Sweet Flower Collar

Hello my lovely dear friends!

Monday morning and already into the 2nd week of July ... Oh where oh where is the time flying i am wondering...I am in my city, My Bangalore. But i do not recognize it at all.. India is fast developing nation and the billions that live here are welcoming the new trends and life style changes a bit too readily! It has been over a year since i came to my city and all seemed to have changed. Especially the prices. With living costs spiraling exponentially, i am left wondering as to what is the real value of happiness these days?

Anyways, this space is not about price rise right, so let me show you something new i did over the last few days...Sorry for the crumpled look as the top was well worn before this photo shoot and i did not find the iron :(

A closer look at the collar.
I used a 2.0mm hook and mondial cotton thread for making the collar. The pattern is my own tho i drew inspiration from HERE. I changed the flower pattern and did a 2 color effect for it.

 Collar all around and not just at the front...

 My pretty model, who loved the outfit as it is in her favourite colors - PINK n PURPLE :)

 

A more serious expression before she hopped skipped and jumped away to have fun!

I am not having much time for crafting these days.. What with going shopping, visiting relatives, catching up with friends and eating at my favourite hang-outs.. all managing with 2 small ones in tow.. not an easy task i must tell you..The little man is not playing still in the parks here, a bit of mud and he comes running ..Mamma...che che...ha ha

The lady is having a swinging time tho :)

He finally consents to play a little bit of his slide.. But can you spot the sorry expression? he he

A few clicks from my next project, i am having lots of fun making these Nana squares. Hopefully i ll show it to you guys in a couple of days! 

Till then, have fun..
Keep crafting, keep smiling and do read the below LINK. It has some crochet rules and i agree with all of them TOTALLY!!

Do write in and let me know whats going on in your sunny space :)

Love,
xxx...

Flower Motif Bolero

My dear lovely people!

How are you?
I have been a very lazy person of late.Tututut!
Actually somehow my days and nights just seem to merge and i am not able to account for any spare time. The kids are fine, the weather is good, i am being crafty and homely..Somehow i seem to be procrastinating a lot..LOT!

Just enjoying my crafty ventures without wondering if i am actually wasting my time :)

Just enjoying the fact that i am not working and DO NOT have any hard deadlines.

Just enjoying the slow motion of everyday-ness - if there is such a word! and not having to worry about what will go wrong as everything seems to move with its correct time and pace.

Just enjoying my daily chores of dropping my princess to pre-school, playing with my son, picking her up from school along with my son and chasing the birds later...

 

I tell you its so much fun sometimes not knowing where you are heading. I know in general what i am doing, but right now, its priority kids, home, family, cooking, crafting and since these happen everyday and do not have deadlines or an end date - i am safe!

So i was browsing thru Pinterest - my actual time-eater and came upon this link HERE.

The wonderful lady has written a great tut for making this bolero...I wanted a gift for my 9 year old neice and was looking at a flower bolero/shrug and finally decided on this. I had to modify it highly, right from decreasing 1 round of the motif, to adding an extra row of motifs and many other things..But hey! You got to do what to got to do if you like a pattern right?

I am really happy with the final look...

 

The sleeve with the details...

The back of the bolero. i used my girl's dress to model it so it might look a bit big, but i am hoping it would fit my niece !!

The bolero comes together by a string on both sides. Girlie and fun!

Have a great weekend and thanks so much for such lovely comments on my first tutorial! It made the effort worth it and made me smile when ever you guys wrote to me! :)))

Love ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

African Flower Cushion

Hello my dear lovelies!

How is your Monday? Hope the weekend was lovely and good times had ensured :)

Today, i am presenting you ladies with my lovely African Flower cushion..

Ta-daah!!!

  

You can find the free pattern for these hexagon lovelies HERE.

 Ok, now...confession time. Although the hexagons themselves are real easy peasy, the joining is a real pesky business. One which i did NOT, repeat, DID not enjoy in the least bit. The Join-as-you-go method is done for each hexagon point. But you still need to individually sew/stitch/seam the 6 sides and it is a boring task. I switched to doing a mattress stitch after 1 side of SCs. Normally i prefer joining 2 sides with SC as i feel its sturdy..But boy, i immediately saw the amount of edges and switched to my yarn needle :)

I crocheted the back with some alternating rows of DC's.
Finished it off with these lovely blue flower wooden buttons..

 

So here are my 2 cushion covers, with 4 different patterns for the front and back and four possible ways to play around with them!

BTW, these cushions are a gift for my MIL as her favorite color is BLUE..

We had a very crafty weekend here at my world. Will post pics soon on that. And also a new project which i am waiting to start.

Now, yours truly turned 30+ somethings in the last week and i did have a great day with my 2 kids n hubby. It was a very quiet affair, just us with some presents for my kids..and awesome pizza and pasta lunch at my kids favorite place in Hong Kong. But, that day did not end on a happy note as i lost my wallet and have been running about since then to get all my cards, ATM and identity done. I just returned today after getting a temporary Hong Kong ID as it is mandatory for anyone staying over 90 days here. The only consolation was i had no money in the wallet as i had not visited the ATM and was with my banker :)

But, i did order myself some gifts as only i know what books n yarn i need!! Of course we are always out of Yarn..

Do you guys agree with this :)??

Will do a post on my new books n yarn very very soon..
Till then, happy hooking, happy crafting and lead a happy being :)

Love,
xxx

Something Pretty

Hello my dear lovelies!!

HOW ARE YOU guys?? I know I know, I took off and did not bother to write in the last few days(weeks??).. Somehow I did check blogger-land every now and then, but did not find my mojo to write or do anything creative. I was lazy, I was just unwinding with my ripple and browsing a LOT. I blame Pinterest and such equally **bad** things for not blogging more often...

Also, I have started a strict work out schedule and strive to keep up to it at least for 5 days of the week. So in short, lotsa things to do, lotsa holidays as the little miss is having her Easter break and lotsa stuff to share with you guys - my adventures over the last few days..

This is my "something pretty" cushion. You can find the pattern for this pretty square HERE. From a long time I wanted to make this square and now doing my ripple I realized that I had lots of blue yarn in lovely yummy scrummy shades to spare and decided to have a go at the same.

I have done 4 x 4 squares with the following shades :

Aspen
Turquoise
Bluebell
Cloud Blue

The last row is in Cream.

The joining is in Meadow. All yarn is from StyleCraft Special DK.

I wanted the back of the cushion also to be useable. I made granny squares of 4 rounds with the join-as-you-go method.

For a closure I used buttons, alternated the blue and green ones and the button holes were 2 chains and followed with a row of SCs. Be sure to make buttons at small intervals so that the seam does show up.

I did a small border using THIS pattern. I am in love with the effect it has as a whole. The squares, the puff stitch flowers and the simple peek-a-boo border :)

This is my first cushion and I am smitten!! Bring it on...I have already started on my second one.. Another famous pattern - African Hexagon Flower. You can find it HERE.

Currently on my hook...

 

 

What is on your hook today?

Do write in as I love hearing from you my dear readers..



and a warm welcome to all my new friends from equally delightful places!

Love and more,
xxx