Arts and Amusements

(I just realized I never published this post which I meant to do a couple weeks ago, so here it is now.)

I am borrowing one of the titles for the theme of the day used in my favorite internet group. I hope that is okay. If not, one of you please let me know. And I enjoy Terri's blog with the various topics for each dayj, which is sort of like reading a newspaper or magazine with the same features that are in every issue. Since I like that format I hope to do something similar, though my topics will be different. And they may even change as the mood hits me.

For today, my mind is on my needlework projects of the past. It has to be the past projects as I am not working on any needlework at this time, not even the knit caps I am almost always working on and which are donated to Goodwill Industries for their annual Christmas Shoe Parties. Every year I also make an afghan or two to donate to my church's annual fund-raiser auction with the proceeds going to help pay off our debt of building a new handicap accessible fellowship hall. For the 2012 auction that took place February 1, I ended up making three. One was a knit baby blanket, one a variegated blue/lavendar crocheted afghan, and then I had a special order by a member that wanted an off white afghan to use when she was sitting on her new window seat, either reading or watching the birds and squirrels outside. She intended to bid on that until it was hers, no matter how much she had to pay for it. Below are the pictures of those three. They are not such good pictures because I had forgotten to take the pictures before I took them to church, so had to run down there with the camera later to get them taken before the auction started.

Above is the knit baby blanket. This is a quick and easy pattern using just 3 colors. To get the shaded stripes 3 strands of yarn are used throughout, then doing a number of rows with all peach, changing to 2 peach and one white, to 1 peach and 2 white, then all 3 white, then 2 white and 1 green, etc. It is done on large needles and simple knitting of each row. Very easy and quick. If memory serves correctly, I think the high bid was $45. Not an exceptional amount for this type of auction, but not a bad price either. I am sure whoever got it had to love it as I used a very soft yarn, and knit is always softer than crocheted in my opinion. I have to apologize to Julie who is holding the blanket since all you can see of her are her feet and the top of her head from the eyes up. LOL

The details of the blue/lavendar afghan can be seen a little in this picture. This is regular Red Heart yarn and crocheted. I think it brought around $60. I have seen them go much higher, but another woman donated 10-12 afghans this year, all the same pattern, just different color combinations. That was too much of a good thing for one year, and so none sold as well as they should.

This off-white heart crocheted afghan is the special order, though she only specified the color and not the pattern. It was done in 3 strips and then sewn together. It was fun to make and I love the way it turned out. This was the big money maker. The lady that got it paid around $275. But the auctioneer always picks one handmade item each year to have the bidders donate $25 per 'bid' and there were a lot of those bids. It ended up bringing in $1,000!! It totally floored me and thrilled me! It is the only one they announced who made it. Most years at least one of my afghans brings in some good money but never anything like that! And each year after the auction I wonder what pattern I can use to try to top the one from the year before. That is the hardest part! A few weeks later on a Sunday morning, the lady that bought it showed me a picture of the afghan on her window seat, and it fit in very well. She is thrilled with it, and says it is nice and warm while she is curled up there to read. I am pleased and very thankful that she is happy with it and that it raised that money for the church. Anyone have some ideas on what to do for next year?