Wednesday, June 8, 2011

June Blooms Day 8

It's our second week of flowers. I hope you have liked the ones I have featured so far.  This week I thought we might shift gears and focus on flowers you can make and sew together to create fabric art such as blankets, bags, purses etc.  If you haven't guessed yet that means granny squares.

I know the name implies something old fashioned, and maybe they are since they date back to at least the mid 1800's.  In the 70's they popped up in clothes, accessories, home decor and so much more.  They are a great way to use up scrap yarn and they are a great beginner's project.  You can practice stitches by creating multiple squares and you end up with something pretty to show for it.

So, for the next seven days I will feature a different flower granny.  If you create 4 motifs a day you can have a small lapghan, or two a day and you could create a purse.  An adventurous person can make a full size bedspread.  Make them with embroidery floss and you can make spreads for a miniature doll house or Barbie bed.  I also will include pictures of some finished projects using granny squares to give you some inspiration.

Enough rambling though, time to hook some yarn.  Today's motif comes from Lucy of Attic24.  She has named her motif the Summer Garden Granny.
 image copyright Attic24

One thing I love about granny squares is that color choice can add so much to the pattern.  You can see that in Lucy's photo above.  Can't you just see these with a white or black border as a blanket?  Beautiful.  If you have never created a granny square before this is a great one to start with because Lucy gives an awesome step by step photo tutorial as part of the pattern.  My only caution is for the more experienced crocheter that is used to US terms, the pattern is written in UK terms so it may be helpful to rewrite the pattern using the terms you are familiar with so that you don't accidentally make a treble crochet instead of a double.

Happy hooking!  As always, I would love to see your finished projects.  Please post them on my Facebook group page here or tag Sunflowers at Home on the Facebook photo!

Until next time,