2020 CHURCH AFGHAN

Update: This afghan and pillow sold for $350 plus $500 in donations at the church auction!

This is a totally different type of pattern than I have done before. It was fun to make.

 If you look at four squares together you should be able to see a light circle, plus the diamond shape in the individual squares. The pillow colors are reversed for contrast, which worked out well as I had just enough black to finish both.

I haven't found out what it sold for yet, so will update later.

I have started another afghan that I hope to donate next year. It might take me all year to make it! It is done in fine yarn and size 5 knitting needles, so there are lots and lots of stitches to be made. It is a good thing it is done in strips as I am doing a lot of correcting mistakes because I counted wrong.

Until next time. . . . .

YES OR NO?

Would you make this? This is a DIY project that showed up in my inbox today. Just glue on all these little chicks that look like Peeps on a frame to display a spring picture for Easter.

It is cute in a way, but I am not sure I like it enough to make one. I guess it would be a good project for kids. I don't know where they got those little chicks, maybe Hobby Lobby, or a dollar store.

Yes or no? 

I think I would be more apt to make this with real Peeps. I like Peeps, but I know many do not. How about you? Anyway, I think this cake is cute for Easter, and if you don't like Peeps, they are easy to remove from your piece of cake. Instead of chocolate frosting, I think a pretty spring pastel frosting would look very nice. Also, Peeps come in different colors. The bunny Peeps would be cute around the sides of the cake for a different look.

Either project is quick and easy to make now with Easter just a few days away.

Happy Easter to you all!

A LITTLE BIT OF SWEET CHRISTMAS

There are no Christmas decorations up here. In fact, the fall things are still on display. One reason they have not been put away is that I can't get the spare closet door to slide open to get the totes. Another reason there is no Christmas displayed is that it is too difficult to bring all the totes in from the garage storage room while using the walker. And finally, I haven't been able to stir up much interest in doing either one. I pushed myself to get my annual Christmas letter written and printed along with the address labels. I had to go buy more cards since the ones I had left from last year are behind the closet door that won't open. I got the last of the cards mailed yesterday. 

Earlier this month I finally ordered some round pillow forms to finish the pillow that matches the afghan I shared earlier here .

And here is the pillow.

front

back

Can you tell the difference? This is all made in one piece and the pillow form is inserted before the last rows are done. Both the afghan and the pillow are done in a manner that I have never done before so it was interesting.

Now I am in the process of making a matching set to donate to the annual church auction. I have a little over 6 weeks to finish them so you know how I will be spending most of my time until then.

We are getting some very light snow today and predictions say 1-2", and it is supposed to stay cold so we might get a white Christmas yet. The snow always makes the Christmas lights so much prettier.

With that I will just add --

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU.

ATTEMPTS

I am still very slowly trying to get some arranging done in this apartment. Looking things over I came up with this one. The wood box, crystal bowl, doll and lamp were already on the chest, but the box was closed and the bowl empty. The wood box was a rummage sale find years ago. It looks like it might have been homemade.

As I was rutting around in a drawer of a different chest I ran across several doilies I had made over the years and totally forgot about. Two went on top of the headboard, and decided another one would look nice displayed as I did here.

Then I opened the drawer just below the top of this chest and saw the white pillow I had made. It could be used for a wedding ring pillow but that was not the original intent when I made it. I learned how to make these pillows in a class, but they were made with calico prints, which are really nice too. I just happened to have some of this satin in a fabric drawer, as well as the wide lace, so my mind started working and came up with this pillow.

The little beanie bear had been on a small shelf of the hutch top dresser for a long time. I thought it fit in the box too. The rag mop doll in the bowl was also on the dresser and thought she needed a new home. Those rag mop dolls were really popular a long time ago and crafters would make them from the larger real rag mops, but I never got into that. This one was also a gift.

The little standing doll with the straw hat is one I made. It is a room deodorizer cover. I can't think of the brand. Is it Renuzit? The doll is glued to the top of the container and just need to replace the bottom when the gel is used up. Right now she is sitting empty as I forget to buy a replacement.

I bought the lamp shade at a rummage sale. Someone had made it and it has designs cut into it the red layer of paper. There is white paper under the red.

I am not quite satisfied with the arrangement yet, but need to think about it some more, or find something else that is still in the closet.

A LITTLE BIT OF SUMMER

 

This picture doesn't do this arrangement justice. It is something I put together many, many years ago, when I was working in the Ben Franklin store. The boss had a lady come in and show us how to do floral arrangements and this seemed to be her favorite style of arranging. I try to display this every summer. Oh. I just remembered that I always set a large conch shell next to it! I better see if I can find it in my totally cluttered spare closet. The shell has some of the same color as the flowers in the basket.

This is the way I have it displayed for now. When my husband was still living he had a square glass coffee table and I displayed those two things on top of a straw place mat on it. Now that I don't have that table and have moved, I need to find different ways to display my old favorites.

The picture on the wall is a numbered print of a painting done by a former pastor we had. He was a commercial artist before becoming a pastor and after several years went back to commercial art and this is a print of one of his works. I really liked it because it depicts an old farmplace that resembles the home I grew up in. There are a few milk cows and 2 horses in the pasture, just like we did. There is an old John Deere tractor just like Dad's, and what I learned how to drive with. And there is an oat field, complete with straw bundles set up in shocks, which I often helped with. I think I could still set up a shock.

This console was also my husband's. He had it in the basement and it was black with black/white marbled contact paper on top and on the front of the drawers. It looked pretty sad. I do hate the electric cords being so visible. Why didn't they make things with white cords? The clock is very old and was my parent's. The cord on that is so very long for some reason. I will have to work at trying to hide them better one of these days. Any suggestions?

DUCK, DUCK, GRAY DUCK

Did you play the game "Duck, Duck, Gray Duck" in grade school? Some say goose instead of gray duck according to Wikipedia. I do remember playing it. Wikipedia says it was played in Minnesota and is of Swedish origin. Well, we played it in Iowa too.

I don't really have a gray duck but I do have a very small collection of Mallard ducks that I started years ago. I am not really a collector of 'stuff' (recipes, yes!) so I didn't collect very many.

I didn't have very good luck taking pictures that day. So I tried again with the result below and still ended up cutting the top of the head off the fabric duck. My back was hurting at the time so didn't feel up to taking more  pictures. So deal with it! 😃

 It all started with this stuffed fabric duck. I and two friends went to a class to learn to make them. These two friends and I had annual craft sales in one of the lady's home for a few years. We each had our own type of work to sell and mine was always fabric or yarn creations.

Then I found a cross stitch pattern book with several Mallard pictures. I chose this one to make a pillow. I am so glad cross stitchers say to initial or 'sign' and add the date it was made because otherwise I would never remember. This one was done in 1984.

The next duck was found at a rummage sale a neighbor across the street had one year. There were two old wooden duck decoys.

One was much nicer than this one but they were asking $45 for it. I wanted it but not for that price! This one looks a little sad but I think it has a lot of character. And it was only $15. I love it.

This small figurine has beautiful detail. It was free! If any of you watched "Hour of Power" with Dr. Schuller many years ago, you might remember that he always had something they would give away, wanting a donation to keep the show on TV, of course, but the donation was not required to get the item. You just had to ask for one. And this is one of those.

I do have another duck but this could be any kind of duck, not a Mallard. I found this in a neat little antique/decor shop in another town several years ago. I apologize for the flash glare. Again, blame it on my back and not taking enough time to take better pictures.

The words in the frame say, " Be so happy that when other look at you they become happy, too."
Daughter Rhonda found that at a craft show in her town and it reminded her of when I was getting prepped for my hysterectomy. We were having so much fun while they did what they needed to do to get me ready. I joked with the nurses and other attendants and we all laughed so much. When each one would leave they would laugh and say we made their day.

One of the funniest things was when my daughter's phone started saying in a very loud, crazy voice, "Help me, I am stuck in your pocket and can't get out," over and over because she got a text. She had forgotten to turn the ringer off earlier. This happened when a nurse was listening to my heart and she said that was the first time a heart talked to her. We roared! I can only imagine what others outside my curtained cubicle thought of us. Here I was, having surgery for cancer, and there wasn't a sad eye in the room.

This shows the complete arrangement with the little duck. It is sitting on a wooden tray table. They make wonder, inexpensive end tables. I got mine at Walmart. They also have them in dark wood but I like the blond. It seems to 'disappear' and makes the area feel like there is more space. The picture on the wall is a counted cross stitch project I did several years ago.

This picture was taken a long time ago and yes, I still got the flash glare! When I had it framed I wanted it behind glass because my husband smoked and everything got stained from the smoke. I think you can see that I like a challenge with my needlework.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

 When I wrote this draft it was still July! I can say that I did most of the work in July so maybe it still qualifies as Christmas in July. 😄 (oh no! Emojis in blogs!)
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Not long ago daughter Lisa saw an afghan on Pinterest and suggested she would like one. I had her order the yarn which was shipped to me and I recently finished it.

Christmas peppermints!

This was an interesting pattern to make and something I had never done before. The written instructions were not making sense to me, and I can usually follow any complex pattern, but I was able to find a YouTube tutorial showing how to do it. After watching that, I found the instructions simple and I don't think they could have been explained any better. It seems there were a lot of other crocheters who did not understand them either so I am not alone.

The back side of the afghan is also interesting and looks totally different from the front. The back side is shown at the top of the picture - the motifs that sort of look like spiderwebs or electric stove top coils in red.

The pattern also has instructions for a pillow that looks like a giant peppermint. I don't have that finished yet as I need to get a pillow form first. That is also done in a very different way than I have done before and I have done a lot of different things in over 60 years. You are never too old to learn new things.

I found the free pattern on the Red Heart website here -- http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/peppermint-throw-and-pillow if you would like to try it. Once I got that pattern figured out it was quite simple so don't be afraid to try it.

Here is a picture of the sample I made with yarn I had on hand before the ordered yarn arrived. I think this pretty as well. There are many color combinations if you don't want a Christmas blanket.

 A single motif like this could be used as a potholder or a table pad to set a hot dish on, don't you think? But then I think I would put two together to make it thicker.

STAR OF THE SHOW

If you a fan of modern country music, and know who Thomas Rhett is, his current hit is "Start of the Show".

When I started working on this post I titled it CHURCH AUCTION, but "Star of the Show" was playing on the radio at the same time, and it fits.

This afghan/blanket was the star of the show at the church auction. It was again chosen as the featured item where the auctioneer asks for $20 bid donations from those who are not bidding to buy the item. They have chosen mine almost every year, which always amazes me. This one sold for $200 and made $600 in donations. It always makes me feel my time was well spent in making this.

This was not hard to make but did take a little bit of time in getting the squares to meet up 'perfectly' while sewing the strips together. And fringe always takes time, and I don't always add fringe even though the pattern calls for it. But I feel it adds a lot to this one.

 The one other project I managed to finish in time for the auction are the children's bear scarves.

 These came as kits with head and paws already made. All I had to do was knit the scarf and attached the head and paws to each end. The yarn is 'fur' or 'eyelash' type and worked up to a very soft and cuddly scarf.

They sold for $50 each, which made me happy as each kit cost almost $20 just for materials.

In this picture I tried to pose them as they would be worn to give you an idea what they should look like, but that didn't work out very well. I wish I had a child here to model them!

 If you are wondering about the white afghan used as the backdrop, that is one I made about 30 years ago, or longer. It has been an all time favorite over the years and I have made a lot of them from this pattern.

I have already started on some projects for next year's auction, though there is some talk about only have one every other year. But we do need some kind of fund raiser every year to help pay off our new building loan.

CHURCH AUCTION OFFERINGS

Our church auction was delayed 2 weeks because of a snow storm, so it might seem a little late for this posting this year. I could not find a special afghan pattern that I wanted to make so just picked this one as it is fairly simple, not so large, and quick to make since I got a late start. This pattern is called "Northern Lights". I think the colors and shading is very pretty. I didn't think it would bring in the big money like my afghans in past years, and it didn't. I was a little concerned that it would not sell for the price of the materials, but it did go a little higher. If it had not, I feel like I should just donate the cash instead of putting in all my work and time. I will work harder at finding a special one for next year.

Next is the piece I thought might be the pièce de résistance this year and I was right. This crocheted christening gown is the piece chosen to ask for $20 donations, and then people bid on it to buy. I understand that it made around $400, so this was well worth my time and effort.

My other donations were a trio of crocheted tote baskets in three sizes. I took the pictures on a chair to show the different sizes.

                                                        

The large one is the first one I made. It was a learning curve. Either I wasn't following the directions correctly, or else I just didn't like the way the directions turned out. So did things a little differently on the last two. I don't know if others can tell the difference but I am happier.  (The two pictures above are of the same basket.)

Each size has the colors arranged differently. The set of three came in one kit, so in order to have enough yarn of each color, it had to be done this way. But I did run out of the tan color so had to change things up a bit. It doesn't really matter, does it. At least I had enough of the other colors to finish them all. I did not hear what these sold for. The plan was to offer them individually rather than as a set. I think I need to make some of these for myself as I found them handy!

Now, to put my thinking cap on and pour over hundreds of patterns to decide what to make for next year.

BLUE & WHITE

I need a kick start to get going with blogging again. There are just too many ways to spend my time. I recently went through my pictures folder and deleted many of them. I ran across these, remembering I was going to blog about them. So here it is.

Several years ago, 1992 in fact, that I did the following two counted cross stitch projects. Reminder to self - always initial and date your projects. You can see how much this helps since I would have never remembered how long ago it was.

Since my husband was Dutch, and I live in a predominately Dutch community, I knew I had to make these two pictures.

 Blue Delft is also popular with the Dutch. I really like this one.

These two pictures always hung in our kitchen. But in this little house, I just can't find a place for them. I asked my kids if they were interested in having them, so they will go to my son later.

HOME MADE CARDS

I have a very crafty friend who enjoys making her own greeting cards. I don't know where she comes up with all the cute ideas. I know I could never come up with them.

Here is a card she made just for me after my cat, Felix, died. I am sorry the pictures aren't that great, but you get the idea.

This is the front of the card. Those three red dots are actually 'gems' that are glued on.

Inside the card is the cute tag that is also glued on. This card WILL go into my permanent collection for several reasons, among them is the artistry, because a friend made it especially for me, and in remembrance of my fur baby companion.

ANOTHER AFGHAN

 CHURCH AUCTION AFGHAN

2015

I had a hard time figuring out how to get good pictures of this to show it off the best. I don't think I did a very good job but at least you get an idea of what it looks like.

It ended up being quite large. It was made from a kit and I was concerned I would run out of yarn before it was finished, as that has happened to me in the past. But I made it . . . . with only a small 2" ball of yarn left! That is really cutting it close!

I am writing this the middle of January, and the auction doesn't take place until February 4, so this is not being published until after the auction. I will let you know how well it does either as an update to this post or in a new post.

UPDATE: 
Just got the news that the afghan made $1000 for the church! I thank the gals that suggested this pattern as well as the color.

HOLIDAY PORCH DREAM

I can dream, can't I? I would love to make my porch look like this!

The pallet flag would be an easy thing to make. It would be quick too. I think the slowest things would first be to find a pallet, and then to let the paint dry. 

I am not sure how I would display it since the only corner I have similar to this is on the front porch, but that red swing hangs there, taking up most of the room on that small porch. But if there were room, the swing and the pallet flag would compliment each other, don't you think?

I just think this display is lovely, and maybe someday. . . . . .

I can dream, can't I?

Pinterest Projects - Three

I just realized that today is March 1! Can you believe it?? It was just yesterday that we were talking about Thanksgiving, wasn't it? My goodness, the days and weeks just fly right on by.

When I was looking for American Girl doll patterns, I ran across a pattern for a sleeping bag with attached pillow, and thought that sounded like a fun thing to have with the doll. I had plenty of blue yarn left from making the Minion beanie hats, and my granddaughter's favorite color is blue, I didn't have to go out and buy more yarn.

This is not completed yet, but here is the picture -

The picture below has one of the leg warmers stuffed inside to give you a better idea of the bag and pillow.

The bag and pillow are made as one piece, which means there is no sewing together afterward! My kind of pattern! I really hate having to assemble pieces. The pillow is made first and even stuffed, before continuing on with the bag part. I thought it might be difficult to work with the stuffed pillow attached but it wasn't hard at all.

I didn't have any stuffing on hand (rare) but I did have a roll of crib size batting. So I cut several layers of that to fit and that worked out very well. I think it worked even better than wads of stuffing. I can never seem to get those wads even and not look lumpy.

The pattern can be found here.

This completes my Pinterest projects made while watching the Olympics. I have printed some AG doll dress patterns that I want to try later, but I need to get yarn for those. And I should borrow a doll to make sure that they fit before giving them to my granddaughter. They might also make it into the collection donated to the church auction if they work out well.

Another thing I did while the Olympics were on, is read a book on my Kindle during the parts that were a little boring and during commercials. I actually got more read that way than trying to read in bed, where my eyes tended to close before I wanted to stop reading.

Pinterest Projects - Two

The doll blankets did not take long. Another thing my granddaughter had asked for before Christmas was leg warmers. I finally found a pattern I thought she might like, and this is what I ended up with.

I must apologize for the poor pictures. I think I mentioned before that I am not the greatest picture taker, and I am not taking the time to take more to get the perfect picture right now. The bottom picture is actually the first one I took and the sun was shining in the window, but only covered part of the leg warmers. So then I closed the shade again to take the rest of the pictures, making for a dark room but better flash. I will explain the blue item tomorrow.

The pattern for the leg warmers is found here.

The pattern is for adult size using regular 4 ply yarn. I had plenty of the baby yarn left from the doll afghan so used that and a smaller crochet hook, and hope they are small enough to fit my granddaughter. If not, a ring can be attached to to the top and used for plastic bag holders, as per the suggestion of the person who made the others! Or maybe her older sister could wear them if she would be interested. The instructions do include how to measure the leg and adjust the pattern to fit it, but since my granddaughter lives 160 miles away, I decided to just go ahead and hope they fit. If not, I will make her another pair after measuring, providing she likes them, or even unraveling these and starting over.

Pinterest Projects

How many of you are Pinterest followers? How many of the things you pinned have you actually tried? I have to admit that I pin. . . . and pin. . . and pin, and never actually get around to making anything. It is sort of like all the recipes I tear out of magazines and newspapers that end up in a box or file and never made. At least on Pinterest they are much easier to find back and don't take up any space in my house!

During the Olympics I actually got a few Pinterest Pins tried. Applause, please!

When I watch so much television, I have to do something to release my guilt for spending all that time and not getting other work done, so I create by keeping my hands busy with needlework. Usually it is knitting the caps for Goodwill whenever I have the yarn available. I have made so many of them that I don't have to think about what I am doing. In fact, I can almost do it with my eyes closed, except I end up splitting the yarn in a stitch, or missing a stitch here and there. But that does mean that I can see what is happening on TV.

This time I worked on some things my granddaughter had asked for. Last summer she had asked me to make a blanket (afghan) for her American Girl doll, but I had totally forgotten that until she asked me in January if I remembered it. Oops! So off to Pinterest Land. And I found only one crocheted doll afghan specifically designed for the AG doll. Along with many, many more patterns for dresses, other clothes and accessories for that doll. In fact whole boards devoted to patterns for that doll. I knew the doll was popular, but not aware how much so. She has taken over Barbie that was the big deal when my girls were little. And after that it was the Cabbage Patch dolls, not only making the clothes for them, but also making the dolls.

Back to my projects. First I had to decide what I wanted to make right now, then had to print the patterns. Then I started on the afghan and ended up making two of them since I had plenty of yarn. One might get included in a gift pack of AG doll items to be donated to the church auction next year.

The free pattern can be found at this link:

http://ambassadorcrochet.com/2012/03/20/18-doll-blanket-free-crochet-pattern/

I wanted to use the same yarn that was used in the pattern sample, but that yarn has been discontinued by the manufacturer, so I used Bernat baby yarn. The bottom picture is not the best, but is meant to show both blankets. 

The afghan I used under the items is an old one, and has been a very popular pattern over the years. I lost count on how many I made like that. The one in the picture is the first one I made of this pattern, and is over 25 years old. It has been washed at least a hundred times and still looks good as new. It also happens to be the favorite pattern that Felix loves to sleep on. I wonder if that is because he came from my daughter and she had one of these afghans in her house from the time he was a young cat. ??

For the next project, tune in tomorrow!

Church Auction Afghan

This is the afghan I made for the church auction this year, which is coming up in about one and a half weeks. I love this pattern! I think I had to rip out the first few inches of the first panel at least 4 times, and then again after I had finished the whole strip. I struggled with getting the stitches right until I finally got it after several tries. After that first strip I loosened my tension and found it made a smoother finish, so after I had all the other strips made, I redid the first strip so that they all matched up. I love the way the strips are put together as well as the outside border.

This gives you a closer view of the stitches. These top two pictures are close to the true colors. I don't know why the pictures below look like a different color. I guess it shows I am not the greatest photographer. I just aim and shoot and hope for the best.

 This shows you what the back side looks like. It isn't as nice as the front, but it isn't bad either. It is just different.

When I saw this pattern in a Mary Maxim catalog, I just knew this was the pattern I had to make for the auction. It becomes tougher and tougher to come up with one that will attract the bids and sell as well as the years before. It must be unique, and in colors that might appeal to everyone, which is neutral and can be used in almost every room decor.

In order to get the pattern I had to order the whole kit which included the required yarn and only came in these colors. But the colors were perfect, and the yarn is Caron's Simply Soft. Since I loosened the tension a bit, I did run out of yarn and needed to buy one more skein of each color and only needed a little bit from each one of those. I used what was left to knit more hats for Goodwill so it is still going to charity. I am so glad the kit used yarn that is readily available in the stores and does not have a dye lot. I got the extra at my Walmart.

People often like the feel of Simply Soft as it is really soft and feels a little bit silky. This did make a very dense and somewhat heavy afghan, but will be really warm on the frigid nights we have had in recent weeks. I am looking forward to see what this will bring at the auction. Now, what can I come up with for next year?? Actually, I have already seen at least one new pattern in the catalog that I like so I will probably  be ordering before long.