Beautiful Blogger Blanket of 2012 - the winner is.....

The day has finally arrived.....

It is time to draw the name of the winner of the Beautiful Blogger Blanket of 2012....

I printed out all the names ......

....and for each square you entered, a slip with 

your name on was put into a bowl... some 

people's names were in there once...some 

peoples 4 times, some peoples 13 times.....

Each was folded in half... 

....can you see your name in there?  

There are 150 plus pieces in there...

 My stomach was full of butterflies.... I don't 

know why... I couldn't win it myself!

 I covered the bowl with an Indian table mat... 

......just for colour and sparkle!

Long suffering hubby put his hand under the cloth.....

He rummaged.....and rummaged.... and rummaged.....

and pulled out just one piece of paper.....phew! 

AND THE WINNER IS.....

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BARBINA! 

Our Beautiful Blogger Blanket of 2012 is going 

all the way to Germany! 

If you want to see who won the blanket 

Barbina's blog is, 'Little Things made With Love'......

CONGRATULATIONS BARBINA!! 

and many, many thanks to all of you who sent squares... I have been amazed by the amazing crochet skills around the world... by the colour combinations, by the amazing number of different patterns available... and by your generosity.....

THANK YOU EVERYONE! 

A big HUGE THANK YOU to Faith of 'Faith'... who saved my sanity at the last minute by offering to send lots of little squares when I realised how many I was going to need! 

I will continue posting about the squares that have been sent to me this week...the internet has been AWFUL... I couldn't get a connection many times this week... so I will post the rest until they have all been shown, and I will tell you about the great sewing up project... and of course...show you the finished blanket....

Madrid, snow and a little :(

Phew...what excitement! Yesterday we were

 in Suffolk but the weather forecast was awful...

 (awful for the UK...not awful for anywhere else

 that it used to lots of snow).. so we came back

 to Oxford a day early... and made it home just 

as the snow started in Oxford...hurrah!

 We watched it fall all evening, full of plans for

 walks in the snowy park with the dog today... 

and then it rained! I love English weather!

Pavement pattern in Madrid

 In Madrid last week it was cold, but beautifully

 sunny... we had a lovely weekend.... I'll show 

you a few pictures, not too many.. 

Fernando Botero Statue outside Madrid Barajas Airport

This beautiful statue of a woman sitting on

 the back of bull greets you as you arrive at 
Barajas Airport, Madrid.
  

She is designed by Fernando Botero whose

 art works feature rounded figures, but if you

 are going to look at more of his work, be 

prepared - some of the subject matter 

isn't pleasant!

My hubby works in Madrid - I live in Oxford, UK,

 ..we don't spend much time together, so three

 days alone was bliss...

The Palacio Real de Madrid (The Royal Palace of Madrid)

Outside of The Mercado de San Miquel , Madrid

This place is like a covered market...

but a lovely social place... you buy your

 food and drink from whichever stall you want,

 then sit together at the central tables... 

It is a vibrant, friendly, stimulating place to eat!

The Mercado de San Miquel , Madrid

Statue in Plaza De Oriente, Madrid

This is a street entertainer called Spider man - 
He strikes different poses, and these men were 
joining in... this pose was called 'sexy'! Hmmm...

I noticed that there were far more 

hand-made items on sale in the 

shops..... ahh lovely colourful poncho!

These antique sewing machines would 

have been in my suitcase if they had 

weighed less! 

Sorry - rubbish photo of the inside of the wool shop,
but the man in uniform was cross with me for taking it! 

Yes, I did find a wool shop... I was shocked 

to see that it was PACKED with shoppers! 

It wasn't like our local yarns shops at all.. 

when you walk in the door there is a display

 of samples of all the yarns they carry, and 

handmade items displayed... 

Further into the shop are the yarns on very

 high shelves...in fact the whole shop was

 stacked tot he ceiling! But no balls of wool

 to be seen... apparently you chose your yarn

 by feeling the samples at the front of the 

shop, then go to the back of the shop to 

order by weight...ie: 1 kilo of red cotton. 

There was even a man in uniform who told me

 off in no uncertain terms for touching the 

hanks instead of the samples! 

It makes sense really! Mind you I did feel a 

bit like a criminal when I picked up a 

crochet hook! 

In the wool shop.. a beautiful display of bobbin

 lace-making supplies... I used to make bobbin

 lace, this made me want to dig out my bobbins! 

and Tapas bars.. vino tinto (red wine) and

 tapas... yum yum! 

Catedral de la Almudena - Madrid

This next bit I shall write in very brief, small

 words... I didn't get the job.... :( 

Thanks so much to everyone who wished me well, 

and made me laugh just before the interview...

Onwards and upwards.....

Oh my goodness some beautiful 

squares have come in for the 

Beautiful Blogger Blanket of 2012.. 

I am going to post loads this week to catch up!

The Beautiful Blogger Blanket, the Beyond The Square Challenge 2012 and a lovely surprise for me!

Thank you so much for all your kind good

 wishes for my interview this morning...

Thank you for making me smile all the way

 into the door Faith....

 It went well-ish... and now I sit with fingers, 

toes, knees, ears and eyes crossed until

 I get the phone call...

At the very beginning of this week an envelope 

arrived.. sorry... no photo of the envelope.. 

it has disappeared into the depths of my 

camera somewhere.. ah well.. it's not the 

envelope you are interested in is it?

Victoria from the wonderful, Yarn Round Hook 

in the UK has sent me 2 squares for the 

Beautiful Blogger Blanket of 2012! 

Again a lovely card with a very sweet message on..

You are all being so lovely; you send me good wishes 

and encouragement and I love getting them! 

Both of Victoria's squares are from Jan Eaton's 

book; '200 Crochet Blocks'.

The pink one, above, is # 197, 'Fretwork', 

sorry Victoria, the photo is slightly blurred!

The blue one, above, is # 94, 'Gothic Square'.

Some close-ups for you to linger over longingly...

2 stunning squares gives you 2 entries 

into the Beautiful Blogger Blanket draw 

on 29th February Victoria...Good luck and 

thank you for joining in!.  

If you haven't seen the beautiful work that Barbara 

from made in k-town does please umm..

(my hubby says I am always saying 'pop over'!) 

...mosey on over there (!) and see her latest motif!  

You can see everyone else's motifs here.

My latest is Motif # 3... 

I made this one twice.. just for the heck of it! 

The first one is made of a very fine thread 

which is not marked so I can't tell you what

 size it is.. it is just called crochet cotton! 

I used a 1.25mm hook... 

and then in my usual cotton which is 

Debbie Bliss Eco Baby ...

 I prefer the first one, but it won't work with the 

others if I am going to  use them all together... 

Here are the first 3 squares all together.. 

Finally my suprise! My hubby has sent tickets 

for me to go to MADRID for the weekend! 

I fly tomorrow... alone (gulp!)... and come

 home on Monday... so excuse me if I don't

 blog over the weekend... the Sangria and

 Tapas are calling.... 

I hope you all have a

 lovely weekend too! x

BBB 2012 -Squares from The Netherlands and FILET CROCHET at last!

On Tuesday this week a post popped into my 'reader' from Elisabeth of About Crochet  - Elisabeth has crocheted 2 beautiful squares for the Beautiful Blogger Blanket of 2012.. lovely pastel shades! They are winging their way to me now from the Netherlands!

Elisabeth is also organising a crochet competition which I blogged about here in November.  The rules are that, using one stitch pattern with 3 variations, participants should design a scarf, shawl, fingerless gloves or a cushion cover.  


Easy I thought.. but with one stitch pattern it is somewhat challenging... I've spent a long time starting a few projects and then starting again.. the end project has to be published on our blogs by 14th January....


There are 20 of us in the competition - I am the only one from the UK! Watch this bloggy space...

Have you seen the lovely idea that Lynda from hookinwithlalaa has had to start the new year off with a bloggy bang? Lynda is going to set up a Craft Box that will travel the country (Uk blogs only)....if you join the project by January 20th you can have a turn at the having the box arrive at your door - then you can take 2 things out of the box and replace them with 2 other things.. I'm not explaining it very well - pop over and have a look..... I'm in....


Right then, before I go to bed I want to show you something which I am tres proud of... I couldn't show you before as this was something I started for the Avent Swap (also organised by Lynda from Hookinwtihlaalaa).. and sent to Madison of Madison Makes. 

Madison blogged about them today here.

I conquered FILET CROCHET! Well, I say conquered... it was more of a picking up the sword to begin the battle really - but I did manage to make an 'M' for Madison - and sewed it into a very wobbly pin-cushion...

I also made a pot cover... this was also my fist attempt at adding beads to crochet which I loved.  I shall definitely be taking up the sword again as filet crochet is no-where near as complicated as I thought.. in fact it is VERY simple, kind of mathematical, but oh so fiddly at first!  It goes a bit like this... chain, chain, chain...treble, treble, treble...chain, chain, chain....Once you have been doing it for a while, as with everything in life, it gets easier...


My Mum's sister has a picture on her wall, of a little girl done in filet crochet which my lovely cousin made years ago..... Every-time we see it Mum asks me to make her something similar... I can't find a pattern anything like that, but I am looking... and I think it would be a great challenge for 2012....

Square inspiration and a lovely competition...

Christmas stars... no I haven't gone mad.. I forgot to blog them and completely forgot to give them to my Mum and sisters!  Ah well.... only  358 days until Christmas 2012! It's true... look here !

(Photos from Google search on Granny Squares... origin unknown)

Have you found Adaiha's blog called 'Things to make and do'?   

Basically Adaiha pledged to crochet a square a day in 2011... and not the easy way as I have been doing with the One-a-Day group led by Gingerbread Girl... 

No, Adaiha is sourcing and using a different PATTERN every day! Amazing!  

In her blog there are links to patterns, books, tutorials all based around the crochet square and what to do to /with it..  I have a feeling I may be spending some time there in the next month!

I popped over to Scarlet Dash this afternoon and found a lovely Giveaway going on.. The book "Interlocking Crochet by Tanis Galik " will be given away next Sunday (8th Jan)...all you have to do is pop over to Scarlet Dash's  blog, leave a comment and wait with fingers and toes crossed...good luck! 

No reason for this Photo of Freddie... It's just to make you smile.... 

I hope you are all able to enjoy your Bank Holiday Monday tomorrow... I don't think it is going to be a hot sunny one (not in the UK anyway)! 

Beautiful Blogger Blanket 2012 - A 'Make It Together' project Coming Soon!

First of all I want to say, "THANK YOU SO MUCH" to everyone who sent me such lovely messages after our little Molly passed away last week... enough said.....

I need to do something positive... something which involves thinking and planning for the future and I have come up with an idea for a Make It Together project.  

Now I don't know if anything like this has been tried before (if you know could you tell me), but I thought it would be a great way to bring us all together to do something nice for one of us over Christmas and the New Year... and that one could be any of us!  

I spent this afternoon trying to design a button for the project, and hopefully, with a little luck, this is what it looks like....

Ummm... that is meant to look like a patchwork crochet blanket! 

Watch this space for more information!