phew! 😊

I'm now thinking that bed runners are a good idea, they certainly enhance a plain bed.  I have some yarn left over and I'm thinking of  making a couple of cushions to match to put on the bed if she would like me to of course. 

I hope you all had a lovely Easter, I'm pleased to report that little Mikey enjoyed looking for Easter eggs in my garden, here he is carrying a basket to put them into, we had a two hour window of lovely warm sunshine just enough time for him to enjoy the egg hunt 

and for us to have something to eat. I ate far too much chocolate but hey it was Easter.😋

In the meantime day seven from the twelve days of Christmas sampler is underway 

and I'm working on the border for my hooked and locked blanket so hopefully I will have it finished for next week

What are you all up to? I'm still waiting for some decent Spring weather it's freezing here at the moment.

Have a great week!

Click here to see what great parties I will be linking to this week.

A Circle a Rectangle and a Couple of Squares

The circle 

Is another embroidery finish! I really enjoyed making this, when my interest in embroidery was recently revived  I began to visit several sewing blogs and in doing so got so much inspiration. I was directed to a Facebook group group called Love and Hugs from Australia.  During lockdown a number of designers had got together to design free blocks to be embroidered and then made into a quilt.  As my sewing skills aren't good enough to make a quilt I decided to embroider those which appealed to me and then use them as wall hangings.  You can use the simplest of embroidery stitches and they still look charming.  This is the first one I have completed.....

and the second one is well under way....

The Rectangle

Corner2Corner  must be the one of the most versatile crochet techniques there is.  It's so easy to work the exact size that you need,  in this case I needed a rectangle, a rather large rectangle measuring  20"x 60" to be used as a bed runner, these are placed on the end of dementia patients beds so that it helps them to recognise which bed is theirs.  What a simple but great idea.

I thought that this would be an ideal way to use up some of my Aran stash, I was so happy with the colours I found.  I had nearly two balls of the multicolored yarn and found all these smaller balls which I thought matched exactly...

then I got started on the stripes, 

I really enjoyed making this because working c2c is so quick you don't even have to look at it.  


The only drawback I suppose is all the ends but I try to weave these in as I go along so that I don't have that many at the end.  I love how it turned out I think these colours go so well together and I was left with practically no yarn at all which all in all is a very satisfying 540 grams of yarn busted.  




I hope that this bed runner will do the job for which it's intended.

The Squares

I used c2c again with yarn from my stash, these needed to be 12"x 12" 

Memory squares, two identical squares to be put with others to make two identical blankets, one to be given and buried with a terminally ill patient when they pass and one to be given to the family as a keepsake.  So very sad but hopefully these blankets will offer a little comfort for those who have lost a love one.


Have a lovely weekend! the temperatures are going to be high in the UK over the next few days and people will be flocking to the beaches, this virus is still very much out there so please be cautious and stay safe! 😘😘

Click here to see the great parties I will be linking to this week.