rose hip

on my night table...

 

...a little patchy flower garden is slowly taking root, maybe because I am not doing all the things I'm supposed to be doing right now! I won't go into my to-do list because that would be plain boring, but let's just say it seems to be growing with every passing day...

 

 

But, I guess in all fairness, coming up with a new crochet flower square design is on my to-do list, except I jumped over a few perhaps more pressing and less exciting items to start this fun little project! As part of my little bedding collection (which I keep talking about but haven't showed you yet because it's still a work in progress and not ready to be "unveiled"...), I thought a little crocheted cushion made up of of flower squares would work nicely with all the other items I've put together so far. Something sweet and simple is what I had in mind for these squares when I started playing around with designs since the bedding is meant to be for little girls. I began with the 8-petal 4-leaf design below but felt it looked too symmetrical, stylized and formal for what I envisioned; I then came up with a 6-petal 3-leaf design because I thought it would look more natural, as if the flower had just fallen on the square. However, extending a flower with multiples of three (6 petals and 3 leaves) into a 4-sided square proved a bit tricky, but after several attempts at it (the squares in all the photos are all my attempts!), I think I finally have it looking the way I wanted it to. (In case you're wondering, I will be putting together a pattern for this square shortly)

 

 

And, while on the subject of patterns, I just wanted to tell you that I have made some good progress in putting together my pillowcase edging pattern; given that I'm naturally a slow writer and that I want to make this pattern quite comprehensive and easy to follow with step by step instructions with lots of photos, this project is turning out to be quite the little undertaking! But all is OK because, even though I seem to be moving at snail's pace, I am enjoying doing it...

  

 

Speaking of pillowcases, I must run off now before the last bit of good light disappears today to take the photos of some new pillowcases that I promised last time would be the subject of my next post... Oh well, I got distracted again by pretty balls of yarn and way too many ideas! Once I show you these photos, I will be holding a pillowcase giveaway as promised, so please do come by again... Thanks for visiting and have a happy and, hopefully, very creepy Halloween tomorrow!

 

 

 

P.S 'Just wanted to send a big Thank you! to Jenn from the yummy blog Color'n Cream who wrote such a lovely post about winning the "Mollie Makes Crochet" book and about my blog and work!

 

 

 

my October...

...so far has been rather nice in large part due to the weather we've been having lately; as far as I can remember, this is one of the nicest Octobers we've had since I first moved out here 20 years ago. Over the years, I have noticed that Octobers on the west coast can be rather rainy and stormy to the point that the trees shed their leaves very quickly and without much notice. Oh, but not this year!... The fine weather we've had this month have allowed nature's autumn colors to slowly intensify, becoming more dramatic by the day; in this third week of October, the trees are now all ablaze with color against stunning clear blue skies which, unbelievably, keep coming back day after day... In the last few days, our city has also been enveloped in night and morning fog which can lead to such a lovely spectacle when the sun eventually burns through the fog amidst all the autumn color; I tried to capture that moment with my camera this morning by our house when I was out walking Nico to her school bus, but I think I might have just missed it...

While I have been enjoying all this loveliness outdoors, I have to say that the indoors keep beckoning me... I have recently carved myself out a cosy corner in our bedroom with a very comfy chair; this spot is flooded with lovely light throughout the morning and afternoon and is the perfect spot for crocheting the day away.

And, you see that little bookcase?... Well, it's filled with the yummiest books which are crammed with all sorts of wonderful crafty inspiration between their covers... Yes, I am of the opinion that you can never be too far away from your favourite books when you're sitting in your special spot!

The painting of the blooming cherry trees is one of my favourite thrift shop finds -- you know one of those "I can't believe I just spotted that and no one else has bought it before me" thrift shop finds -- and I've placed it on an easel that I also bought at a thrift shop; I like having the easel there because it allows me to easily change out the painting which is adorning this special corner of the room. The vintage curtains, which you may have noticed in some of my other photos because I like using them as a backdrop, are an Ebay purchase; I love them so much because I find that light filters through them beautifully. The cushion, I made from a very vintage fabric which has a gold shine to it which I quite like and is similar in texture to the curtains. The vase... hmmm, can't remember where I picked it up, but the flowers I know are definitely picked from the hydrangea bushes in my garden!

The view I see from the window is one that I like a lot because it is a bit Mary-Poppinesque... you know, all rooftops and chimneys! Our bedroom also has another window which faces north and from which we can see the local mountains, but I prefer sitting by my Mary Poppins view because the light is much better here and, on a sunny day if I'm lucky, little feathered friends come by and splash around in a makeshift birdbath on our neighbour's roof which is happily right by the window!...

I hope you are also enjoying a lovely October wherever you may be... I will be back shortly with some more shots of new pillowcases and, right after, with a pillowcase giveaway. Thanks for popping by and visting my little special corner and I hope you will come by again!...

 

 

the autumn palette...

 

...that I'm simply going gaga over this year can be summed up rather well by the colours in the photo above: scrumptious blues, turquoises, violets, mauves balanced by some lovely browns, warm greens, golds and oranges... Yum!




To get a better sense of this autumn palette of mine, I uploaded the photo above (a crisper view of the same pillowcases and blanket as in the first photo) into CSS Drive's image to colour palette generator and ended up with this mix of colour swatches:


Do you ever play around with some of these online colour palette generators? I certainly do, especially when I'm looking for some colour inspiration, or when I find an image with an appealing colour mix and want to better see all the discrete colours being used. Looking at the colour swatches above, I think that perhaps there should be a warm gold somewhere in the mix and, where is the orange from the blanket binding?! But, I guess the colour generator probably picks up more on the dominant colors and not on small specks of colour like the orange tones in the binding...

Anyhow, I'm quite happy with all those swatches of blues, turquoises, mauves and violets as these are the colors I can't seem to get enough of at the moment. In some ways, this may seem like a bit of a departure for me because, I think for the longest time now, I've been shying away from purples and mauves, choosing green-blues like turquoises and aquas over indigo, navy and periwinkle blues. Cath Kidston's trademark colours, which I think are well represented in the crochet blanket and the sweater below (photos from the CK online catalogue) and which don't really dip too deeply into the violets or mauves, have always acted as a bit of a reference point for me when I'm choosing colours for a design, simply because I love the freshness of these colors when put together. (I included the photo of the sweater because I think it's adorable -- definitely on my wish list!) Over the years now, I think CK has expanded the range of colours used in their designs with definitely more navy in evidence but still, from what I can see in the catalogue, not too many sightings of violet. (Unfortunately, I can only see the CK collections in online catalogues as I'm not as lucky as some of you who can easily stroll into one of the many lovely CK shops!...) Despite my admiration for all that is CK, I now feel definitely ready to embrace more of all those lovely violets and mauves into my colour schemes...

In fact, I really seem to fancy the family of minky-mauves like the ones I circled below; it's a bit of a funny murky colour, making me think of the colour you'd end up with when, painting with watercolours as a kid, you'd mix all your watercolours together, forgetting to wipe the brush after changing colours! (It would also probably be the final colour of the water in your jar because of all the mixing going on in there...)

Since I've started crochet-trimming pillowcases, I find that I've been using mostly shades of pink, mint and light blue yarn for the trims; undoubtedly, it's because they have worked well complementing the colours of the pillowcase fabrics I've been favouring up to now, but with more periwinkles, indigos and violets in my sights, I'm ready to pull out my minky mauve and orchid plum yarns for some trim work! While I've used a minky-coloured yarn for the top pillowcase below and am really liking the way this shade of yarn is complenting the scrumptious fabric of the pillowcase, I still haven't quite found the perfect fabric match to use my lovely shade of plum yarn on...  I guess I will have to dig deeper into the stash because I so badly want to use this plum shade in one of my pillowcase styles! (Do you ever get that way when there is a certain colour of yarn that you really have a "thing" for and desperately want to use for something?!...)

Do you have a favourite autumn palette that you're going gaga over at the moment?.. If so, I'd love to see it (you can share it by linking photos to your comments below and perhaps I could post all of them together in the form of a collage...) As some of you may have noticed, I am slowly adding more new pillowcases to my Etsy shop; I still have a lot to add and, at the pace I'm going, it might still take me a little while! I hope I haven't bored you too much with my ramblings about colour palettes and, hopefully. you'll come by again soon when I post about a special corner of my house... Thanks for the visit!

 

sadly...

 

...one of my favourite blogs, True Up, is going off line; I've been blogging for 7 years now and, while I've definitely seen a few bloggers call it quits, it never fails to sadden me when it involves a blog I've been following religiously such as True Up. For those of you who have never read True Up, to put it simply, it's a blog all about fabric for the "fabric-obsessed" which, my family would definitely say, fits me to a T! Penned by Kim Kight, an avid fabric collector herself, this blog is not about the sewing of fabric but more about the actual fabric itself, showcasing not only the newest prints featured at the biggest fabric shows around, but also vintage ones that can still be found today; in other words, it's my version of a very yummy candy store! Kim posted very regularly, often attending the big quilt market shows in the US after which she would always post about many of the market stalls and all the new goodies coming out of the many different fabric companies. (Oh, how I will miss those posts!) True Up has been part of my daily blog-browsing routine (not suprisingly, it is on top of my browser history list!) for quite a while now and I will miss it sorely...

However, all is not lost since, in Kim's latest post where she talks about her reasons for calling it quits, she mentions being open to selling the blog... Anyone interested? In the meantime, I am going to have to find myself another blog tailored for the "fabric-obsessed", although I do have my doubts as to there being one that will be able to replace True Up for me. Do you know of any? If you do, please, please share with us! (Perhaps, I could even get together a list in my sidebar of fabric blogs for the fabric-obsessed... ) Kim is still planning on staying involved in the industry and will be announcing shortly a new venture of hers that will still involve an online presence in some form or another. Well, best of luck with that, Kim!

 

'Just a little note to those of you who are interested in checking out my new batch of pillowcases: I will be starting to list some of these today in my Etsy shop and continue throughout the next few days. Thanks for popping by and I'd like to wish all of you Canadians out there, a very happy and cosy Thanksgiving weekend with lots of yummy turkey (mmm, can't wait!)...

 

 

P.S. Some of you have been asking how to subscribe to my posts via email so I finally put a Feedburner link in my right sidebar. (Yes, I can be a bit slow with these things...)

 

Mollie Makes Crochet book...

...giveaway winners have been chosen by my trusty random number generator and they are:

 

Jenn from Color'n Cream

and

Sam from Betsy Makes

 

Yay! Congratulations to both of you, authors of two very lovely blogs, I might add! I have a feeling that you will enjoy this book a great deal; I have been browsing through it, bit by bit, and have found that, not only is it pretty to look at with inspiring projects and styling, but it has quite a thorough and well-illustrated (always something I look for!) section on crochet techniques which is great for beginners, but also very useful for more experienced crocheters to use as a handy reference for when they need to brush up on a thing or two. 

I have absolutely enjoyed running this giveaway on my blog (big thanks to Collins & Brown for donating the books!) because I've been having such a great time reading your comments; to all of you who commented, from very novice crocheters or even crocheters-to-be to very seasoned ones like Sherry Johnston who is 66 years old and started crocheting when she was 7, you have made my week and put a huge smile on my face with all your lovely comments -- THANK YOU! "Mollie Makes Crochet" beautifully celebrates a wonderful craft that, judging by all your amazing comments, is happily very popular and only gaining in popularity, and that so warms my heart... I also want to send a very big "THANK YOU!"  to all of you who have spread the word about this giveaway through your blogs, Facebook, Pinterest and Flickr pages... And now for the best part as far as I'm concerned: I get to slowly sift through all your comments and discover a whole bunch of new blogs -- I just love giveaways!

 

I'm not quite finished with "giveaway talk" as I just want to tell you that I am planning another giveaway shortly; this time, I will be giving away pillowcases from a new batch I'm working on at the moment (and will start listing in my Etsy shop this week) as a thank you to all of you who have helped me reach a little milestone in my Etsy sales... I will tell you more about it very soon, but now I must run before it gets too dark to take some more photos of this new pillowcase batch... Thanks for popping by and 'hope you visit again soon!

 

 

P.S. As some of you showed interested in purchasing "Mollie Makes Crochet", I have put up a link in my sidebar as to where it may be purchased.