African flowers for a cushion cover

Hip hip hooray! My first attempt at African flowers and i'M A-LUVVIN THESE!
If you like them too, I found the pattern over on FLICKR in the african flower crochet group.
They have the pattern in words as well as a diagram. Have a go, these are fun!

And you have 5 rows of colours to play with. I have crocheted them together on the fifth row.

It's a wedding present for my sister who is getting married for the second time and who has requested only handmade creative presents..... And their campervan ( new) is a deep red, hence the choice of colours.

Something to make it look cosy and to rest a weary well-travelled head on....

14 colours from my stash and some I bought specially: mostly DK cottons, some bamboo, all different brands: Patons, Wendy, Rowan,King Cole,Elle,Sirdar and so on.

3 greens, 3 reds, 2 orange tones, 1 peach, 3 pinks,2 beiges. Some to brightly clash a bit. Fun.

At forst I thought it wasn't so portable, but then I thought why not crochet the first 4 rows ''on the go'' ( train journeys, hockey matches, waiting in line at Mme Tussauds.....) and then do the joining row at home?!! So that's what happened above, both made in London on 2 August.

same 2 with a flash, colours don't look so good now?Another 16-18 to go I reckon!

That's the perfick ( a la Larkin) project for our little holiday starting tomorrow! A great adventure on the canals: our first mission in travelling by narrowboat.......!!!!!! Will I have time to crochet? Or will it all be ''all hands on deck'' for all those locks, 36 I believe.

FREE Floral brooch in PRIZE DRAW

YES siree here they are, albeit fairly poorly photographed today. Sorry but had to rush to get it on here in time! 2 prized up for grabs: a 9 cm and a 5 cm brooch, one's all pinks and the smaller one has a bit of purple too. The orange-brown looking one is the pink one with the flash turned off...ah well. Typifies the day a bit.

Below is the smaller one. Good Luck for the Draw tomorrow!!!!

Happy hooking and enjoy the weekend!!! Especially a happy Mothers' Day too if that applies to you.

Bye Bye January 2010

Bye bye January 2010, how you have flown by! Usually I find January the slowest month and then by mid February time speeds up to start whizzing through March, April ,May as Spring takes hold and then gallops through the summer months to slow down again in October....

Not so this year! JJ set up his own business and my business: Thame Marketing has a website that sells IT equipment: www.itvaluewarehouse.com
OK that's IT for the advertising, all this had kept us very busy! Then there was all that SNOW!
But also I want to remember that this month I did quite a bit of SEWING again!
The little bag above was a birthday present for a friend and took about 6-8 hours to make.
The green approach was adopted in that 3 out of 4 fabrics came from dresses we have enjoyed wearing in the past! 2 from toddler dresses and one from a sundress of mine. Sewn together and quilted , the far left one in a free maching way.
The lining,batting and zipper were ''new'', the lining was a present very many years- at least a decade- ago.

I just LOVE love love the folded ends! Such fun and such a discovery in a quilting book from the library: ''A PASSION FOR PATCHWORK''by Lise Bergene.

First I had made a try out one for myself: from the sleeve of a machine knitted jumper that had gone ''wrong'' and had lived in my attic since the early 1980's....

VOILA!

This now houses a small portable crochet project. Like the donkey I had been planning to make....

This is the underside. January also saw me do much DE-CLUTTERING'' in the home and I cleared especially the ''prosperity corner according to the Feng Shui Bagua theory; which just happens to be Miss Y's room......and this is usually a mess with no floor visible!

A triumph I feel and well worth the many hours spent.

Long may it look like this!

Also in January I sewed Miss E some new pyamas from scratch in a lovely cotton lawn using a Burda pattern, it turned out a bit on the big ( not to say huge) side but she's chuffed to bits and declared they are the comfiest PJ'S EVER! So eventually she will grow entirely into them....

( even with an 11cm hem in the legs!)

Tomorrow will be February and who knows what adventures and creations lie ahead?!!!

PS There are a few recipes due in February blogland and a crochet cardigan is almost finished!

Also working on more patterns for Inside Crochet and looking forward to seeing- 2?!!!_ of my designs in issue 6!!!

Have fun and see you soon, work,children,dogs and home permitting....