Weekly Update - Morning Glory Afghan Finished

This week I decided to concentrate on the Morning Glory afghan and finally get it done, so I didn't work on any of my other projects.

So, after a week of frantic crocheting (and straining my elbow), here's the Morning Glory afghan, designed by Michele Maks and crocheted by me!

 

 

And now we are so happy, we do the dance of joy!

That makes one project completed toward my goal of using up all of my acrylic yarn.

Since the big box that this project was in is now available, I've gathered all of my leftover acrylic yarn into one place.

While I was going through my stash I discovered that I still had some bulky and novelty acrylic yarn. This got put in the laundry room for my neighbors to take if they want it.

Then there's this mess:

Unfortunately, one of the colors I used in Morning Glory happened to be a bad dye lot and I didn't realize it until I was well into the project. That pile of scraps is what was left after I cut the bad spots out of the yarn and wound the usable bits into balls. This crap got thrown away because life is too short to fight with bad yarn.

So, next week will be back to what passes for normal around here, although I'll probably do more cross stitching and less knitting and crocheting so that I can rest my elbow.

Weekly Update

Crochet:

I finished the first panel of the Morning Glory afghan designed by Michele Maks, except for 1 line of cross stitches which, since they're right on the edge, can't be done until the panel is sewn to the next one.

Swedish Weaving:

I did a tiny bit more on the Feathers To and Fro afghan from Learn to Make Monk’s Cloth Afghans by Marilyn T. Magly.

Cross Stitch:

I did quite a bit on Elements of Nature I, which is adapted from the artwork of Jennifer Pugh.

Weekly Update

Swedish Weaving:

I finally got the last motif done on the first half of the Feathers To and Fro afghan from Learn to Make Monk’s Cloth Afghans by Marilyn T. Magly. Now I'm ready to turn it around and work on the second half.

Quilting:

I sewed the first 3 squares of the 4th row together on Batik Cascade (Batik Go-Round) by Karen Combs.

Cross Stitch:

I made quite a bit of progress this week on Brilliant Butterfly Celebration from The Gold Collection by Dimensions.

Crochet:

For my crochet project, I pulled out the Morning Glory afghan designed by Michele Maks again. You can see what I'd got done last time here.  This week I finished one of the blue flowers, so I now have 12 blue flowers out of the 28 needed, 2 of which have been sewn to the 1st panel, and 2 of which still need the ends woven in.

I also crocheted the first square for the 3rd panel and started a second.

I didn't get my knitting and blackwork projects out yet. I had planned to, but illness and jury duty got in the way. Hopefully I can get started on them this week. Also, I hope to be able to get to the store this week to buy supplies for the finishing project I have in mind.

Bored, Switching Projects

Like most needleworkers, I get bored easily and frequently switch projects or start new projects. Yesterday, I got bored with crocheting so I switched to a cross stitch project.

So far on the Morning Glory afghan designed by Michele Maks I have 12 purple flowers out of the 24 needed for the project (this is the correct number – I made an error in the original post). I also have 11 blue flowers out of 28, one of which needs the ends woven in, plus one that isn’t finished yet.

I’ve completed the embroidery on the 1st panel and have sewn on 3 of the flowers.

I’ve picked up another UFO to work on. It’s the adorable Tree Frog Trio by Royce B. McClure.  Here’s the original illustration that this design is based on: No Evil Frogs.

Here’s what I had done before starting work on it again yesterday.

 

Weekly Update - Morning Glory Afghan

The Morning Glory afghan was designed by Michele Maks.

I finished the crocheting on the 2nd panel this week.

 

I also got some more embroidery done on the 1st panel.

This morning I did 6 purple flowers and 2 blue flowers. As you can see, I still have to weave in the ends on the blue flowers.

Weekly Update - Morning Glory Afghan

Once again, the Morning Glory afghan was designed by Michele Maks.

I got some more crocheting done on the 2nd panel.

My hands got tired while I was crocheting today, so I switched gears and did some embroidery on the first panel.

I have rheumatoid arthritis and for some reason tend to hold my crochet hook in a death grip, so my hands will often start hurting after I’ve been crocheting for a while. If I’m not working on a multiple technique project like this, I’ll crochet for a while and then stop and weave in ends or switch to a knitting or cross stitch project.

UFO - Morning Glory Afghan

After 3 months of cross stitch, I’m ready for a change, so I’m switching to crochet for a bit. I’ve picked up one of my UFOs, the beautiful Morning Glory Afghan by Michele Maks. It was published in the March-April 1991 issue of Annie’s Crochet Newsletter. It measures 65”x78” and consists of crocheting, appliqué, and embroidery, so it’s quite a project.

I’d never kept track of the time spent on my needlework before starting this blog, so I have no idea when I started this project or how long I’ve worked on it. However, here’s what I have done so far.

The afghan consists of 4 panels. Each panel starts with 14 squares which are sewn together to form a strip. Then, one crochets along the edge of the strip.

After the panel is crocheted, it’s embroidered with cross stitches and lazy daisy stitches. I still have some embroidery left to do on the 1st panel.

After the panel is embroidered, then leaves and flowers are crocheted.

Two leaves are sewn to the back of each flower, and the entire unit is then sewn to the panel.

I need 28 blue flowers total for the afghan. I’ve done 8, 2 of which are sewn to leaves.

I need 28 purple flowers total. I’ve done 6, 1 of which is sewn to leaves.

I need 104 leaves. I’ve done 27.

I’ve also started a 2nd panel.

After the panels are completely done, they’re sewn together. Then another strip of squares is made and sewn to the edge of the afghan. Finally, a border is crocheted around the entire piece.

I’ve kept to the original colors for the most part, which is unusual for me. Normally, the first thing I do is change the colors. The only change I’ve made on this piece was to do the background in a light grey rather than the off white called for in the pattern so that it wouldn’t show dirt as easily.