Lazy Sunday

A nice lazy day here at Teacup Lane crocheting on my throw, "pink delight". 

   

Source:  Pinerest - Susan Branch

How about you?

Source:  Pinerest - Susan Branch

Hope you are having a lovely day too!

BUNCO Party Time Over

Whew...I lived through hosting BUNCO this week!  

I managed to declutter (...why can't I keep it this way all the time?), clean, decorate and prepare the food and drinks in time.

In fact I was able to sit down and watch TV the night before BUNCO.

That's a first! 

Crock Pots ready for the appetizers!

For the first time I catered some of the food.  

I'm so glad I did.  

I ordered sirloin tips, chicken bites, a cheese tray, a cracker tray and an assortment of mini cupcakes and cheesecakes for dessert.  

The food came from a newly opened local meat and grocery store called "The House of Meat". 

They were great to work with and the food was delicious!

Cheese tray out.

Just in case I didn't have enough dessert, I baked cupcake brownies in muffin and mini tins and frosted them with whipped cream cheese frosting with green and white sprinkles added.

I knew Hubby would always eat the frosted brownies.

  

Desserts set up in the Dining Room.

That wasn't enough food so I also prepared a veggie tray and two fruit trays.   

I found two dip recipes on Pinerest that looked easy and good to eat.  

One, BLT Dip, was for the veggies and the other, Limeade Fruit Dip for the fruit.

I loved the Limeade Fruit Dip…but next time I would half the recipe (it makes a lot) and make it the day before so it has all night to set up.

I forgot to mention I made "Green Grog" again.

I love this stuff.

I use Vodka instead of Rum.

I don't add it to the mixture…I let the ladies add it to their individual drinks if they wish.

It's festive, delicious and so easy to make and so appropriate for St. Paddy's Day! 

Card tables set up in the Family Room.

The ladies seemed to like everything and I think the night was a success.

 We only played two games of Bunco.  

The ladies wanted to talk more than play the game.  

After dessert we all sat around the dinette table and talked until 11:00 pm!

It was a fun night!

I'll take down my St. Patrick decorations this weekend and put up Spring and Easter decorations. 

I'm so glad you asked (of course you did! Ha!)…my "Pink Delight" throw is coming along nicely.  

I'm working on rounds five and six in Watermelon and Soft Pink. 

These squares are the Refreshing design and are so easy crochet.  

I just need to crochet A. LOT. OF. THEM.

I had to stand on a small foot stool to take this photo.

LOL!    

I'm ready for Spring and I bet you are too!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

"Party with Patrick"
Rainbow's End Mug Rug

We're getting all decorated for St. Patrick's Day here at Teacup Lane. 

Another Patrick Lose's Applique Design

I finished all my sewing, embroidery and appliqué projects. 

My Design using fonts from my TruEmbroidery Software Programs.

Whew...glad that is done.  

Today I'm cleaning.  

And tomorrow.  

Then I will decorate the rooms for Bunco with St. Patrick's Day as the theme.  

Food will be prepared Wednesday.  

I 'm catering some of it.  

First time ever. 

Hope you all have a lovely St. Patrick's Day.

Oh, did I mentioned it snowed here….AGAIN!

White, fluffy stuff everywhere.

It's a bitter sweet day for me because my Mom, who loved celebrating St. Patty's  Day, passed away 24 years today.  

So I'm celebrating for you Mom!  

Miss you & love you!

Pretty in Pink Study

First four rounds almost done on my throw, "Pink Delight".   

I have one more "Framed Flower" to crochet because my first one is slightly smaller in size. 

Then I have six "Nine Patch Granny" squares left to weave in the ends.  

What to do with the fifth round?  

I may use the "Refreshing" square design in either Watermelon or Soft Pink or maybe a combination of both colors for the next round.

I'm not sure how many rounds I will do yet. 

It depends on the size - I want it to be a lap size throw.  

I'm not joining as I go.  

I plan on sewing the squares together at the end and then add an edging.  

I found a tutorial on a new joining method that I may try.  

I'll share that information later if I use it.  

How do you think I'm doing?

I think it's a fairly good imitation of my inspiration Quilt Square.  

I know I should be decluttering and cleaning up our family room in preparation for hosting BUNCO next week.   

But...it's more fun crocheting!

Have a lovely weekend!

Enjoy Life...It's Delicious!

My first try at machine embroidering an article of clothing.

Isn't this a delicious saying! 

I chose my Williams-Sonoma apron as my article of clothing and picked a cute design purchased from the Dakota Collectibles Embroidery Design Collection called, "Cookin' Up Fun".

I have to throw a "Mickey" in!

Just four color changes in this embroidery design…two different shade of pink, red and black threads.

A piece of cake…cupcake that is.

The hardest part was positioning the apron on my hoop.  

The fabric was too thick to hoop so I positioned the apron so it was centered on the hoop (as best as I could) and then I held it in place while I machine basted it down to the stabilizer.  

After that it went smoothly. 

I'm so proud of it.

And I did it!

Little old me.

OK…the Janome MC 12000 did it.

But I assisted!  

I'm hosting our neighbor Bunco gals next week so I'll be busy the next few days decluttering, cleaning, getting the food prepared and decorating in a St. Patrick's Day theme... so I may not post as much.   

Everything takes me longer to do as I age.  

LOL!

Have a wonderful day!

Color Me Pink

Don't you just love yarn ends?

Jan Eaton's Nine Patch Granny #61 square has lots of them.  

I've already sewn in three per finished square.   

Unfortunately each Nine Patch Granny square still has 15 ends to sew in.  

Ick!

Just two Nine Patch Grannies left to crochet. 

I will finish that task before starting again on the Framed Flower #54 squares.  

I have seven more of them to do. 

I'm pleased so far with my "Pink Delight" project.

You can follow along with it on my Ravelry project page (here) and my blog (here).

Source:  Pinerest

The next round after the Nine Patch Grannies will be continuing with the Refreshed squares in Watermelon…or maybe Soft Pink and Watermelon.  

Then I'll see the size of the throw to determine if that is all the rounds I need before adding the border/edging.  

Source:  Pinerest

I may tie all the squares together with gray yarn to show on top.  

Either that or I may slip stitch on the back to be more invisible.

I haven't used gray much in my crocheted throws and I think it goes well with these pink shades.  

Did you know that March is "National Crochet Month"?

Starting "Pink Delight"

Source:  Pinerest

We have a beautiful niece, Maura Jeanne, who loves PINK and is such a delight in our lives.  

I've always wanted to crochet a throw for her.  

I missed her 21st birthday this year. 

So I decided I better get busy so she can have this throw by Christmas. 

I knew I wanted it in PINK for her and thought about crocheting a ripple and then I spied this quilt on Pinerest and fell in love with it's colors and pattern. 

Maybe I could duplicate the quilt's design and pattern "somehow" with yarn.  

Working up my first Refreshing Throw square.

I loved the design on Marianne Forrestal's "Crochet Refreshing Throw". 

Her free pattern link (here). 

It is lacy and lovely in solid shades of Caron Simply Soft  yarn.   

I used colors of "Watermelon" and "Soft Pink" for the center five squares. 

Next I drooled over Jan Eaton's book, "200 Crochet Blocks", looking for designs similar to the quilt's flowered square (third round) and "plus sign" square (fourth round). 

The first flowered pattern sample I tried was "Peony" #87.  

It was stunning but unfortunately became too large and heavy for my envision throw. 

The second design I crocheted was "Framed Flower" #54.  

It was just right flower size wise and was lighter in texture and weight.    

Looks pretty close to the quilt's flowered square!

A pretty good match I think.

I just realized this square is on the cover of Ms. Eaton's book!

I thought Ms. Eaton's "Nine Patch Granny" #61 was cute and similar to the quilt's "plus sign" design square.  

I had to experiment in hook sizes to get the right size of square. 

I worked up samples using hook sizes H, G, F and E.   

I thought "F" would work but it was slightly larger than the Refreshing square.  

I think using an "E" hook size will be just right in size to be consistent with the other squares.  

Actually I used a "F" hook here.

So I'm set to start crocheting the pattern for the first four rounds using these three designs. 

One pattern is free but you will have to buy Ms. Eaton's book to get the other two. 

"F" hook here too.

It won't be fun slip stitching all these little granny squares together but the end result is perfect.  

And "F" hook here too.

So that's it…so far.

What do you think?  

Am I off to a good start?

You can follow along with me on my Ravelry project page too (here).

We got another couple of inches of snow last night.

Bummer…my sewing store cancelled our Embroidery Club for this morning due to the weather.

I'll leave everything packed up just in case the class is rescheduled for this week.

If not, it all goes back down to my craft/sewing room.

I have more sewing to do.

Sad day for me…twenty years ago today my Daddy passed to heaven.

My, how I miss him!