My Lollipop Cushion: Tadah!

The weather here in Northern Germany is brilliant! We have lots of sun, a little wind and nice temperatures. I even got a little sun burn on my forearms while I was happily crocheting on the terrace yesterday. But I wanted to finish my Lollipop Cushion by all means and it was late in the evening when I sewed on the last button. But now it is done!

And I LOVE it!

 

 I already showed you the beginning of this little project that I started quite impulsively when I looked at all my little yarn scraps that were lying in a yarny bowl.

I really loved playing with all the colours I had left, always wondering if the remaining rest of a colour would be sufficient for a solid granny square. 

Very quickly I knew how the front of my cushion should look like and in no time at all I had all the solid grannies I needed. If you look for a good pattern to make them, just have a look at the lovely blog of Heather from little tin bird.  Her explanations are very good.

After joining all these colourful grannies, I immediately knew that this cushion would need some extraordinary edging. I thought about so many different patterns but no one really caught my eye. Then I remembered this pompom edging and after a good search on pinterest (I am a Pinterestian, I really am), I found a good explanation of this stitch on the wonderful blog of Robin from once upon a pink moon. The only thing that I change was the number of chains. I wanted the pompoms to stand a little upright, so I just crocheted two chains instead of three.

But then the question of how to do the back occurred again. I had this problem already when I made my first cushion here.

And I really hate that question. Most crocheters write that they just take some fabric they have in their stash and they sew a back with a zipper in a breath. 

I am not able to do this! It takes me ages to sew a cushion and when I think about a zipper I sweat blood. So again, I decided to crochet the back. I had enough yarn for more solid granny squares, but I made them differently. Just one more row and I changed colours after the first row.

This is how it turned out in the end and it is such a little colourful piece of joy that I immediately knew how I would call it:

 My Lollipop Cushion!

This cushion matches perfectly my handmade blankets. It looks like it just has to sit in front of the Villa Villekulla blanket, doesn't it?
This is the front:

 And this is the back:

 Which side do you like more? I just can't decide, I like both sides!

 The only thing that jarred on my nerves was the sewing.  It was a nightmare to sew the back to the front. I had an equal number of stitches on both sides of the cushion but when I had finished almost half of the sewing of one side I always recognised that one side was longer than the other. I don't no how many times I had to undo the stitches, in the end I didn't count anymore I just tried to get the squares even. But finally it worked out.

My Dutch readers will probably recognise the buttons I have used, I bought them at HEMA, a Dutch chain of stores that sell wonderful bits and pieces. I just love these colourful buttons and they are perfect for my Lollipop Cushion! 

And here is one last photo I want to show you. In April I had won a give-away hosted by the lovely Franca from righedafavola.

 This cute little bag is really sweet and I love the cheerful pink. Thanks a lot, dear Franca, best wishes to Italy!

Have a nice and sunny weekend,

Viola

It's grey and dark....

... the wind is blowing and I wonder where spring has gone. It looks like November outside! This is just a quick post to say hello after our wonderful holidays. I will tell you about it later.

Unfortunately I got a bad cold last week and I still feel not so well, bad cough again ... 

So today I decided to take it easy, drink lots of tea, forget about the piles of laundry and the sandy floors (I wonder why we always bring back so much sand after a week at the sea) and start a new crochet project using all my scraps of yarn. 

I have so many leftovers from my blankets that are not really useful for the next big crochet project. 

What are you doing with all these sweet little balls of yarn? You can't really start something new with them but I have not the heart to just throw them away. 

'A cushion' I thought this morning when I passed the bowl with all my Stylecraft remnants. 

 And without further thinking and 'pinteresting' I decided to use the simple 2-round solid granny square to start with. It is the perfect size to use even the smallest amounts of yarn and looking at these colourful littles squares makes me really happy!

Last but not least I want to welcome my new followers, I hope you like my little crochet snippets. And I want to say 'Thank you!' for all your encouraging comments, I love to read them and I always try to take a look at your blogs, as well. 

Take care whereevere you are in the world! 

Viola

Flowers, Flowers, flowers... My Granny Madelief flower cushion

My first cushion tadah!

Lately quite a few blogger write about their UFOs (unfinished objects) that are lying around in their baskets, on shelves or hidden in a cupboard. I always read these blogposts carefully, looking at all these beautiful works which would be finished if someone just spend a few hours working on them. I have to admit that I can happily join this club. 

I am a starter, not a finisher. I love to let the inspiration get me. I see something in a book, on pinterest (oh, how many hours can you possibly spend there looking at all these gorgeous works...) on a blog or in a shop and I know that I have to start immediately with it. And if I have the right yarn at home, nothing can stop me to start something new. I don't know how many UFO's are spread all over the house. As I don't have a special craft room, I tend to put my works just everywhere. 

It would be a LOT of work to collect all my UFOs and write a blog post about them. I really don't feel like it at all, it's summer time, isn't it? Though it is raining again, sigh...

Napoleon is alleged to have said: 

'Die Deutschen haben 6 Monate Winter und 6 Monate keinen Sommer.'  (The Germans have 6 months of winter and 6 months no summer). I hope that this summer wants to refute this assertion soon!

 But back to my UFOs. I promised myself to finish at least one UFO before I start something new. 

BIG PROMISE!!!

And the beginning is easy, of course. I am quite enthusiastic about this promise. So I started with a cushion cover that I began already last year. It worked up quite quickly and I enjoyed making it because the pattern was so easy and very nice to work. You can find the free (!) pattern on the wonderful Dutch blog of Stephanie from handwerkjuffie.

But when I almost finished the front I didn't know how to do the back. Should I take fabric? But then I would have to sew the back... With a zipper (oh no, I'm such a bad sewer...)? 

  I went to Ikea and bought some nice fabric but I just could make up my mind. Did I like the blue and white check pattern? Or should I better take the light blue one with the red dots? Or should I put the fabric in the cupboard and take up my hook and yarn?
But how? Stripes, grannies... Oh dear, all these questions demanded too much of me and I put the whole project aside.  

But now everything was settled very quickly. I started crocheting the back, simple stripes using the colours of the front.

  Everything worked up very quickly and today  I finished all by sewing 4 buttons to the side. 

Tadah!

While I was writing this the sun came back again and I happily moved outside to take a rest and make some nice photos of my new cushion. 

 As it is sunny by now my son is taking the opportunity to go swimming with friends and my daughter is back from the stable and playing horses with a friend in the garden. So I will take my time for a cup of tea, a rasperry muffin and some happy crocheting.

See you soon and don't forget to  to enter my Giveaway by saying hello in the comments below. 

Have a great week everyone. 

Viola