I love living in the moment. In the humdrum of being stuck in traffic, I am the one you will see singing at the top of her voice with her favourite music. In moments of sadness, I am the one crying deeply and sincerely. In short, I am a bit of a drama queen.
But then there are times that I need to become quiet and still. Those are the times that my husband and I just chill in our television room, bingeing on series. However, my hands can never be still. When I was younger, I did a lot of cross-stitch work in front of the television. My eyes paid the price, unfortunately. It is not that I am old, but I battle to do the fine work that I used to be able to do with such ease and vigour a few years back. Now...I CROCHET!
I have this grand project going: my intention is to crochet a blanket for each of my parents' grandchildren. Now there are eleven grandchildren altogether. Four of them have received their blankets already. I also made a blanket each for two of my sisters. Every now and again there is a baby shower (baby blanket to be crocheted!) or a special project that interferes with my allocated time for the grand project. At the moment, for instance, I am busy crocheting bunnies for a charity project. I also made a blanket for a special friend who has cancer a while ago.
In any event, what with me making blankets, I am never satisfied with the first square that I crochet for a new project. I experiment a lot before I figure out exactly what I want to do. The result is that I have a lot of random squares in storage, forgotten pieces of relative beauty.
So the other day, when I sorted out the cupboard and came across all the squares, I had a bright idea: why not make a truly bohemian blanket, just for my own enjoyment? All my "masterpieces" are given to other people, while I never keep something for myself.
And so it began...
Here I am with some of the squares that I had to start off with.
I started sewing them together randomly.
Because the squares are not all the same size, I had to keep count of the stitches on each side of a square.
Where I could not add a square to match, I filled it in with stitching extra rows.
Our girl, Giblet, enjoys snuggling under my creations.
Progress...
To see whether the blanket is big enough, I had hubby and the boys test it for me.
Ah, but it is not done. I had all sorts of applique flowers that I could add.
So I did...
And then some embroidery.
And of course, because I am @minnalouse after all, I added my favourite quote:
And there you have it!
All I need now, is the perfect setting for the perfect picnic. I am also contemplating making some colourful, overstuffed cushions to go with it. What do you think?
I hope you enjoyed my bohemian adventure with me!
NB: I got every single pattern off the internet. Unfortunately, because it was before I ever contemplated publishing some of my work, I did not keep the references. So if you recognise your pattern in my blanket, please feel free to credit yourself. I apologise profusely for not crediting you.
