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blankets

Sunshine Flower Blanket – adding the big flowers

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This has been an lovely weekend for me with my Sunshine Flower Blanket adding the big flowers to the work.    I started making these months ago and have been working on them on the train to work every morning.   There are six squares on each side of the blanket, 36 in total.  You can read my previous posts on this blanket here Sunshine Flower Blanket, and here Sunshine Flower Blanket – Progress.

First step has been to block each of the squares.  This makes them all beautifully flat and regular – much easier to work with.  I joined six of the squares into a strip using a method that I will share in a separate post.    I found that leaving the ends between the squares unfinished worked well because that gave me more yarn to work with when joining the strip of squares to the main blanket.

Sunshine flower blanket - tiger lily square by Tracey Lord

So far I have only added flower squares to two sides of the blanket.     I have finished all the flower squares I need to complete the blanket but the flower squares for the remaining two sides are still being blocked.  The picture below shows a corner of the blanket with the two sides completed.

Sunshine flower blanket - adding the big flowers

Next weekend I will complete the round of flower squares and then add more Vanilla rounds before putting in another band of colour.   I haven’t found the perfect edging yet but I plan to use all three of the darker colours around the edge.   The finished blanket is going to be around 5 or 6 foot square so the outer rounds will take some time to complete!

There will be some flower squares left over so I have been designing a cushion to match the blanket.    I will make both the blanket and cushion patterns available if there is any interest.   The pattern for the main square came from the book in the link below – ‘A Square a Day’ by Tracey Lord.

I have run out of work to do on this blanket on my commute.  The main blanket is far to big to travel with as a project so  I have started some new work.   I will miss these lovely cheerful colours though they have brightened my journey through the dark winter months 🙂    The final blanket will brighten any room!   I am really looking forward to seeing it finished!     Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment.

Happy crocheting,

Annie 🙂

Sunshine flower blanket

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Sunshine Flower blanket

This is a project I started a little while ago – my Sunshine Flower Blanket.    I found the pattern for the flowers in a book of crochet blocks.  ‘A Square A day’ by Tracey Lord. Working my way through the book making a block a day whilst on holiday last summer was lovely.    I particularly liked this flower block called Tiger Lily.   The book is available on amazon via the link below if you would like to try out the block or any of the others – there are 365, one a day for a year!  Please note – I am an affiliate of Amazon so if you click on the links below or elsewhere in my blog I may receive a small income at no additional cost to you.

The colours in the book reminded me of a time when I was small and colouring in design sheets with my Mum.   I remember my Mum choosing reds, yellows and oranges for her design.   It looked lovely 🙂   My design varies the colours slightly from the book but keeps the red/orange theme.

Sunshine flower blanket - tiger lily block
Tiger Lily block

Building Blocks!

I needed a smaller flower block as part of the blanket pattern so I designed one!   It took a bit of trial and error but I am happy with the final version.     The picture below shows some of these smaller blocks going the blocking process.   The blocks are a bit misshapen when I finish crocheting them.   The blocking process pulls them straight.    You have to pin the block to a foam board, I measure the block as I pin it to make sure that I am turning all my blocks into pieces of the same size!

Once pinned to the foam backboard all you have to do is spray the block with cold water and leave it to dry.   I am leaving mine for a week, after which they are perfect.  It probably doesn’t take that long but I only really get to work on these at weekends so mine get the full seven day treatment!

You will see the foam board I am using is actually a child’s foam play floor tile.   My son, a master of research, found these for me.   These tiles are inexpensive and were recommended on Amazon for the purpose of blocking craft projects.   They have been absolutely ideal.   I am sharing a link below.

That’s all from me for now.    Time to get on with the crochet 🙂   Soon I will be able to start building the blanket from the middle square out.     I will share as I start to join the smaller squares together and show you the blanket as it starts to take shape.    Let me know what you think of my Sunshine Flower Blanket by leaving me comments below.   Bye for now…. happy crocheting 🙂