Easy Crochet Stocking Ornament

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A couple of weeks ago, while searching for a crochet pattern, I unearthed a hand written pattern dated Christmas 2000 with a note “adapted from an ornament on Mom and Dad’s tree.”

I had a vague memory of what the ornament was, but decided to pull out some yarn and work it up.

As you do!

This makes a 5-sided Granny Square, which is then folded in half to create a stocking. It’s SUPER EASY and only takes a teeny tiny bit of yarn.

I will not take credit for the original pattern but will share my reverse-engineered version.

Free Printable PDF or Get it on Craftsy (also free!)

Add it to your Ravelry queue:

You will need:

H hook
small amount of worsted weight yarn

I made mine from worsted yarn, but because gauge isn’t so important here, you could use another weight and a smaller hook and it would work just fine.

Start: Ch 4, sl st to form ring (sorry, no picture for this step!)

Row 1: Ch 3, 2 dc, ch 2. [3 dc, ch 2] 4 times. sl st to top of ch 3 to join.

Row 2*: Sl st to next corner. ch 3, 2 dc, ch 2, 3 dc, ch 1. [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc, ch 1] in each corner. sl st to top of ch 3 to join.

Row 3: Sl st to next corner. ch 3, 2 dc, ch 2, 3 dc, ch 1. [(3 dc, ch 1 in ch space) (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in corner), ch 1] around. sl st to top of ch 3 to join.

Joining**: Sl st to corner then fold in half, wrong sides together.

Joining, continued: This is the toe of the stocking. Making sure the two sides line up (spaces, corners, etc), 2 sc in the first stitch and 1 sc in each stitch and sp up the side, 3 sc in corner (heel).

Hanging chain: Ch 15, sl st in sc at start of ch. Finish off. Embellish as desired!

*For a smaller ornament, finish off after row 2.

**If you’d prefer, you can also whipstitch the sides together.

For added variety, make each round in a different color, add pompoms, bells or buttons for even more cuteness!

Two of these cuties together. Love!

I love to see your Sewhooked projects…and there’s a flickr group for that!

A picture of my cat Marie, just because.

Paper Piecing Vintage: Sign-ups start TOMORROW!!

Be sure to comment on this post for a chance win a free copy of the January pattern!

Did you miss Crafting The Holidays? I posted lots of places you can my crafty wares (both free and for sale!) online.

Don’t forget to shop with small businesses and independent artists for the holiday season: Use coupon SHOPSMALL now through Dec. 15 in my Etsy Shop for 15% off your total purchase!

See you tomorrow with TTMT and Paper Piecing Vintage sign ups!

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Featured Pattern: Tree Trimming, $8 on Craftsy!

Crafting The Holidays

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It’s officially the day after Thanksgiving here in the U.S.!

The leftovers are in the fridge and the countdown to gift giving for many people has begun.

Black Friday? Nah, I don’t do that. I advocate a Handmade Holiday season!

Want to shop handmade? Etsy is a great place to start. There are loads of talented crafters, makers and artisans selling their wares.

You can even find a few goodies made by yours truly. I’ve got quilted items I made myself, magazines my patterns have been featured in and I’m regularly adding scrap bags of fabric from my own stash that are perfect for paper piecing (for a limited time, of course…even Tribbles stop breeding eventually!).

Here are a couple of the goodies currently in my Etsy shop:

Sweet Skating Sue is just $19.99 and comes ready to hang.
OR you can make her yourself for free.
Never paper pieced? This $3 tutorial includes complete instructions and the pattern to make Sweet Skating Sue yourself!

Fairy Tale Femmes + In A Castle, $99.95
This sweet quilt is 30″ x 37″ and come ready to display or snuggle. Includes a sleeve for hanging.
OR You can buy the Fairy Tale Femmes and In A Castle patterns and make your own!

Find more ready-to-gift items right here in my Etsy shop!

Still have plans for making lots of gifts but aren’t sure where to start? Check out all the awesome projects and patterns here on Sewhooked and my fandom website, Fandom in Stitches!

Free Quilt Patterns

Tutorials and More (this page is undergoing an update, so it’s a little crazy over there!

Yarn (mostly crochet) patterns

By popular demand, all of my Harry Potter patterns are now back on Sewhooked! The people have spoken and I listen. 😉

For more fandomy goodness, including even more Harry Potter, be sure to visit Fandom In Stitches. You’ll find designs by myself that are not here on Sewhooked and lots of awesomesauce stuff from many other talents designers.

Many of my Sewhooked patterns and a few of my tutorials are now available on Craftsy for easy access! One of my goals for 2014 is to get ALL of my patterns and tutorials, both free and for sale added to Craftsy so you will always have an easy way to find them!

Go straight to the Sewhooked goodies on Craftsy!

Want to learn something new and WOW your friends and family with your awesome craft-ability? All Craftsy classes are on sale for $19.99 or less. Woo-hoo! Remember, the super cool thing about Craftsy classes is that once you buy a class (and remember, some of them are FREE), it’s yours forever. Watch any time, day or night, as many times as you like. Cool, huh?!

Do you sell your handmade goodies? Share a link to your shop in comments and I’ll put together and epic post next week to share with all my readers!

Paper Piecing Vintage: Sign-ups start December 3!

Make this one for yourself or as a gift and have it done by the end of 2014!

Coming January to Fandom In Stitches!

Only two more days! Remember, I’m donating $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November! You’ve got until Saturday to buy your copy and help with a great cause!

That’s it for me for today! I have a full day of spending time with my family and enjoying the heck out of having my daughter home from college to look forward to. 😀

Happy crafting,

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Featured Pattern: Tree Trimming, $8 on Craftsy!

Blog Hop Winner!

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Turkey Talk on Craftsy

On this day before Thanksgiving here in the U.S., I’m thrilled to announce the winner of my Blog Hop Party Giveaway!

You all answered the question of your favorite quilting technique. Your comments, as usual, were a blast to read! Mine is paper piecing, but you already knew that. 😉

There were 99 commenters at the time of the drawing, and as I usually do, I used the Random Number Generator over on random.org.

I sure was surprised at the results:

Congratulations to Jan Jones, commenter number one! Jan, you should have already received my email on how to collect your prize.

Blog Hop Party Giveaway, Nov 2013

Jan won the following:

Turkey Talk Pattern
Two Little Hooters Pattern
Poppies From The Past Pattern
Holly Jolly Pattern
Three Sewhooked buttons

Fall Placemat

Did you miss the blog hop post? Be sure to stop by for this fun, free project!

Paper Piecing Vintage: Sign-ups start December 3!

Coming January to Fandom In Stitches!

Time is running out! I’m donating $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November! You’ve got until Saturday to buy your copy and help with a great cause!

If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I hope it’s a safe and happy holiday filled with friends, food and fun.

Until next time,

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Featured Pattern: Tree Trimming, $8 on Craftsy!

TTMT #238 – No, Seriously, Talk to Me!

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Blog Hop post…last chance to comment to win and get the coupon for my Etsy shop!
Harry Potter Alphabet, free on Fandom In Stitches
Paper Piecing Vintage – sign ups begin next week!
As You Wish – we start in January!
101 Easy Scrap Crochet Projects

Paper Piecing Vintage! Sign-ups for half price beginning next week!

Coming January to Fandom In Stitches!

Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

Don’t miss my Blog Hop Party post with a fun giveaway, a free project and a special, limited time coupon for blog hoppers!

Movember is almost over, but there’s still time to buy Mustachio! Remember, I’m donating $1 to Movember for each pattern set sold during November!

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Featured Pattern: Tree Trimming, $8 on Craftsy!

Paper Piecing Vintage – Coming in 2014!

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Let’s face it, when I get ready to sew, paper piecing is what I love best.

There’s this other thing, too: I’ve always wanted to make a vintage-inspired sampler quilt.

After years of contemplating the idea of paper piecing vintage blocks and considering what blocks I personally would most like to include in a quilt like this, the idea has solidified.

Please join me beginning January 1, 2014

for a very special year-long event:

This will be a for purchase Block of the Month (BOM) through my Craftsy store that includes each month’s block in two pattern sizes: 6″ & 12″.

The entire quilt is designed in two colors with a solid background. Can you make it scrappy? ABSOLUTELY!

If you sign up in December, you will get a super duper special discount, because honestly, I want you to play along. Quilting is more fun when we do it together!

The best part? You only need to sign up once:

It works like this:

Once you’ve paid, you’ll receive a notification from Craftsy to download your pattern.
One the first of each month, I will update Paper Piecing Vintage on Craftsy.
You will receive notification from Craftsy that the updated pattern is available.
Download and print the pattern for each month’s block in the size of your choice.
That’s one payment, one time for the entire 12 month series; that’s 24 patterns total, each of the 12 patterns in two sizes, all for one price.
Any questions? Ask! I’m just a comment away. 😉

‘

Remember, buying a pattern from time to time helps keep my free content free, and I LOVE to share free content!

Sign ups begin December 3!

Do you think you might play along? Let me know in comments before December 3 and I will give two lucky commenters a free copy of the first month’s pattern!

Do you Facebook? Join our spiffy new group for Paper Piecing Vintage and quilt with friends during 2014!

Don’t miss my Blog Hop Party post with a fun giveaway, a free project and a special, limited time coupon for blog hoppers!

Movember is almost over, but there’s still time to buy Mustachio! Remember, I’m donating $1 to Movember for each pattern set sold during November!

Thanks for hopping, I hope you’ll stop by again soon!

Learn to Paper Piece Sweet Skating Sue, just $3 on Craftsy

Blog Hop Party & And Free Fall Goodies

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Welcome to Sewhooked and my post for the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways hosted by The Quilting Gallery!

This is one of my favorite events to participate in! Not only do I get to visit loads of gorgeous and inspiring quilting blogs, but I get to give away free stuff, one of my all-time favorite things to do!

Make sure to read all the way to the end for a free project,

a fun giveaway, a special discount and mustaches!

This year, I’ve worked up this fun seasonal placemat to share with you. It’s EASY peasy.

To create it, you need the following:

1 pumpkin, pieced at 10 1/2″ or 10″ finished (copy the free, 5″ pumpkin pattern below & enlarge at 200%)
2 maple leaves, pieced at 5 1/2″ or 5″ finished (free 5″ pattern link below!)
2 – 5 1/2″ squares of background fabric
2 – 2 1/2″ x 20 1/2″ strips of background fabric (stitch top and bottom)
Piece as shown above to create a 20″ x 14″ placemat. Embellish & quilt as desired.

FREE – 3″, 5″ and 6″ Maple Leaf Paper Pieced Pattern (get it on Craftsy!)

FREE – 3″, 5″ and 6″ Pumpkin Paper Pieced Pattern (get it on Craftsy!)

Feeling ambitious? Add some nine-patches or other 5″ blocks of your choice! This layout also includes a 1″ strip of background fabric between the pumpkin.

For my Blog Hop visitors, I offer this special giveaway:

Just comment below with your favorite technique. Paper piecing? Embroidery? Hand quilting? I wanna know!

On Wednesday, November 27, I’ll announce one winner who receive everything seen here. Can’t wait? Click the link for each pattern in my Craftsy store.

Not only do I share my free and for sale patterns via Craftsy, but I also sell one-of-a-kind handmade items and magazines where I’ve had patterns published in my Etsy shop . Just for you, my Blog Hop visitors, between now and November 26, receive 20% off your total purchase of $8 or more with coupon code QUILTING, only on Etsy!

Proceeds from my online business help off-set my daughter’s college expenses and every single purchase is greatly, greatly appreciated!

For those new around here, I’m donating $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November!

Thanks for hopping, I hope you’ll stop by again soon!

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Learn to Paper Piece Sweet Skating Sue, just $3 on Craftsy

TTMT #237 – Secret Projects

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Ariel’s Blanket (spiffy, updated crochet block pattern)
Check out Fandom In Stitches tomorrow for a LOVEly announcement!
There is lots of new stuff in my ETSY Shop (Use coupon TALKTOMETUESDAY for 10% off your total purchase through Dec. 31!)
Come back Thursday for the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways!
Do you Instagram?
101 Easy Scrap Crochet Projects

Join me later this week for the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways hosted by The Quilting Gallery!

REMINDER! I’ll donate $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November!

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Learn to Paper Piece Sweet Skating Sue, just $3 on Craftsy

Revisiting Ariel

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Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away (when my kids were elementary-aged!), I was commissioned to make a crocheted blanket for a little girl. I was to recreate a blanket her grandmother had made for her and her mom was going to make a donation on my behalf to The Linus Connection.

In the past, I’ve used the expression that her blanket was loved to pieces. That is meant literally. After quite a bit of trial and error, I reverse-engineered the pattern, created a new one, delivered it and she loved it.

Sometime later, and with the family’s permission, I shared the pattern online. This was, oh, maybe 2004, 2005?

The pattern was copied and recopied as I moved from free website to paid website and from website to blog format. Eventually, I offered a printed version, too. I even added the pattern to Ravelry, so the world could share Ariel’s Blanket.

And somewhere in there, something went a bit wrong.

Last week, commenter Michelle got in touch and let me know that something just wasn’t quite right with row 5. Unfortunately, she caught me in the middle of being crazy busy and I just didn’t have time to check it out.

Fortunately, I have Facebook and some of my readers there came to the rescue. With their feedback and a copy of the pattern, I finally had time yesterday to sit down and sort it all out.

So here, for you, is the updated pattern with spiffy new pictures of the block that makes up Ariel’s Blanket.

Queue this pattern on Ravelry!

Printable Pattern

And, because it’s what I do now, you can also get the pattern free on Craftsy!

The original afghan uses Red Heart Baby Sport Pompadour Yarn: small amount blue, yellow, green, peach & pink (approx. 1 – 1½ oz.), 40 ounces white For one square: small amount for center color, approx. 2 oz white).

For the sample block, I used Red Heart Baby Fingering Weight and & F hook. I also changed color on row 10 so you can really see the popcorn stitches. It takes a little more colored yarn in this variation.

PC= Popcorn
Ch 3 counts as DC in PC st
Size “F” Hook
Finished Blanket is approximately 44″ x 54″

Row 1: Starting with center color, Ch 6, join with sl st in first ch st. Ch 1, 12 sc in loop. Join with sl st to first sc.

Row 2: Ch 3, 4 dc in beg sc [drop loop from hook, insert hook in top of first dc, pull loop through to make first PC] ch 4, sk 1 sc, 5 DC in next sc, follow [ ], ch 4 around until you have 6 PC, ch 4, join to top of first PC with sl st.

Row 3: ch 1, sc in same st. 7 dc in ch sp, sc in PC join st around. Join with sl to first sc. (6 “Petals”)

Row 4: ch 1, sc in same st, [ch 5, sc in next sc] around, join with sl to first sc.

Row 5: ch 3, 4 dc in first ch sp. [In next sc: Dc, ch 3, dc. In next ch sp: 4 dc. Dc in sc. In ch sp: 3 dc, ch 3, 3dc] Dc in sc, 4 dc in ch sp. Repeat [ ], join with sl st to top of beg ch 3. Finish off. (This seems very odd, but take your time with it and I promise it works out!)

You should now have a square with equal sides, 9 stitches per side with a ch 3 in each corner.

Row 6: Join white with sl st in any corner sp. Ch 3, 2 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in same corner space. Ch 1. {[Dc in each of the next 3 dc. Ch 1] Repeat [] to corner space. In next corner space, 3 dc ch 3, 3 dc,ch 1}, Repeat {} around. Join with sl st at beg ch 3.

You should now have 5 clusters of 3 dc with a chain sp between on each side with ch 3 in each corner.

Row 7 & 8: Sl st to corner sp ch 3, 2 dc, ch 3, 3 dc. {3 dc in ch sp to next corner. 3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in corner}. Repeat {} around. Join with sl st at the top of beg ch 3.

Row 9: (do not sl st to corner) ch 3 (counts as first dc), 1 dc in each dc to corner. {[3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in corner], 1 dc in each dc to corner}. Repeat {} around. Join with sl st at the top of beg ch 3.
(for added variety, row 10 can also be in a contrasting color)

Row 10: ch 3, PC in next dc, 1 dc, PC, 1 dc, (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in all corners), 1 DC, pc, 1 dc, PC around. Join with sl st at the top of beg ch 3. (13 PC per side)

Row 11: ch 3, DC in each st around, (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc in all corners). Join with sl st at the top of beg ch 3.

Row 12: ch 1, sc in each st around, 3 sc in corners. Finish off.

FOR BLANKET PATTERN
Make 20 squares. Join squares 4×5 either with whip st or sc. Add border.

Border:

ch 3 counts as first stitch
cluster = 3 dc, ch 2, sc in 1st ch, 3 dc
Here, your cluster is 3 double crochets with 2 chain stitches, then you single crochet in the first chain stitch you just made. This makes a point in the middle of the cluster. You then make 3 more double crochets to finish the cluster.

Join white in second sc of corner, ch 3, 2 dc, ch 2, sc in first ch, 3 dc, skip 1 sc, sc in next ch, (cluster, sk 1 sc, sc in next ch, cluster), around.

Each square should have 6 clusters, not counting corner clusters.

Join with sl st, finish off, weave in ends.

Center block from the front. Row 5 is the last colored row before the color changes to white.

Center block from the back.

Popcorn border.

Join me later this week for the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways hosted by The Quilting Gallery!

REMINDER! I’ll donate $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November!

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Learn to Paper Piece Sweet Skating Sue, just $3 on Craftsy

An Anniversary

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The Linus Banner & Me in 2006

Yesterday’s Linus Connection meeting was just lovely. You should stop by and see some of the GORGEOUS show & tell photos.

This meeting was a little extra special for me because it was my 11th anniversary as a Linus volunteer.

I didn’t make a thing of it while I was there, but I thought about it all day.

Eleven years ago, I remember walking into my first meeting with my heart pounding. Another mom, who was to become my good friend, invited me after she found out that I crocheted.

The first blanket I donated, November 2002.

We’d lived in Austin almost four years at the time and I still didn’t feel really connected. Believe it or not, I was shy and more than a bit introverted and I was so nervous to walk in that first day because I had no idea what to expect. I was welcomed with open arms, despite obviously being the youngest volunteer there.

By March the next year, I’d taken over the website. Six months after that, I was nominated to be a board member and had started learning to quilt. Linus became a very important part of my life, one that I could not now imagine living without. My longest local friendships all started at Linus meetings. Sucking up that courage to walk into that first meeting literally changed my life and I am a better person for it.

2011, Stars for Linus is born

In December 2010, I participated in The Project for Awesome and talked about The Linus Connection

I’ve chronicled my years at Linus through photography. The following are Flickr albums for each year I’ve volunteered. Most of the years before 2010 are pictures of my blankets. Eventually, I invited the online community to contribute to my favorite charity and began sharing photos of the blankets and quilt blocks you all shared, too. I’ve lost count of how many blankets I’ve personally donated since those first few!

This is not by any stretch of imagination all the photos I’ve taken for Linus. With a few exceptions, every photo taken and posted on the Linus website since 2002 was taken by me!

Or, you can click to see an epic mishmash of Linus photos I’ve taken!

At each month’s meeting, I help sort blankets for distribution. We use a lot of IKEA bags for this!

The Linus Heart, a free paper pieced pattern by yours truly.

Thank you for indulging me as I think back over my years with Linus. There aren’t enough words to explain how important this organization is to me. Being part of this extraordinary group of volunteers has given me more by far than I could have ever anticipated.

Do you volunteer? I’d love to hear about it in comments!

Join me later this week for the Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways hosted by The Quilting Gallery!

REMINDER! I’ll donate $1 to Movember for every Mustachio! pattern set sold during November!

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Learn to Paper Piece Sweet Skating Sue, just $3 on Craftsy

Lots of Linus!

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I have two IKEA bags stuffed with donations for The Linus Connection thanks to many wonderful online friends and participants in Stars for Linus.

Because I can’t keep the quilty goodness to myself, how about some fabulous Friday fiber before I turn all these gorgeous blankets in for distribution tomorrow?