Free Crochet Pasque Flower Pattern
Many pairs of eyeballs looked at Crochet Garden before it went to press. All off them missed the fact that the lovely Pasque Flower was on the cover (the yellow flower, second from right), and on the copyright page (purple and yellow) but not in the book!
It’s embarrassing, but what can we do?
We can give you the pattern free!
Pasque flowers look delicate with their pretty petals and oversized centers, but they are hardy enough to grow in mountainous places.
Skill Level: Easy
Materials and Tools
- 2 or 3 colors of yarn of similar weight: yellow for center (A), one or two shades of purple or yellow (B and C); eyelash yarn is a good alternative for the flower center
- Hook: Appropriate size hook to achieve a firm gauge with selected yarn
- Tapestry needle
For this flower we used
Cascade 220 Wool (100% Peruvian Highland wool; 3.5oz/100g = 220yd/200m): (A) color Yellow #2439, (B) and (C) color violet #8888, medium weight yarn; <4>
Gauge Circle for Cascade 220 (see page 11 of Crochet Garden) = 1 1/8″/2.9cm worked on 4.00mm (size G-6 U.S.) hook
Finished Measurements using Cascade 220: 4 7/8″/12cm
Special Abbreviations
- Htr (half treble crochet): Yo 2 times, insert hook in stitch and draw up a loop (4 loops on hook), yo and draw through 2 loops (3 loops on hook), yo and draw through 3 loops (1 loop left on hook).
- Long Picot: Ch 3, hdc in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in remaining ch.
Instructions
Flower Center:
With A, ch 4, join with sl st in first ch to form a ring.
- Rnd 1: Ch 1, 6 sc in ring, join with sl st to first sc of rnd.
- Rnd 2: Working in FL only , (sl st in next st, Long Picot) 6 times.
- Rnd 3: Working in BL of rnd 1 only, sl st in next st, *Long Picot, sl st in same st of Rnd 1; (Long Picot, sl st in next st of Rnd 1) twice; rep from * once, Long Picot, sl st in same st of Rnd 1, Long Picot, sl st in next st of Rnd 1, Long Picot, join with sl st in base of st at beg of rnd–9 picots. Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing.
Alternative Flower Center:
With eyelash yarn, ch 4 and join with sl st in first ch to form a ring. Ch 1 and fill the ring with sc OR ch 2 and fill the ring with hdc, whichever works best with your flower. Join to beg of rnd with sl st. Fasten off, leaving a long tail for sewing.
Flower:
With B, ch 4, join with sl st in first ch to form a ring.
- Rnd 1: Ch 5 (counts as 1 dc and ch-2 sp), working in ring (dc, ch 2) 5 times, join with sl st to 3rd ch of ch-5 at beg of rnd.
- Rnd 2: *Sl st in next ch-2 sp, ch 3, (3 dc, ch 3, sl st) in same ch-2 sp; rep from * 5 times—6 petals.
- Rnd 3: Sl st in each st of ch-3 at beg of rnd 2; *ch 3, dc in first dc, (2 htr) in next dc, dc in next dc, ch 3, sl st in top st of ch-3 of row below, ch 1, sl st in top st of the ch-3 at beg of the next petal; rep from * 5 times. Fasten off and weave in ends before continuing to rnd 4.
- Rnd 4: Join with B or C as desired. Hold yarn at WS of flower (underneath it), insert hook in first ch at the base of any petal, yo and pull a loop through to the RS of work (first sl st complete). *Sl st in each of the rem 5 ch up the side of the petal (1 ch will have a st in it already, so do your best). Across the top of the petal, (sc, hdc) in first st, (dc, htr) in 2nd st, ch 2, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, (htr, dc) in next st, (hdc, sc) in next st, sl st in each of the 6 ch down the side of the petal (1 ch will already have a st in it), sl st in ch-2 sp of rnd 1, sl st around the next dc of rnd 1, sl st in first ch at base of the next petal; rep from * 4 times. Rep from * once more, except end with the sl st around the next dc of rnd 1. Fasten off and needle-join to first sl st of rnd.
Finishing:
Weave in ends (except end for sewing) and block the flower gently. Sew flower center to the middle of the flower on the RS.
Polymer Clay Button Cloth
Polymer clay buttons are so much fun to make! They’re colorful and pretty. They’re machine-washable and dryable. Button-lover that I am, I have enjoyed making these little beauties since the 1980s, which adds up to lots of buttons. How can a person display buttons? A button cloth!
Since there were so many colors of buttons, I needed a colorful button cloth. Borrowing a color-meandering technique from quilter Jinny Beyer, I arranged the hues of the rainbow in different shades and tints.
Using the wonderful Ultimate Sweater Machine, I knitted blocks of color, alternating with cream and white. To join the strips of blocks, I used the join-as-you-knit method. Black and gray run along the long margins of the cloth.
After blocking the knitting, I added quilt batting and fabric backing. Then I quilted it and added binding all around.
It was time to sew buttons onto the cloth! It took a long time to work through my backlog of buttons. After that, whenever I made a new button style or colorway, I sewed a sample onto the cloth right away.
It’s such a fun piece to show. I always take it to my button workshops. People are surprised to learn that all the colors are the colors of the clay—no paint!
Topsy Turvy #2 Crochet Bouquet Along for April 2012
You’re spoiled for choice by the Topsy Turvy #2 flower on pages 95-96 of Crochet Bouquet. You can crochet it small, medium, or large; with or without picots; one way up or the other way up, all in two short pages of instructions.
The shading in Chinese embroidery was part of the inspiration for this design, which is why I crocheted the samples in the book in light, medium, and dark values of the same color. It will look good in other combinations, too, like this yellow-orange-red combination.
I crocheted these samples with Dale of Norway “Falk”washable wool. The Topsy flower has picots and the Turvy flower doesn’t.
In Photo A, you see the beginnings of both flowers: the first row or two of the flower, the stems which are slightly different, and the crocheted round that I used for embellishment. If you sew the flower to the stem at this point, it makes a cute bud.
To make the embellishment, make a loop with yarn, 5 or 6 sc into the yarn ring. Tighten ring to form a circle, cut yarn and needle-join the last st to the first. Weave in ends or use them to sew the embellishment to the flower.
If you like the flower without picots, you simply leave out certain rows, as indicated in the instructions. Photo B shows the picot flower with Row 4 finished, and the plain flower with Row 3 finished (Rows 2 and 4 are skipped). I couldn’t wait to sew the embellishment on the plain flower. You can stop here, if you want a smaller flower.
The calyx (the green spikes that are leftover from the bud of a flower) and the stem are made in one piece. To attach to the Topsy flower, thread the stem through the original chain loop, from front to back. Fold the calyx over, and sew it to the stem, which is coming out of the back of the flower. See Photo C.
To Button or Not To Button?
I had to smile when I read this comment from an Amazon.com reviewer, about Crochet Bouquet.
And why are so many decorated with buttons? No, no, no, no, no.
Truth be told, we are fortunate that there were so relatively few buttons in Crochet Bouquet. I held back on the buttons. I restrained myself. It wasn’t easy. Like I said, we’re lucky there weren’t more.
Why?
Because I love, love, love, love, LOVE buttons! They make me feel rich! They add interest and weight to my designs! They are cool to the touch when you run your fingers through them, and they make a nice, soft, clicking-clattering noise when you pour them out of the button jar. They come in so many varieties, it seems one will never run out of buttony options.
You can see for yourself the buttons that embellish some of the flowers in Crochet Bouquet. (There will be a few button embellishments in my new book, Crochet Garden, too.) Let me show you some of my other buttony creations.
The heart wall hanging above is my “Newspaper Valentine.”(Three guesses as to why it is called that–think back to your childhood.) In addition to the many buttons used as trim and hidden in the background, I created stylized flowers on the heart using black and white buttons. (Thank you Sharon, for the buttons!) Bandanna designs inspired these button flowers. If I remember correctly, “Newspaper Valentine” has over 200 buttons on it.
My friend Kipling McFarland and I are working on a project together, and this is one of the designs I made for it. It’s called “Money Tree.” Remember how I said that buttons make me feel rich?
The black buttons on the ladybug wall hanging were meant to echo the spots on a ladybug’s carapace. I think there are nearly 90 buttons on this wall hanging, and I was very disappointed at the time that the level of buttons in our button jar didn’t seem to be affected by the loss.
I make buttons, too. This is the button cloth I created to take to my button workshops. It is knitted on my trusty Ultimate Sweater Machine, added to batting and a fabric backing, and machine-quilted. I sewed a sample of each different kind of polymer clay button I have made onto the button cloth.
There’s oh, so much more. If you are interested, you can find more buttony projects throughout my blog and website.
I’ll close with this happy thought: I can love buttons and use them on everything, and you can choose
- to cover everything with buttons, like me (yes, yes, yes, yes, yes),
- to use a moderate number of buttons (yes, yes, maybe, no, no),
- to use buttons sparingly (yes, maybe, no, no, no),
- or never to use buttons at all (no, no, no, no, no).
It’s a win-win situation!
Corner Buttoned and Bound
What do you think of this neat, mitered corner?
My quilting friend Peggy showed me how to sew a continuous binding on a quilt, which miters on the topside and underside of each corner. Thanks, Peggy!
This is my first try, and it’s much quicker than my old binding method. It went pretty well, though I may not show you every single corner up close and personal. Peggy prefers a narrow binding, but I like mine to be wide enough to frame the wall hanging.
After sewing on, taking off, rearranging, and resewing several motifs, the lower right corner of my Valentine quilt may be finished.
Green Socks and Blue Bonnets
Sock season is almost at an end in our part of Texas. It was cool enough this morning for me to wear my latest handmade pair while out running errands and grocery shopping with my mom. After that, I had to change to flip-flops.
The yarn is Coats & Clark’s Heart and Sole with Aloe. It’s lovely to knit and seems to speed my knitting along. It also feels very nice on my feet. Maybe the aloe is responsible. The colorway: Green Envy. Eva has already succumbed to the green envy. She ordered a pair of her very own for her next birthday.
The bluebonnets are in our front yard. It’s such a pleasure to go outside these days.
Flip Books for Easier Pattern Reading
Crocheters! Let’s borrow a trick that knitters have been using for years. When column after column of printed instructions overwhelm them (lace patterns are often the worst), knitters copy the pattern onto index cards: one row to one index card.
They punch the corner of each card, and hold them all together with a binding ring or a loop of yarn.
You can do this with crochet instructions, too. As you copy the pattern, break the row up into manageable chunks. For instance, write any instructions in parentheses on a line by themselves.
You’ll be amazed at how much better you understand a pattern after you write it out.
As you crochet, look only at the one card that has instructions for the row or round you are working on. As soon as you’re done with that row, go to the next card.
In the photo, I’m in the middle of crocheting the Pomegranate pattern from Crochet Garden. It is not difficult to crochet, but its instructions are long. With a single row written on each index card, I can focus on that one little bit of the pattern.
The paperclip is to keep my place in the pattern, since I couldn’t finish the motif all in one sitting.
Daughters’ Advice Proves Invaluable
Ella’s hand hovered over a pile of buttons, ready to sort. From Eva’s position in the armchair, she could oversee our work while also texting, facebooking, and doing homework. A box of crocheted flowers stood nearby. It was time to embellish the quilt.
Choosing embellishment is my favorite part of making any wallhanging, because of the sheer potential and unpredictability. I also love having my daughters’ advice, because they help me see things differently.
For instance, I imagined this Valentine’s quilt as a dream in pink, red, and cream. Then I found the applique daisies inherited from my mother-in-law. They had yellow centers.
“Yellow?!” I thought at first. A few minutes later, I was thinking, “Hmm. Yellow. Ah, yes.”
We took great care selecting yellow buttons. Some were way too bright, some were too big (but tucking them under the edge of a flower reduced their impact), a few were just right. We added crocheted flowers with yellow in them. Suddenly the quilt took on a spring-like, gardenish feel, unlike the straight-up Valentine-colors theme I had envisioned.
Ella supplied me with many pink and light pink buttons to surround the heart, and red and purplish buttons to hide in the background. She found every single red sparkly button in the pile.
“Mom, it needs some green,” said Eva from on high.
Ella got busy finding green buttons and I looked for crocheted leaves.
The flowers, leaves, and buttons cascaded from top left to lower right, looking like a pretty garland. Yes, they were pretty, but kind of dull, just slashing through at an angle like that.
Ella, inspired by all the buttons, ran off to find some fabric to make a quilt of her own. I searched for an element to counterbalance the diagonal garland, rushing across the face of the quilt.
“Eva, what do you think of this pomagranate?” I asked.
“It sure is big,” she said.
I took it off. “Well, when you take the pomegranate away, the quilt looks all empty and sad,” said Eva.
I put it back on. “That’s better,” said Eva.
A Quilting Ladies’ Valentine Project
This year, Valentine’s Day fell on Tuesday, which is the day our weekly quilting/crafting group meets. To celebrate, we were all to make a small quilt, using embellishments or other supplies from everyone in the group.
One member made fabric flowers for everyone, others shared crafty charms and Valentine buttons, and two ladies gave us all little quilted hearts. My contribution was a small collection of beads, buttons, and a bit of ribbon for each member of the group.
I’m making my usual TextileFusion-style quilt. The first step was to knit some fabric for the quilt top. A few hours at my trusty Ultimate Sweater Machine resulted in this length of knitted fabric in pinks, creams, and reds. All the yarn is from stash—love that!!
The first photo shows the fabric already stabilized with fusible interfacing. Then I cut it up and pinned the pieces on to a fabric foundation. Since the foundation fabric doesn’t show in the finished piece, I used some leftover fabric that has been lying around for years.
Here it is, all pinned and ready to sew.
I zig-zagged between each and every cut edge, sometimes twice. The zig catches the edge of one cut piece, and the zag catches the edge of the piece next to the first cut piece. At the same time, they are both attached to the foundation fabric.
It takes a while, and it’s kind of messy because the cut knitting sheds little bits of yarn. Finally, all the pieces were attached to each other and the foundation. I added rickrack to the quilt top.
Next post about this will be my favorite part of the process: choosing embellishments!
Kids have Great Ideas
Every student in my daughter Ella’s class decorated a small box for collecting Valentine’s Day cards and treats. Ella painted a box, inside and out. Then she said, “Mom, may I use some of your flowers?”
Of course she might use some of my flowers! She chose a pink mohair “Large Fancy Five,” an angora “Oval Center Rose,” a cotton “Small Fancy Five,” and a “Petal Arches” flower—all from Crochet Bouquet. She glued them to the box flaps for a lovely finishing touch.
Kids can think of all kinds of cute things to do with crocheted flowers. So if you have been crocheting flowers for fun and challenge, but don’t quite know what you’re going to use them for, give them to a child. They’ll know what to do.
I have to share this, too. Ella made it for a friend’s birthday. I thought it was a dragonfly, but Ella told me it is a flower. She made it all by herself. I’m so proud of my crafty daughters!