My mother is out of hospital and recuperating at home. In the end I never spent any time with her because she stayed in hospital for a whole week rather than the promised single night and now I have a cold so I can’t be with her. I did spend a happy couple of days with my sister (more on some of our thrifty creativity in her new house in a later post) and made some progress with the masterpiece.
The core of the masterpiece
The central panel is complete, with the nine squares bordered and stitched together, and I am now putting borders around some of the other squares and blocking the ones that need it. The edges are relatively quick to do and the yarn is lovely to work with. I think that stitching them together is working well and allows me some flexibility with manipulating slightly different-sized squares (although the edging reduces the variation).
A fair share square
Plus, there have been a couple of additions from the blogosphere recently. Jill (Nice Piece of Work) has sent a beautiful square from South Africa. She chose to represent the permaculture ethic ‘Fair Share’ in her choice of local, ethical cotton yarn, plus the contribution of the central flower from a friend. You can see what she wrote here. This is my first square from South Africa and makes a lovely addition to the project – thank you Jill.
In addition, Katrina (Crochet Crush), who made the beautiful flowers of Australia square for me, sent a postcard showing the flowers that inspired her choice of colours. This is certainly going into the scrapbook, but I wanted to share it with you here too:
And look how the square captured them:
Flowers of Australia square
Thank you again Katrina, and I promise to e-mail the picture to you now I’m back home.
The Snail of Happiness 
davidprosser
/ February 6, 2014I’m sorry you didn’t get time to spend with your Mum but at least she wasn’t alone and was cared for. The work is looking tremendous so far, the edging work makes a huge difference tying it all in.It’s going to be an absolute treasure when it’s finished.
xxx Hugs Galore xxx
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 6, 2014I think ‘treasure’ is the right word, David… possibly a very big one!
xxx
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nerdinthebrain
/ February 6, 2014So glad your mom (mum) is at home and getting better. 😀 The squares look amazing!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 6, 2014Thank you – on both counts. Really please with how the blanket is looking.
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Andrea
/ February 6, 2014Glad your Mum is home Jan, and hope that your cold disappears quickly so that you can see her.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 6, 2014Thank you… I haven’t had a cold for about 8 years, so it’s quite a shock to be suffering this way!
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wscottling
/ February 6, 2014It sucks that you didn’t get to see your mom, but it’s nice that she’s home.Your blanket is turning out nice so far! Color me impressed.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 6, 2014Ah well, at least I got to spend time with my sister…
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wscottling
/ February 6, 2014Spending time with family is always a good thing. 🙂
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katechiconi
/ February 6, 2014That blackberry coloured border is inspired, it marries everything really well. Poor you, with your cold, but it’s very correct of you to stay away from your mum. The last thing she needs is to be sneezing and coughing with stitches… She has my best wishes for a speedy recovery.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 6, 2014Thank you… on both counts!
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gentlestitches
/ February 7, 2014Thank you so much for taking the time to share the progress. It is such fun to see squares from other bloggy friends! Jill’s square is a delight as is the aussie floral one. That skeleton really came up well! 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ February 7, 2014Yes, I’m please with the skeleton… must get round to digitising the chart (it’s currently just pencil on graph paper) and working out how to sell it on etsy… so much to do!
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Crochet Crush
/ February 7, 2014Wishing you a quick recovery – colds are dreadful aren’t they? Plenty of lemon and garlic (and rest of course). Glad the post card arrived – it was nice to see it matched up alongside the granny square 🙂
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