Happily Hooked Magazine | Parchment Meadow Pillow

Posted in Crochet, Magazine, Pattern Release, Patterns, Stitches by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

So you guys have heard me talk about Happily Hooked Magazine before right? Well if you haven’t heard of it it’s a monthly online US magazine for crocheters filled with patterns, articles, interviews and more PATTERNS!

Issue 36 of Happily Hooked has now hit the e-newstands with 10+ pretty and practical home decor projects, and I’m really thrilled to have a brand spanking new cushion design exclusive to this months magazine.

The Parchment Meadow Cushion is a large 40.5cm x 40.5cm (16 x 16 inch) square cushion patterned with soft, pretty coloured meadow flowers on a plain natural coloured background.

Decorate your bed or couch with this chunky pillow with contrasting crocheted and embroidered motifs. Perfect to mix and match with plain cushions.

I had great fun with this design incorporating 3-D meadow flowers on the textured parchment – and did I say how much I LOVE the texture of this pillow (so did my testers!).

What is very exciting, since the last time I worked with Happily Hooked Magazine, is that they now offer a print + digital version of the magazine where each month you get a printed copy, with patterns from the previous 2 issues!

Check out the Happily Hooked Magazine website for more details about the magazine and how you can subscribe and you can add the pillow pattern to your Favourites and Ravelry Queue here.

Well until next time, happy hooking and keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

13Sep2015

WIP Finished | Ringo Raccoon Pillow by Sincerely Pam

Posted in Crochet, Family, From the Stash, Life, Tah-Dah, Works in Progress by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

Cue Abba’s Slipping Through my Finger and me hiding my tears; Little G started BIG school last week! This is a humongous deal for both of us! Though I’m sure that Little G will take everything in her stride – she’s a happy, sociable child who loves to learn so I’m pretty sure she is going to adore everything about school.

How I feel about it all is a bit different…I’m happy for her, for this next part of her life, she is excited about it and I want her to keep that feeling rather than her dread going each day. However, she’s only four and a half which I know is a normal age but it just seems so young – she looks so tiny in her proper uniform! I gaze around me in bewilderment at times alarmed at the accelerated manner in which we seem to have got to this point. I look at her beautiful little face and see her as a baby; blink my eyes and there she is; long limbed and bouncing around like a colt ready to explore the meadow. As she is my one and only it also feels to me like this is the official end of her ‘baby’ years, the end of Mummy days together on a Friday – the end of an era!! I can’t help but be sad about that – but remaining positive I’ll now have about 5 hours on a Friday to catch up on all things crochet.

The nursery that she’s attended since she was 10 months old has been such a big part of our lives for the last 4 years. It’s been a brilliant place for all of us and Little G has loved every minute that she’s attended there. So I wanted to gift something special; I knew that I wanted it to be fun and, as there’s nothing better than a handmade gift in my eyes, I knew I wanted it to be something I made for them. In the end I decided on a cushion for the Pre-School story corner, Little G loves to read books so it seemed appropriate.

For the pattern I choose Ringo Raccoon Pillow Cover/Bag by Sincerely Pam because it is just SUPER cute! I made the Owl Be Your Buddy Pillow Cover previously for Little G’s bedroom and I loved how it turned out.

This was also one of the special pillows I said I had to do in my WIP confession list so yay another one ticked off the list, 2 down, 8 to go…

Heather x

10Aug2015

HodgePodge Pillow Showdown 2015 – The Results | River Rose Pattern Release

Posted in Afghan Square, Competitions, Crochet, Pattern Release, Sale / Special Offer by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

And so the results are IN!! And the winner of the Pillow Showdown is the most lovely Michelle at From Home with her awesome Classic Lace Bolster Pattern! Huge congratulations to her on her awesome winning design!

I join the line up of the other fabulous runners up and I can now reveal who’s great designs were who’s!

BrandyLynn Designs – Blooming Peony Pillow
Designs by Mamta – Lace Mandala Pillow
Simply Knots – Secret Jewels Pillow Cover
TriflesNTreasures – Teen Dreams Pillow

So did you guess which one was mine? I’ll give you a clue…

Yes my design was the River Rose Pillow!

I had great fun designing this cushion and I am really proud of the way it turned out in the end. I think it is probably one of my favourite designs to date.

At 20 x 20 inches it’s a nice big size to squish into and it looks fab in other colours (which my lovely testers proved!).

And now for the exciting news….DISCOUNT PRICES!!! All the patterns featured in the competition are now available at a discount on Ravelry including mine!

The River Rose Pillow Cover has 50% discount on Ravelry right now for 1 week! Just £1.75 / $2.70. Normal price will be £3.50 / $5.40 no coupon needed: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/river-rose-pillow-cover

Fabulous designer discounts:

Classic Lace Bolster Pattern – is now on sale for $2.50 for 1 week. No code needed. The regular price will be $4: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/classic-lace-bolster
Blooming Peony Pillow – 50% off for 1 week $2.25 no coupon needed: http://www.ravelry.com/patt…/library/blooming-peony-pillow
Lace Mandala Pillow – Price is $2.5. The sale runs for a week: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lace-mandala-pillow
Teen Dreams Pillow – 50% off til Tuesday midnight $2, no coupon needed: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/teen-dreams-pillow
Secret Jewels Pillow Cover – 50% off (1.50) until Monday the 17th at midnight, no coupon needed: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/secret-jewels-pillow

Happy Hooking everyone!

3Aug2015

HodgePodge Pillow Showdown 2015 | #‎HPShowdown2‬

Posted in Competitions, Crochet by Keep Calm and Crochet On UK

Woo hoo this is my 100th blog post and rather fittingly I have an exiting subject to share with you all this evening. I am delighted to say that I was recently invited to take part in the second round of HodgePodge Crochet’s newest showdown competition (you can read all about the 1st showdown here). Six designers were given the challenge of designing a brand new ‘cushion’ (or pillow as folks in the US like to call them) pattern. The cushion itself could be any size, any shape, any stitch and with any yarn…

So do you want to see what everyone came up with? Well I’ll show you but I can’t tell you which one is mine…you have to vote for your favourite (see below for the rules).

Design 1:

Design 2:

Design 3:

Design 4:

Design 5:

Design 6:

Rules of the Competition:

A Pinterest board has been created where all 6 Showdown Designs are pinned: https://www.pinterest.com/TanyaNaser/hodgepodge-crochet-showdown/
A “vote” consists of either “liking” or “repining” a pin, or both. You CAN cast two votes for the same design, and they will all be tallied at the end, but voting for two different designs just cancels out each of your votes, so its recommended to keep your vote to one design only. (You can repin whatever additional designs you like after the competition is done.)
It doesn’t matter where you repin them to, use whatever board you like.
Voting runs from NOW, until Saturday, August 8th, 2015 at 7.00am GMT / midnight PST.
The Winner will be announced Sunday, August 9th sometime in the PM GMT / AM PST

All designs will be available for purchase on Ravelry on Sunday, August 9th