Saturday, October 04, 2014

Wrist ruffles


I am afraid I can't call this wrist warmers as they are more decorative than what they are for keeping the fingers warm.  The patterns is fairly simple it involves worsted weight yarn, size 4.5 mm crochet hook and a few measurements.

I measure around my arm, just above my watch, make a chain and then work in continuous rnds until it reaches about five inches.  I then try it on to make sure that it will fit.  At this stage I change to double crochet and work a double crochet in each stitch around.  Next row work two dc and skip one, work 2 dc,this allows for the eyelet row.

Now work a complete round, and then start increasing first every second, then every third until you get the ruffle that you want,  and then add a decorative edge.

After working I then thread a long satin ribbon through and tie a nice bow.  These can be work as is or as in the ones illustrated below where the cuffs are turned down.

I made a series of these as well as neckwarmers and boot tops one year, and will try and write a proper pattern for these and share.

Thursday, October 02, 2014

A few different fillers for blocks in their final stages.

 I did this on a block for a friend Pam in England, the spray was used to unite the blocks together for sparkles.  I first drew the main swag,embroidered with caron  wildflowers pine.  Went back in and added back stitches with wildflowers followed by back stitches with yli candelight in black verigated.  I used a crewel needle so the threads were easier to work with.  The sequins were added as an autumn type touch and held in place with a single bead.


When Pam's block arrived at my place there was not a lot of room left, but I knew from her previous posts that she wanted victoriana, so I took a two inch wide wired ribbon and sculted it to form the pen flourish above and held this down with seed beads.  I then added a special button and real feathers from a craft store packet.  It made me think of feather pens and also the encrusted beauty of a victorian hat adornment.

I loved using ribbon for embellishing and as shown in the picture below it can be scrunched and scattered overt a simple block and give it a look of elegance.  

The above block was donated to Leslie for her Making Memories wedding quilt raffle.  I used a lot of bridal type flowers and trims.