Use What You Have: Patchwork Pillows & Potholders

     My current project is really a succession of projects, a continuing foray into stash-busting. This is a public declaration: I have accumulated so many things (like the beat-up school chair in the post before last, http://morning-glory-garden.blogspot.com/2015/07/chairs-and-more-chairs.html?spref=fb, for example), so much stuff of various kinds, out of the conviction I could turn them into something beautiful, or at least interesting. Rather than take it all down to Goodwill or have a yard sale (I like going to them, but not holding them) I'm making a conscious effort to actually do what I'd intended with all those things I've collected. So this is the most recent step toward that goal . . . . 

     The three pillows above are made from vintage patchwork blocks I bought at the January Tucson Quilt Festival, four or five Januaries ago. I appliqued each one to a coordinating cotton fabric (white muslin, blue chambray, and unbleached muslin, left to right), made each one into the usual quilt sandwich of pieced block, batting, and backing, and hand-quilted them. I used red quilting thread on the one on the right, to pick up the color of some tiny red flowers, and I really like the way it turned out, though it's such a subtle detail it may not show in the picture. The center seams on the smallest one, in the middle, were a bit off so the orange and red pieces didn't quite line up as they should; that's why I sewed the button there. Then I sewed piping around the edges and sewed the quilted pillow tops to their backings, which have sort of envelope openings (see below) so you can slip (or violently stuff, in some cases) the pillow forms into the decorative covers, and when they get dirty slip them out again to wash the covers.
          These are the backs of the three pillows below. Each one is made of two pieces of fabric (scrap fabric in two cases, and part of an old slip cover that the cats had scratched badly - but only in spots - in the other), with each piece hemmed and overlapping the other by about four inches. Like the chair I mentioned above, this project was an exercise in meeting the challenge of using things I already had without buying anything else.
           The fronts of the next three pillows began with 11" blocks given to me by the woman who heads up the quilting group at our church. There were actually six of them in a box of odds and ends that the group had no use for, and I was happy to take them. I added a 1 1/2" border of unbleached muslin around each one and then hand-quilted and assembled them just like the ones in the first photo above. The border was a little more than I needed, but that way I was sure they'd be big enough; I could (and did) trim off the excess after sewing the covers together. For these and the little red and blue one with the button above, I used 12" pillow forms I bought at IKEA a few years ago for 99 cents each! Unfortunately, they no longer carry that item; believe me, I've looked.

      I said there were six of these quilt blocks; the last three became potholders but I gave one away to a friend for her birthday, so I can only show you two. The process was the same as for the pillows through the hand quilting and then I just sewed wide double-fold bias tape around the edges of the quilted "sandwiches," extending the last couple of inches or so to make a hanging loop.

     Cosmo wanted to be in a picture, so here he is with some more little pillows covered with granny squares that I made to use up the last bits of some leftover yarn from other projects (of course). They're made in essentially the same way as the patchwork ones, though with no batting or quilting, obviously. For each one, I sewed the crocheted square to a square of the fabric that's used for the back with its overlapping opening, then sewed the fronts and backs together all the way around, right sides together, clipped the corners, turned them right side out, and stuffed the pillow forms into them.

 And then I put them on the sofa so Cosmo could pose with them, since they all go so well together.

Another Ottoman

That's sort of a pun, I guess, as I think this ottoman, with its rich colors and texture, would have been quite at home in a seraglio of the original Ottoman Empire. Angelo seems to think so too, and he's definitely a creature who likes his creature comforts.

I began at the top, following the granny circle pattern so well explained by Raymond's mum at http://crochethealingandraymond.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/revisiting-the-granny-mandala/. When the circle was big enough (and by big enough I mean about 1 round short of covering the top of the ottoman, since I wanted it to have to stretch just a bit for a snug, not baggy fit). I just changed colors as the mood took me, but when the top was big enough I then did 2 rounds of single crochet, 1 in gold, 1 in ivory. There's no increasing after the last shell round of the top.
     Your colors will vary, of course. The colors in the pictures look different because I took the one below in natural light at sundown and the one above with a flash to make sure Angelo didn't just look like a flat shadow. The true colors of the yarn are somewhere in between, but closer to those below.

My pattern for the sides was to do 3 rounds of double crochet in 1 color, then 1 round of single crochet in either gold or ivory, then 3 rounds of double crochet in another solid color, then 1 round of single crochet, etc., till it's long enough to reach the floor. I think I'll probably add 2 more rounds of gold single crochet, just for a nicer, firmer finished edge. But overall I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. The fabric cover on this ottoman wasn't nearly as disreputable as on the cube in my previous post, but once I'd made that one so much more elaborate, this one looked very sad, and now it doesn't.

Making something from something

My mom gave up crocheting a few years ago and let me have a biiiiiggg box of yarn, including several granny squares. I put some of those together into a baby afghan for a friend http://morning-glory-garden.blogspot.com/search/label/afghan, and then forgot about the others, while chipping away at the rest of the yarn for various projects. Then one day I laid out 9 of them on top of a pretty disreputable-looking corduroy-covered ottoman, and it was nearly a perfect fit.

I joined them with green and gold yarns left over from something else and then crocheted round and round, in various shells and double and treble crochets, till the sides were long enough to reach the floor. That was a little tricky as I had to keep checking and often decreasing in subsequent rounds to make sure the sides fit snugly enough.

Apparently Cosmo thinks it was made for him. He didn't care much for the faded rust-colored corduroy but he obviously recognizes how well the new cover goes with his coat!

hooks and needles

I'm nearly done with a big knitting project/birthday present for Joe, but it won't be finished by tomorrow, which is his birthday. It's okay, though. He understands and knows he'll have it within the next two or three days, and then I'll post photos, etc. In the meantime, I took a few hours off to crochet this little hat for our little friend Rory, shown here with her mama.

It's an owl, and there's no real pattern; I was just winging it (I don't mind if you groan at the pun). I'd read the dimensions (circumference and depth) for a hat for a 2-year-old and tried to match those; it's double crochet in the round, with the earflaps added when the rest was done, then the eyes and beak crocheted and appliqued on, and finally single crochet in turquoise (to match her new jacket) around the bottom edge, with braids attached to each earflap.
     As you can see, Rory and her mama were both pretty happy with it. Sheep are Rory's favorite animals, and I'd found a cute pattern for a sheep hat, white with black ears, but it just wasn't coming out right so I unraveled it and used the yarn for this one instead.

Leftovers, Anyone? More with Sticks and String

Recently I've been obsessed with knitting these lovely round lacy dishcloths - I've lost count of how many!

The pattern is at http://www.knittingknonsense.com/lacyround.html. (Note that the pattern recommends knitting an extra row at the very end. I've tried it both ways and prefer it without that extra row.) Joe thinks they're too pretty to use for dishes and make very nice doilies instead. I've given a few of the plainer ones that I knitted before stumbling on to this addictive pattern to my mom, who feels the same way and uses them under hot dishes on the table. As long as they like them, it's fine with me.
     Each cloth uses up most of a ball of yarn, especially these variegated and striped yarns which have less yardage to begin with, but there are always leftovers, and I've used them to make little coasters like the one in this picture.

The pattern is at http://www.groupepp.com/dishbout/kpatterns/garterstcoaster.html. Of course there wasn't quite enough yarn to complete the coaster, so I finished it with some more or less coordinating yarn, and I'm happy enough with it. But then decided I needed another kind of project to use up those odd bits of yarn, and here's what I came up with - ta da! scrunchies!

They're about as simple as it gets. These are done with worsted weight 100% cotton yarn and an H hook. Using one of the stronger coated ponytail elastics as a base ring, single or double crochet all the way around, as many stitches as you can get onto the ring. Join to the top of the first stitch with a slip stitch and then start the outer ring: *ch 6, skip 1 st, sl st into the next st. Repeat from * all the way around, join with a sl st and end, or, if you have enough yarn, crochet another round of ch 3, sl st into next ch 6 space. I hope this is understandable; I'm not a professional pattern writer and I pretty much made them up as I went along. This is how one of them looks "in action."

Late last summer I cut off my long hair, and then after a while realized I needed a professional to trim up my less-than-satisfactory results so it could look more presentable while it was growing out again. It's so nice to be able to justify using these little goodies - I am just not a short-hair person, no matter how much I like those styles on other people. The song is right: "I gotta be me." And part of being me, I guess, is finding ways to use up little bits of this and that - like leftover yarn - rather than throwing them out.

Giving and Receiving - A Stick and Some String

I recently got involved in 3 swaps through a wonderful online knitting community, Knitting Paradise, www.knittingparadise.com, and have already received one package from a very nice lady in Utah, who sent me this potholder and the vintage pattern booklet it came from, as well as a couple of recipes and 3 more potholder patterns.

Here's the one I'm sending to my other swap partner (it's not a straight across swap; you don't send one back to the person you get one from).

The pattern for this crocheted potholder (Knitting Paradise also welcomes crocheters) is at http://delights-gems.blogspot.com/2011/04/fanciful-flower-potholders.html; she also has a number of other colorful and clever patterns that I think I'll have to try. Do check out this link, if only to see the gorgeous, brightly colored potholders in the photos. This one looks subdued in comparison, but my swap partner's kitchen colors are brown and beige, so it should go well. And it doesn't need to just be decorative. With all those thick petals it will protect the hands nicely. The pattern itself is surprisingly easy and simple - well, it surprised me, at least - and works up quite quickly. Michael's currently has Lily Sugar and Creme cotton yarn on sale for 4/$5, so I stocked up to make some of these for myself. You want to use cotton yarn because acrylic will melt and doesn't protect your hands very well.

Oh my, it's been a long time since my last posting! Here's one thing I've accomplished in the interim.

This is a gift for a little girl who was born August 8.  I haven't actually seen her yet, not even a picture, but I'm sure she's lovely. Her mother was one of Joe's students several years ago and she and her parents became our dear friends.
     Now their family has added a generation, and I am reminded that in a way this photo also links generations of my family. My mother made the afghan squares some years ago when she was still crocheting and recently gave a box of them to me; I assembled them and added the edging, so in a very real way it's a gift from both of us.
     The oak rocker in the picture dates back to 1919. My maternal grandparents bought it - from the Sears catalogue, I think - when their first child, my aunt, was born, so that my great-grandmother could rock her in it when they came to visit. It wasn't an expensive piece and I don't suppose the experts on Antiques Roadshow would tell me it would make my fortune at auction, but I'm so happy it's still in the family. It gives me a warm feeling of belonging to something that started long before I was born and will continue through our children and grandchildren, generation after generation. I expect our friends in New Mexico are having similar feelings as they embrace the newest member of their family, and I hope that when she is wrapped in this blanket, she feels the love that went into it.