Happy 1st Day of Summer!

The colors of the flowers are so brilliant against the
surrounding earth tones of the table and chair!

Happy "First Day of Summer!!!!" It feels like it here on the East Coast!  It's hot and humid!  Well, at least my tomato plants will be happy! :)  The top photo are flowers from my garden.  Now that school is out I can concentrate on several projects that I am in the process of working on.  I started some large granny squares for a throw to put on my bed.  I am designing as I go along and figured at this rate I will be done by Christmas!

I'm trying to decide on some flowers for the center of the four granny squares that make up a block.  The book I'm using for my flowers is entitled: 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield.  (bought it on Amazon)  Lots of great flower and leaf patterns. 

Maybe the daisy... Also trying the chamomile pattern...

Larger center, smaller petals.

Everything is scattered across my ottoman at the moment.

My sewing space.  Books, patterns and fabrics waiting!

 

Great batik fabrics!!!  My first try at buying fabric on-line...  I'd rather be able to see and touch it in person but these were a great buy on sale, so I gave them a try.  I purchased them from the Fat Quarter Shop.  They came beautifully packaged and I am very happy with the quality of the fabrics.  I recommend The Fat Quarter Shop if you are going to purchase fabric on-line.

 

 

I bought this pattern with the fabric.  Its an Amy Butler handbag pattern, called the Beautiful Belle Handbag.  Love, love Amy Butler designs!  If you love to sew and have never seen her patterns/fabrics, you have to check them out!  I have been holding this pattern on my wish list since Christmas time.  When I saw these fabrics I new that they were the ones for this bag!  The dark green is going to be the lining and the lighter green trellis pattern is going to be the body of the bag.  The medium green is going to be the handles.  I made her Cosmo bag in January.  It's a HUGE tote bag!  I use it to carry all my folders and school stuff back and forth to work.  It's from her book Style Stitches I purchased off Amazon.  (I buy a lot of my books from Amazon, great prices and service!)

 

Bought these from...  Where else....  Amazon!  They were a birthday present to myself.  Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman, Crochet Bouquet by Suzann Thompson and the Granny Square Book by Margaret Hubert

Love making granny squares!

 

Just made the best hat for the Fall/Winter! The pattern is from Playin Hooky.  All the patterns are original designs by Liz McQueen.  This one is called the Fishnet Beanie.  Quick and easy to crochet and may very well become Christmas presents for my nieces.

 

No, this is not my mother's room!  I put the pillow on my daughter's bed to photograph.
It's nestled in around her Ugly Dolls, fuzzy pillows and her Hunger Games poster.

Lastly, I am working on the twin to this pillow.  I made this one for my mother for Mother's Day.  She loved it so much that she asked for a second one!  I have 12 of the 18 granny Squares done already.  Now I just need to find what I did with my notes for making the flowers!  Changed the flowers around from one I found in my book, 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet. It's inspired by this throw.

I had spent a lot of time previous to this pillow project exploring several crochet blogs for inspiration.  Two of my favorites are Attic 24 and The Flower Bed.  I found them while trying tirelessly to find a written, not graphed crochet pattern for a Japanese Flower.  My quest for it started when I saw this Japanese Flower scarf on Pinterest.  It was crocheted by Lucy at Attic 24.  Fell in love with the flower but could not find any patterns for it that were not in Japanese or graphed.  So, I've been working on trying to break down the stiches from some images I found.  I'm close to re-creating the Japanese flower!  But that's for another day...