Another Wall Hanging with Crocheted Flowers
The Five Point flower from pages 85-86 of Crochet Bouquet was perfect to embellish my latest wall hanging. The Five Points in the photo are made with Aunt Lydia’s No. 10 crochet cotton. They are really small and cute.
I’m making the wall hanging to enter in a juried show with an evolution theme.
You can crochet three different sizes of flowers from the Five Point pattern, one size growing out of the previous one. To me, that is a visual way to show how something might develop over time.
The quilt design also goes from plain to fancy, another sort of visual evolution. Here’s a peek at one of the steps in this wall hanging’s evolution.
Find step-by-step photos and hints for crocheting the Five Point flower here.
Crochet Kaiser Roll Hints
Thanks to Lindsay for asking about the Kaiser roll in Cute Crochet World. It’s part of the “Cheese Sandwich on a Kaiser Roll” pattern on pages 56-58.
Crocheting the Kaiser roll, I ran across two places in the instructions that need correcting:
- Page 57, third column, second paragraph, 4th and 5th lines down should read “transfer ch-2 lp of Rnd 2” not Rnd 1.
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Same page and column, end of Rnd 6 should read “join with a sl st to ch2 at beg of rnd and end off OR cut yarn and needle join.” The words “and end off, or” are missing in the printed instructions.
You can find corrections for all of my books by searching this blog for “corrections” or “errata.” If you find a mistake in one of my patterns, please let me know and I’ll list it in the corrections pages.
Alright, back to crocheting a bread roll. The top of the roll has the subtly swirled, puffed look of a real, yeast bread bun. Here’s how to get that texture.
In the “Read Me First” section of Cute Crochet World, page 8, I wrote about the “first stitch” and the “next stitch.” It’s so important in crochet to pay attention to details like this in the instructions, and be able to recognize them in your work.
In this photo, Rnd 1 is joined with a sl st in the first sc of the round. To begin Rnd 2, ch 2 (which counts as the first hdc), and hdc in the first stitch, which is the same stitch you sl stitched into to join Rnd 1.
To join Rnd 2, sl st in the top of the ch-2 at the beginning of the round. Can you see the sets of 4 hdc sts separated by ch-3 spaces?
To make it easier to find them later, place a marker around each of the five ch-2 in Rnd 2. I used safety pins here.
With Rnd 5 finished, you can see how the hdc-tss are moving in a little swirl pattern. The ch-spaces move a couple or three stitches counterclockwise with each round.
After Rnd 5, enlarge the live loop far enough that it won’t start unraveling as you work on the next step.
Turn to the wrong side of your work. Look at the ladders formed by the ch-sts. Rnd 2, where you have markers, is the first rung of the ladder. Three more rungs follow (Rnds 3, 4, and 5).
Insert a larger hook under the first rung, where the marker is. Remove the marker. Insert the hook under the second rung and pull the second rung through the first.
This will feel pretty tight, but that’s how it is supposed to feel. You can use your fingers to lift the loops. It’s a lot easier that way.
*Insert your hook under the next chain and pull it through the chain on your hook. Rep from * once. The yellow bracket shows the ladder of chain spaces, all chained up.
Now put the marker or safety pin into that last loop to hold it in place. Do the same with the other four chain ladders.
When you are finished chaining up all the ladders, turn back to the right side. See the fluffy Kaiser roll top?
Insert your smaller hook back into the enlarged loop and tighten the loop around the hook.
In Rnd 6, when you get to a loop with a marker in it, work a hdc into the loop and remove the marker.
After crocheting into the loop, the instructions tell you to skip the next hdc, and hdc into the next 5 hdc. You may not be able to see the skipped hdc very well, since it may be covered or squished by the stitch you just completed. However you should be able to see five hdc before the next marker. In the photo above, they are marked with yellow dots. Hdc into each of those.
A needle-join is by far the best way to finish off this cute Kaiser roll top. After the last hdc, cut the yarn and pull the final loop right out of the top of the last stitch.
Thread the yarn end into a tapestry needle. Skip the ch-2 and take the needle under the top of the first full hdc of the round. Pull it through.
Insert the needle into the top of the last st of Rnd 6…
…and on the wrong side catch the vertical loops of the hdc. Pull the needle through. Adjust the loop to match the tension of the other loops around the edge of the roll.
Here’s the finished top. Now is the time to sew on beads to resemble seeds, if you want.
Crochet an inside bun. Sew the bun pieces together around the edges, stuffing lightly before you close the seam completely.
Poets and Paint Rock
Last week was Langdon Review Weekend in Granbury, Texas. The weekend celebrates the publication of the current Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas journal, and features poetry and prose readings, art exhibits and talks, and musical events.
I was pleased to present a talk about my TextileFusion artwork at this year’s event. In conversation with people after the presentation, the subject of Paint Rock came up.
Paint Rock, Texas, is not too far from San Angelo. Native Americans painted interesting and beautiful motifs on overhanging rocks along the river.
How exactly did this happen? I’m racking my brain for the exact phrase or question that caused us to start talking about it, but I can’t remember.
Anyway, for whatever reason, poet karla k. morton asked, “Have you been to Paint Rock?”
I said I hadn’t, but my husband was there and took lots of pictures so I could see how wonderful it was.
“My dear friends own the land that Paint Rock is on,” she said.
“I designed a sweater with images from Paint Rock,” I said. I’m sending her pictures of the sweater.
This was the original sweater, made with Joseph Galler RBC Parisian Cotton, a long discontinued, fabulous cotton yarn. I used US size 3 knitting needles.
Later, I designed a similar sweater with heavier cotton, which was
ed in Southwest Crafts* magazine. Southwest Crafts has been out of print for years, but I still think of it fondly, because my Paint Rock sweater in the magazine was the first pattern I ever
ed for pay.
*”Ancient Indian Pictures in a Knitted Sweater,” Southwest Crafts, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 7 ff., January/February 1991.
Here Before You Know It
Lately several people I know have said, “I can’t believe we’re already at the end of August,” shaking their heads in disbelief. Today, for the first time this year, I heard someone say: “The holidays will be here before we know it.”
Hearing that made me feel pretty happy with the progress I’ve made on the felt Christmas wreath kit by Bucilla. It’s my Christmas in July project.
The second four weeks are going according to schedule:
Week five. 
Week six. 
In Week seven, all the holly leaves for the wreath are finished, and I got to make a candy cane. 
Now I’m getting into the really fun stuff, with this toy train engine and a peppermint candy. At around 20 pieces, the train took a long time to put together. Totally worth it, though. It is very, very cute–so cute it tugs at my heartstrings.
And my sixteen week project is at the halfway point. Looking good so far! At this rate, it will definitely be finished in time to decorate for the Christmas holidays.
For more frequent updates, please follow me on Instagram @suzannthompson.
9/6/2016–Hi y’all. This poor post got tons of spam comments, so I’m closing comments. Email your comments to me at knitandcrochetwithsuzann at outlook dot com and I’ll post them here.
Pacing Myself for Christmas
I just love sparkly felt Christmas decorations!
They are fun to make, too. Herrschner’s, my favorite mail-order needlework company, has an annual sale on Christmas kits. In a fit of optimism, I ordered two kits back in 2014, thinking I could just make them in my spare time. Ha ha ha hahahahahahaaaaa!
It’s been proven that by pacing myself, I can actually get a kit finished. Blogging and Instagramming about my plan keeps me accountable. So here goes.
The goal is to finish this cute felt wreath and ornaments in time to decorate for Christmas. The kit is by Bucilla. Each week for sixteen weeks, I’ll embroider, embellish, and sew a manageable portion of the project. I started in July, and it should be done in November.
The wreath project fits nicely in a small totebag, along with scissors and a plastic container for the sequins and beads. Contrary to the instructions, which advise keeping the different colors of sequins separate, I put them all together into the container. The day I can’t pick out a green sequin from the container is the day I need to quit sewing felt kits.
I like being able to carry the project along, like I did a couple of Sundays ago. While waiting for my daughter, I lunched at Subway, ate a delicious sandwich, eavesdropped on conversations, and embroidered holly leaves. It’s amazing what you can get done between bites. A very pleasant time was had by me.
Here are the first four weeks’ work:
Week one.
Week two.
Week three.
Week four.
For more frequent updates, follow me on Instagram @suzannthompson.
Red Vases with Crocheted Flowers
This is Red Vases, my latest crocheted flower wall hanging.
How many flowers and leaves from Crochet Bouquet and Crochet Garden can you spot? Many are the samples that appeared in the books. I’m glad to finally find a place for them.
My friend Peggy suggested adding beads to the Bluebells from Crochet Garden. What a great idea!
Read more about the making of Red Vases at Suzann’s TextileFusion (update 2024: now the TextileFusion blog), beginning, middle, and finished.
What are you doing with your crocheted flowers?
Red Vases Complete
Four a day flower sewing worked well for Firewheel Meadow, so I started with that regimen until a more urgent project distracted me.
While appliqueing flowers (not my absolute favorite job in a wall hanging), I listened to an audiobook. Listening helps me stay focused, because I really want to hear the next chapter and so I have to keep on sewing. The book was The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
At last, all the flowers were sewn in place. My friend Peggy said, “Those bluebells need something. How about beads?” Again, a different perspective helped. I added the beads.
The wall hanging rejected all but a few of my attempts to add buttons. A Gail Hughes green button nestled comfortably among leaves, a button I made was a good flower center. But mostly, the buttons were mostly too showy and detracted from the flowers.
Okay, so….less showy buttons?
Yes!! I hid small tan buttons among the flowers, adding texture and interest, without drawing too much attention.
Red Vases is finished, and it will make its debut at the Town and Country Quilt Guild Show in October.
Peggy said, “It will win a ribbon.” That would be nice!
Tell Me About Your Doilies!
I’m collecting photos of doilies and stories about them and the people who made them for an exhibit I’m doing next year at the Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council, River North Gallery, in Stephenville, Texas (and beyond, I hope!).
Please join me in celebrating doilies by sharing the stories of doilies in your collection. Maybe you make doilies, or maybe your ancestors made them. Whichever it is, other people will love to read about it.
To learn how you can join in this project, go to Doily Heritage Project information.
See a sample doily story here. www.textilefusion.com/DoilySamplePoster.pdf
The doily shown here was crocheted by my grandmother, Charles Etta Dunlap Thompson. I never met her, but my dad told me she found time to crochet and quilt, even when she was taking care of a household of nine.
By the time she made this doily, my dad and my Aunt Sue may have been the only children left at home. The pattern was published in 1949, when they still would have been in high school.
Finding the publication date was a job for the Doily Detective (me). First I searched “daisy doily crochet pattern.” This returned lots of beautiful doilies, but not this one.
Well…the flowers might be sunflowers, I thought. A search of “sunflower doily crochet” turned up another batch of lovely pieces and hey! There was an image similar to my grandmother’s doily!
A few more clicks took me to a site that offers free vintage crochet patterns. That’s where I learned this doily is called the Black-Eyed Susan Doily.
I searched Ravelry, an online knitting and crochet community, for the Black-Eyed Susan Doily, and found it was published in January 1949 in Coats & Clark O. N. T. #258 Floral Doilies leaflet (pattern #D-207). The pattern also appeared in a leaflet called Floral Doilies for Crocheting.
Like quilts, doilies are an important part of our heritage. Quilts have been studied and written about extensively, but doilies have not. Let’s do something about this!
Flower Arranging for Red Vases
When I’m arranging embellishments for a wall hanging, I really like to get other peoples’ input. It helps me see things from a different perspective.
In the past, my daughters helped me out (and here, too). In April, participants in the International Quilt Festival (Chicago) Open Studios event arranged and rearranged flowers for Red Vases. We discussed the merits of different color combinations, flower shapes, and number of flowers.
Here are a few options we came up with:
Back at home, I consulted these photos while making the final arrangement for Red Vases, and this is it:
Wait! On second thought, this became the really, really final arrangement.
Now to sew all those flowers in place.
Mama Lion Roars Again
Mama Lion, which debuted in a big way last year on World Lion Day, was featured during June 2016 at the Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery, as part of the Animals Art Exhibition, Special Merit Award Category.
I’m pleased to share (or show off, if you want to be truly accurate) the ribbon and certificate I received for having one of my wall hangings in the show.
See Mama Lion in the Animals exhibit at https://www.lightspacetime.com/animals-2016-art-exhibition-special-merit-kr-thru-z/.
You can also see a slide presentation of the show at YouTube (Mama Lion is at 10:30).
Light Space Time encourages entries of all artistic media, but few textile works are shown among the many painted or drawn entries. I can only guess that this is because few fiber artists enter their work. So Fiber Artists, please enter! Light Space & Time posts a new show every month AND the site provides a lot of information for artists who want to show their work to its best advantage.