Crochet -a- Quilt

[Bookchick29]

Hello Everyone!

 

I haven't posted here in a while. Life has been really busy as I'm sure you all know , and I just haven't been working on my PS very much.

 

All of the pictures look great and it looks like everyone is making wonderful progress

 

Mommabear - welcome to this CAL. I had some difficulty with the joining on the PS when I first started as well, so maybe I can help you out. What are you having trouble understanding?

[Mommabear_mvj]

I just joined the 2nd motif to the first, i thought it would be confusing but i think i'll be okay w/ it.

[Debbi-a1]

Mommabear, congrats on getting the squares together. I kept wondering if I was doing them right as I haven't joined many squares together but I did and I've kept on going. I forgot to take a pic:blush , but I finished the joining the brown squares, joining the 16 yellow squares and started the forsty green (20 squares for that color) this weekend. I will try to remember to take a pic this week. It's turning out nicer then I thought with all the different colors, I really like it.

[angelfire]

JulieKay your trip around the world is beautiful. I have done a couple in fabric but never in crochet.

[Mommabear_mvj]

i had the middle star done, and was looking at it i saw that i screwed up joining the 3rd motif, so i had to rip the last ones i did off . oh well, crochet and learn lol.

[pplcrochets]

Diane, your prairie star is simply awesome! :hug

Mine is so close to done, I can almost taste it! The victory, I mean; by now, the WIP is too grubby for any such activity

 

I'm back from my trip, and trying to catch up on the forum while doing several other things at once - I'm afraid my PS will have to stay on the back burner until I'm finished with my bookmark swaps. I did a lot of thread crochet while on travel - easier to carry the materials. However, I found out that while the US has no problem with taking hooks on board planes, Turkey DOES! Fortunately for my hook collection, they check for such items before checked baggage is out of contact, so I didn't have to lose my hooks. But that left me with nothing to do for several looong flights.

 

And I've never heard of plastic hooks in thread sizes..... rats.

[pplcrochets]

Krystal, Debbi, and Mommabear! You'll find lots of fun and encouragement here Debbi, you couldn't find a better guide or encourager for working your ATW pattern than Dazy - she's a real trooper! (and she's knows how to help one out of a rut! )

 

Krystal and Mommabear, I think Diane's advice was excellent regarding working on a prairie star pattern. I'm of two minds on the weave as you go, though, because I found errors in my process in round two, and needed to frog back quite a bit. That made me leary of weaving in the ends in the first two rounds of diamonds, and now that I'm almost finished, I've got all of the ends still to weave in. Bummer. So, if you do leave ends free for the first round or so to make sure you've got the motif placement and joining down pat, stop and force yourself to weave them in at some halfway point, or you'll have them all to do at the end, like me. . Also, quite a bit later in the pattern, I found I got the motif placement wrong in the round where the sides become flat - 3 different times, so something just wasn't clicking for me. Whatever it was, perhaps you won't encounter the same problem, but just the same, I suggest doublechecking to make sure you're joining the current diamond to the correct vertex - I thought I had that down solid and was most surprised to find out differently.

 

I like the PS pattern so much that I tried out the center star in #10 thread (didn't have the right yarn with me to work my WIP at the time) just for grins and giggles, using a #00 hook. Might try it again with a #4 (smaller) hook; I like the effect in thread. Not sure I'd want to make the complete pattern in thread, but the center hexagon would make a really pretty table top decoration, I think.

[Debbi-a1]

Here's a pic of where I'm at now.

It's not a very big pic because I'm using my cell phone and for some reason it does that. but you get an idea of where I'm at.

[pplcrochets]

Debbi, very nice!

(the size of the pic in a post is related to its file size)

[dazy]

alright, debbi! that looks great. you've got a good start.

[countingsts]

OK, THE CHECKERDBOARD CHILDS BLANKET THAT I AM AS OF YET STILL WORKING ON WHICH IS 160 STS LONG (20STS PER SQUARE 8 ACROSS) AND 160 ROWS WITH A GRAPHED NAME : WOULD THAT BE QUALIFIED AS A QUILT OR A THROW OR BOTH:think

[dazy]

i don't think an afghan has any specific size, so i'd think it could be both.

[Krystal16]

OK, I'm officially in, but this is going to be SLOW going for me - this is an extra project I'm throwing in. I have ONE diamond done on the prairie star, aren't ya proud? I am doing it in baby yarn, with a smaller hook, and I might not put all the bordering on it, depends on how big it gets? My diamond measures only about 4 1/2" long compared to the 6+ " the pattern calls for, so it shouldn't get too big...I'll be here, but don't expect miracles out of me! :D

[Debbi-a1]

One diamond is better then none! You have to start somewhere.

[rddugan]

Patricia - Welcome back and I hope you had a wonderful trip! Sounds like you visited the ends of the earth - how exciting! Thanks for the compliment on my PS. I also agree with you about weaving in ends. I did sometimes have to frog, but after a while, I tried to make sure the diamond was right before I actually weaved it in. I LOVE the idea of using thread!

 

Debbie - I LOVE your around the world! I bought Caron SS Brites to do one of those too, for my niece's new baby, but haven't thought about starting yet. I love how unique color makes these patterns.

 

Krystal - Hurray - one star done! Keep going a bit at a time- it will be worth the effort in the end.

[Mommabear_mvj]

yeah, I have the middle six motifs done. slow but steady. lol.

I changed my colors now. So i hope i like the outcome. I exchanged the greens for blues.

[Mommabear_mvj]

okay question. how do you join the second round of motifs? i see that you have to join it at first to the chain 5. What is the sequence for joining this round? thanks.

 

Edit: i think i figured it out. Like the pattern: chain 3, then dc in ch-2 space, then ch-1 in ch-5 sp, then dc in ch-2 space again, and so on just like the pattern states. this is the way i did it, and its looks good, so i think i did it right. LOL.

[Krystal16]

Well, I ran out of yarn for my UFO project , can't just hop to the store, too rural here:drive. BUT that made it all that more tempting to work on this project (which I'm not SUPPOSED to be working on, but it's the only one I can pick up and put back down in a day:yes). So now I have 4 diamonds done:clap. I think I got it right - looks OK:whew. Down the sides of the first round of 6 diamonds, you actually join it at both corners and the 2 spaces between the corners, right? Also, when you sc INTO the chain spaces for joining, do you go over the previous motif, YO in the back, then pull through? (You don't go from back to front, then YO, do you?) It looks OK, so I hope I'm doing it right. Who am I kidding? It's not like I'd frog the thing no matter what!

 

I can see that 6th diamond in the center motif might be a tricky one...

 

So, I have 4 pastel color (blue, pink, yellow, green) a white with pastel bits variegated into it (not really a fleck, but an ombre that's mostly white) and a plain white. The center diamond I have blue already....I was thinking I'd go (from out to in) blue, pink, ombre, yellow, green - then do the outside in pure white...BUT since I'm going to the store tomorrow, I COULD pick up the Pound of Love purple to add in there? Which do you think I should do - will the ombre be too washed out for that middle tier of diamonds? Should I get the purple and do the background of the star in the ombre? (Like I said, it's mostly white)....or should I get the purple and leave the background white, use the ombre for something else or the binding/border? If I DO get the purple, what color order should I use? How about blue, pink, yello, green, purple...I'm trying to avoid the rainbow effect BTW.

 

Your opinions are most welcome. Oh, and I'm leaving at 8 AM EST, so I have to decide by then! :D :D

[dazy]

swish!! that went right over the top of my head. glad you got plenty of help, cause i sure wouldn't be any.

i have been working right along on my squares, tho. i'm on my next to the last group. then i can join the last 3 rounds and be ready to put a border around it. gee, sounds so simple when i say it. yeah, right . i'm trying not to look too far ahead. one square at a time.

have a great crochet day.

[Krystal16]

So, I tried the variegated and turns out the thread isn't nearly as thin as the Pound of Love, so can't use that....the diamond comes out WAY too big. So, I put the purple pound of love in my wish list in RAOK...if I go and BUY a pound (which I could do) then it would start this vicious cycle of me needing to make SOMETHING with the leftovers....I won't need it for awhile (it's the outer ring) so I'll wait and see...

 

Congrats Dazy on getting that far !!!

 

So, I have this idea going around in my head. In the Prairie Star, you join as you go - which is great, because I HATE HATE HATE having to stitch my squares together. SO I was wondering since most granny squares have a ring of sc in the outer ring, couldn't you just sc sc ch sc sc ch....and so on around the square, then join as you go on the grannies? I mean, why not???!!!???

 

Has anyone done this?

[pplcrochets]

Hmmm.... I don't see why you couldn't do that, except that it might take some math to figure out the right number of sc's between ch1 spaces so as to make the number of joins look symmetrical. Like, if your square had 25 stitches in its outer round (I'm thinking of the 63 Squares book patterns), that number isn't divisible by 3, but is divisible by five (4 sc's then a ch, then repeat).

 

On the other hand, nothing says that the joins have to be evenly spaced along the edges. So, how 'bout every other: 1 sc, 1 ch, repeat, making sure the corner stitches are joining stitches. You'd have 13 joins/spaces and 12 sc's along each side.

 

Appearance would be different, too; kind of nice, come to think of it - staggered spaces along the join is what I'm envisioning. Makes me want to go try it out! (Must stick to finishing bookmarks, must stick to finishing bookmarks, must stick to finishing bookmarks....)

 

Krystal, you have some of the most tempting ideas....

 

(I'm re-reading this, and I think my design constraints are off; like, 25 isn't divisible by 2, either, yet I think the sc then ch1 would work. what am I missing, here? - ah, just saw it. Each side of the square is really 24 stitches. The 25th is the first stitch of the next side, for a total of 96 stitches all around the square, right? and so the ch1, sc 2, would work just fine)

[countingsts]

:rofl I HAD TO WHEN I READ THE TINY PRINT. WILL JOIN IN SOON:sigh JUST NEED TO FINISH THE WIP I AM STRIVING TO FINISH B4 JULY STARTS. 12 STEP

[cmr3877]

This looks too good to pass up!

 

Here's my quilt block choice, and my colors--

 

 

I've actually got 9 blocks done, but they are at my BF's apartment in Memphis, and he's in Baltimore visiting his dad

 

Count me in with the other crochet-aholocs! Maybe I'll actually get the thing DONE!

[Debbi-a1]

Hi everyone. I havne't updated because I wasn't on the internet over the weekend. I didn't do any of my squares as my friend's daughters 6th birthday is coming up and I'm making some easy dresses for a barbie (my sort of own design). I'll post the pics on the appropriate show and tell when they're finished. Plus I've been recovering from being sick.

 

Catherine, those colors and that square will look great.

Krystal, you can connect squares by single crochet if you want. It does create a little ridge between the squares, but is totally doable. I'm leaving a loooong end and then using that to sew together and weave in the end at the same time. So that works for me. Although I have single crocheted or slip stitched squares together before.

[Krystal16]

YAY!!! I finished the first 6 motifs! I have the baby blue done now....onto the pink!

 

How's everyone else coming along?