Dotty Merino Blanket in vintage colours

In this post, I had just started this blanket...and now, only three and a half months later I have already finished it!

I really loved working on this blanket. The Merino wool is so soft and warm for your hands to work with. Especially toward the end of making this blanket, it was a joy to work on, cuddled up underneath the part that I'd already finished....and now it is big enough to fit our double bed.

I was inspired to make this blanket by Monique, when I saw her blanket from the same pattern. I used the full pattern though and she only used a part of it.

The colours where inspired by Cecile Franconie who uses a lot of naturals combined with colours.

Hasta luego!

Work in progress, a book and a finished order...

Living in the South of Spain where the sun is shining most of the days throughout the year, you can come upon a 'strange' scene like this in october:

While the sun is still dropping her last rays (at 19.15!), I found myself crocheting outside on my patio with warm Merino wool on my 'Dotty blanket in vintage colours' and dreaming away in Mollie Makes Christmas book, that had just arrived. I love this book, the nostalgic look, the wonderful projects, very Mollie Makes indeed, and I love Mollie makes.

When I was a little toddler, my parents used to call me Mollie... So when I first found out about this magazine I thought it was made especially for me...well sort of... it could have been.... It is obvious that I'm a 'maker'. And I'm a real collector too....my house could be featured in Mollie Makes without the use of a stylist I guess...that is: she/he wouldn't know where to begin rearranging puppets, animal figurines, crocheted goodies, flowery cups, jars-full-of-buttons-and-ribbons etc. etc.!

This is a 'Granny tissuebox cover' I have just finished as the last piece in an order. The colours aren't very true in this picture, but I have already send it of to it's new owner:

I used Michelle Kludas' pattern that is available for free on her lovely blog The Royal Sisters. And added some free style flowers to it and a clean and simple edging.

Hasta luego!

Nostalgia

I'm affraid I'm a very unconsistent blogger....and when I'm moving house it's of course worse...!

But I'm pretty much settled and even have been creative again, so it's about time to blog too!
This blanket and matching cushion, I made before the move. I call it my Holly Hobbie blanket, because the colours remind me of this Sarah Kay doll I had when I was a little girl. This is the first really big project I have ever made. I am working on two other blankets, but this is the first one finished. The Granny's with roses in the middle are from the Grandma's Garden Cushion pattern from Michelle, that I have used so often now.

The colours are pastels, but are looking a bit more pale in this picture than in real life because of the sun....can't have it all in life...now can you.....;)

Hasta luego!

Winterwarm cushion

Although we're having a wonderful, warm and sunny winter here in Andalusia, the nights are quite cold, so then it's really nice to cuddle up on the couch, fire burning and a soft woolen cushion behind you:

Again I used a pattern by Michelle: Grandma's Sweet As Pie cushion.
It's so comfortable to work with wool during a cold winters night! So I'm using the same colours for a Granny blanket, joining as I go, so the more I crochet....the warmer I get...

Hasta luego!

Baby pink

My dear friend Debby gave birth to a beautiful baby girl...what a great excuse to get out all my pinks and create a girly gift! I made a garland using Michelle's Grandma hearts tutorial and a babyowl with Matawi's pattern (I altered it a bit though, crocheted little hearts for wings and added little plumes for extra cuteness):

Hasta luego!

Home made presents and a 'heavenly' little corner...

I love making presents for someone, especially for people of whom I know they really appreciate it. Then I don't mind putting in some extra effort. So first I made this candle jar from the pretty trim tutorial by Lucy. If you use Lucy's tutorial, please be kind and make a donation....I did and it is so worth it! Then secondly I made a very colourful garland, using the same colours and the Granny figurines tutorials by Michelle:

Although I love colours, in my sunny (and tiny!) house, white, with of course a little red, work really well for some christmas spirit:

And what better place to get inspired for that then Elly's blog...
Hasta luego!

It's beginning to look, a bit, like christmas...

In the area I live in, I haven't really found a good thrift store. However...there is another, much more exiting way to find treasures: here, people just put everything they don't want anymore in or next to the large garbage bins you find on the side of the roads. On our way to town we pass at least 5 of these places and we always keep our eyes wide open! This is our latest treasury and I think one of the best we ever found, a wooden cabinet with drawers and doors. It now serves as a 'welcome to our house' on our patio. With some subtle decorations in a christmassy style:

Do you see the cute granny stocking? I made it from a pattern by the wonderful and talented Michelle. I bought it in her Etsy store. Michelle's had pompoms on the back, but my pompommaker hadn't arrived at that time, so instead I made the snowflake from 'Eline's Winterhuis' book:
Because it is such an easy to make pattern, I also made this one, which I adorned with a colourful trim I found at Lucy's blog:
And as a gift to my pregnant friend Debby, I made a cute babypink one as well:
Hasta luego!

Cushion and owl

I made this cushion as a special custom order. Normally I make a crochet back as well, but this cushion didn't need that because it goes on a chair. I was struggling with attaching the fabric to the crochet side with a needle...and then came up with this idea, I punched wholes in the fabric, made a crochet edging and then crocheted both parts together. And now I'm very happy with the result. I loved the colourscheme for this cushion and before I knew it....an owl in the same colours came flying by:

Hasta luego!

Footstools

Making footstool covers has been on my wishlist for a while now. But first I had no footstools, then I found one to my liking on the Ikea site, but it wasn't in stock. And of course I have like a million other crochet projects already on my hook or on one of my looooong lists..... But then one day, the Ikea site showed that they were back in stock and I couldn't help myself. So I rushed to the store, painted the footstools with whitewash and while they were drying in the sun, I crocheted like a maniac, so now I have two:

Arent't these the best projects, the ones that really give you a big, happy, satisfied smile on your face? Sorry about my lack of modesty, but I love my new footstoolcovers!

I even used them in a 'photoshoot' I did of one of the Veladores in our garden. We rent them out en styled them with Maroccian details. My footstools fit in quite nicely, don't they?
Hasta luego!

See you soon!

I won't be around much in blogland this coming week. I'm going to hug my family in Holland. When you live far away from them, that's really what you need, every now and again. My sweet Granny is turning 91 this coming week, and as long as I'm blessed still having her around, I want to visit her on her birthday. She really is the best and sweetest granny in the world. I made her a tissue box cover in Granny style:

I also made some gifts for other loved ones and of course I'm taking some fresh picked oranges from our trees, they are so sweet at the moment, mmmmm!

Hasta luego!

Love is in the air...

If I see all the Valentine's 'rubbish' in the stores I hastily walk by....but I love making my own Valentine's decoration though! And there is so much inspiration going around in blogland.

The inspriration for this heart shaped wreath I found on Bunny Mummy's blog:

It is so easy and fun to make, I used her tutorial but shaped my base into a heart.

The two crocheted bags, I designed myself, the bunny is from a pattern by Irene Strange (under the free patterns section). She didn't come out as perfect as the original, but I think that makes her even cuter...:
I didn't want everything to be pink, so I made some decorations in jeanscolours, the tutorial for the little heart I found on Tara's blog:
But I'm gonna leave you with an explosion of sweet colours again.....the hearts garland I made before using the granny hearts tutorial by Michelle, cookies pattern I found here (altered them a bit though) and the jar cosies I designed myself although the hearts are from the same tutorial I used for the garland (just used a smaller hook):
I'm afraid I'm not done with valentine's decorations yet, I just can't help myself. Next up is some scrapping...please come back soon!

Hasta luego!

p.s Because I seem to be honered more and more by visits from international blog readers, I changed the language of my blog posts to english...since I find the translations by google more of a laugh than they make a blog more sense to me...hope I'm not dissapointing my dutch readers now... X

Inspiratie

Hoe kom je aan inspiratie? Bij mij kan dat van alles zijn, een blog waarop ik iets leuks zie, materiaal dat 'toevallig' bij elkaar ligt, een mandjes sinaasappels uit eigen tuin, een mooie kleurencombinatie op een reclameposter......of kadootjes die ik van m'n dochters gekregen heb en die zo vrolijk van kleur zijn dat ik het niet kan laten....

Het patroon voor de tissuedoosovertrek kwam ik hier tegen, maar het daar getoonde eindproduct vond ik in eerste instantie te truttig voor woorden... Zo zie je maar wat de juiste kleurencombinatie kan doen!

Hasta luego!

Scrapcards!

Eindelijk is het er dan weer eens van gekomen: ik heb kaarten gescrapt! En meteen maar in een voor mij nieuwe stijl: vintage. Had inmiddels zoveel materiaal daarvoor liggen, maar nog nooit gebruikt. Voor m'n schoonzusje had ik een hartjesslinger gemaakt in naturelkleuren en daar wilde ik een bijpassende kaart bij maken: En als je dan toch lekker bezig bent...

...en nog een...

...en als laatste weer wat meer back to basic, maar een kanten strikje kon ik niet laten...

Hasta luego!

Romantisch wit

Nu ik weer wat meer door blogland dwaal, raakte ik geinspireerd door het vele romantische en winterse wit dat ik tegen kwam. Dus na een weekendje had ik ineens dit tafereeltje klaar:
En 's avonds ziet het er zo uit:

Ik heb 'jasjes' gehaakt voor glazen potjes, pure recycling dus en niet duur. De tutorial voor het helemaal witte 'jasje' links vind je hier. De andere twee jasjes heb ik zelf bedacht. Het patroontje voor het uiltje kocht ik via Echt Studio (het is een patroon van Matawi's crea's en de opbrengst ervan gaat naar Compasion, een organisatie voor kansarme kinderen).

Hasta luego!

Rood Wit Blauw

M'n eerste creatieve uitspattingen van 2011 zijn een feit en ze zijn allemaal rood/wit/blauw!
Het begon met deze vogeltjesslinger:
Een Crochet meets Felt coproductie, de vilten vogeltjes had ik al liggen, die had Erica al op mijn verzoek gemaakt met de bedoeling een kleine slinger te maken (eerder maakte ik al deze kleurige variant die iets langer is).

Zoals zo vaak als ik met een haakproject bezig ben en de kleurtjes katoen liggen samen in een mandje, ontsproot er ook deze keer gelijk een idee voor m'n volgende haaksel, dit speldekussen:

Ik zag 'm voor het eerst op het blog van Marianne en die was zo lief me de link met het patroon te sturen.

Maar de manie was nog niet over.....op een geweldig Engels haakblog zag ik een slinger met hartjes aan de schoorsteenmantel hangen. Ik heb andere hartjes gehaakt, van een tutorial op een geweldig Australisch haakblog....je reist wat af in Blogland!

Dit is mijn hartjesslinger geworden:

Wat zal volgen? Wil ook heel graag weer eens scrappen, maar het is zulk heerlijk weer hier en haken buiten is veel gemakkelijker...

Hasta luego!

Lekker ouderwets

Ook al is het de bedoeling van mijn blog om verschillende hobbies te laten zien, soms heb je gewoon een periode waarin je je maar met 1 hobby bezig houdt. Bij mij is dat op dit moment haken, m'n kerstboom hangt al bijna vol en ik blijf maar leuke patroontjes tegen komen...

Dit stond ook al een tijdje op mijn lijstje: granny squares. Vond ik ze eerst nog heel erg truttig, gemaakt van vrolijke katoen worden ze ineens hip! (althans, volgens mijn bescheiden mening).
Ik heb een kussen gemaakt, daarna een speldenkussen en de volgende vierkantjes zullen samen een deken gaan vormen....verslavend om te doen dus:

Hasta luego!