Looking the other way...

There is nothing like a project gone wrong to make me get my teeth into another project.  It sits in the other room, taunting me, but I justify the thoughts in my head by making false priorities.  In this case, my last Babette cushion was the lucky winner of my time and affection!  I even had some company while I was mastering my avoidance tactics.

For the back of this one I decided to use all the leftover yarn up and just go with it, changing colour wherever it ended rather than making uniform stripes.  The wide stripes were made from whole balls that I had left.

Even if that piece of yarn only yielded 3 or 4 stitches, I embraced it!

I put my button fastening at the bottom this time so as not to detract from the randomness of the back.

 

So here it is.  I really like this one - it's brighter than the other one.  Or so it seems, maybe that zingy red block at the top right makes it appear brighter.

My sofa is well on its way to being permanently brightened up.  It looks very enticing on a wet, grey day and so I think I may well spend a fair bit of time on it today.  Of course, by just sitting here writing this post I am procrastinating about writing about what I really ought to be working on today. And Blogger has been exceptionally slow in uploading my photos...

I do love this pattern and who knows, one day I may get to find a suitable yarn to make a blanket.  Probably should think about finishing this one first though...

One done, one to go...

I actually managed to finish one Babette cushion and it is brightening up my sofa as I type. 

I'm loving the back almost as much as the front, just as I did with this one.

There is something I find hugely satisfying about chunky treble crochet stripes.

I used some more buttons from my button jar for the closure - nice and chunky like the yarn.

I'm so glad this hasn't gone to waste, I have plans for the other 5 cushions on the sofa.  Oh yes.  Some more crochet and some quilted.  A plan!

Just need to finish off the other one now...

My mind is ticking over  with plans for a Babette-style quilt... more sleepless nights, I fear!

Change of plan...

So, last year I embarked on my biggest crochet project to date.  A Babette Blanket.

As is always the case, I seem to get fixated on a yarn and a pattern and then try and bring them together in the hope that things work out.

This mixture didn't.  I started off enthusiastically, but the bigger the blanket grew, the heavier it became.  And I mean heavy!  So it all got neatly tucked into a basket and slowly became forgotten about.  Then, a few weeks ago, the guilt of having such a lot of yarn potentially going to waste got the better of me and so I refreshed my memory with what I had done so far and as I was laying out all my blocks on the sofa it struck me that this one was the exact size of the big cushions on the sofa!  It was a light bulb moment.  I started to rehash the other blocks (on my Dad's hospital bed!) to make a pair of cushion fronts.

Over the last few weeks, in between quilting, gardening and taking parents out on day trips, I have been crocheting the back of the first cushion using the remainder of the yarn.  I still love the back of the granny square cushion I made No2 last year so that's the path I have been going down for the first one.  But have a slightly different plan for the second one, which is yet to be started.

My plan for the weekend is to get the first one finished and let the big sofa revamp begin!

10 days, 10 things...

So, 10 days have passed since I last posted...

Not really sure why that is, but it's been a strange time. A time of fleeing at a moments notice; a time of tears and laughing; a time of having friends and being a friend. The holidays are going at a steady pace and I'm enjoying having No2 around...

*****

10 things that have marked the long summer break so far:

:: Babette panels 1 - 5 ::

:: Blue butterfly at London Zoo ::

:: Blue binding ready to finish my quilt ::

::Bug house at Syon Park gardens ::
I want one!

:: more Jitterbug because I have the sock bug ::

:: NOT the dahlias I ordered, but lovely nonetheless ::

:: stunning orange dahlia picked from the PYO beds at my local nursery ::

:: purple anemones outside my backdoor ::

:: the most amazing terraced gardens at Upton House ::

:: and the stairs that lead you down ::

The Beginning of Babette...

Following on from this post, here's a quick update on Babette.

This blanket is constructed like a log-cabin quilt, so working outwards from the main big square, next comes panel #2 which is 2 6-round squares joined together and then sewn onto the 12-round square.

I'm sewing them altogether with the purple yarn (that was a decision that took some time!) and it is one of those little jobs that I find nice and relaxing, similar to the hand-sewing of a quilt.

Next up comes panel #3, which is a mixture of 2- and 4-round squares.

It all looks a bit wonky and maybe I should have blocked each square, but to be honest I've tried blocking cotton before and it wasn't very successful, plus took ages to dry! I'm hoping that it will add to the homespun charm in the end and that the border edging will straighten it out.

Can you see that the middle of the 12-round square is really wonky? I adjusted the pattern slightly to try and straighten things up, which seems to have worked on each individual square. Perhaps as each square gets joined together on every side it may look better. I'm fussy, I know!