cushion Archives - Lucias Figtree

The PEACHY PETALS BLANKET

Lucia & Francesca / July 23, 2020November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Patterns, Stories

The PEACHY PETALS a new blanket…

After some silence I got a new blanket for you!

The time in lock down has given me the opportunity to reflect on what ‘s really important to me and it has been a time to re-evaluate priorities and to think about resetting goals for the future.

This doesn’t apply just to crochet but also to my life in general.

Crochet has played, without exaggeration, a vital role in these past few months, it has entertained me, distracted and brought some well needed focus.

I crocheted a lot, I made several samples, but mainly I focused on two new blankets.

One is a collaboration project with my friend Tinna Porudottir Porvaldar ( but I will write about all of that in my next entry…) and the other is PEACHY PETALS !!

Over these past months I have been looking into my work and what I like about designing.

And I think I am a bit of an ‘odd ball’ ( no surprise in that…)

I don’t know how other designers work but for me every blanket is a long journey, it takes a lot of energy and time to come up with a concept or something that I think is new or interesting… so you will wonder why do I do it?

Because I love it! I love the excitement of starting something new, I like making samples, choosing and tweaking the motif ,and at the same time my favourite part… picking the colours and fibres.

So the Peachy Petals is the result of all the above and several months of work.

Let’s start from the name.. why Peachy Petals….

‘Petal’ in Scotland is an old fashioned term of endearment, I heard Glen, my daughter Olympia’s boyfriend, calling her petal once, on a car journey, and the combination of the Scottish brogue plus the actual word made me smile ( don’t ask me why, it just did! ) , she is a bit of a petal after all!

And peach is her favourite colour… so there we go, a blanket came in my mind to emulate who Olympia is .. a lovely soft sweet girl that always smiles.

I wanted warm, light suffuse hues to emulate her character hence why the Peachy Petal is very different from my much bolder style!

So could I create something that is not so familiar to me? The answer is yes, as I do love a challenge.

Then came the practicality..how can I create something with tonal and subtle hues that is pleasing and interesting without using a ridiculous amount of different yarns and costing a fortune?

The secret is mixing…

I started with a colour “Blooming Dahlia” or Pantone 15-1520

then I made a mood board of basic tonal palette inspired by interiors .It came apparent that the most important thing to create a well balanced project while using several variations of the same colour.

The aim of this blanket was to use natural fibres and to create an array of tonal suffuse pale hues without using a lot of different colours and making the blanket prohibitively expensive!

I am very aware of the cost impact on my projects and I strive to offer projects that are beautiful but cost effective .

I think the combination of a mercerised cotton like Muskat and the Mohair silk yarn is a fabulous way to achieve the above.

The Mohair works beautifully in combination with the silkiness of the mercerised cotton and create not only subdued variations in colour but also gives a beautiful soft halo to the blanket. and… they work perfectly together, no knots, no tangles.

I have also added to the pattern a bonus version of the blanket ,made by one of my testers , Susan Cox.

Susan sent me this lovely picture of her blanket that she called ‘SPRING PETALS’ .

She made her blanket in 100% cotton too but without Mohair. and she also crocheted a lovely cushion made with a combination of cotton and mohair.Am I not a lucky girl to have such lovely ladies helping me?

My testers Janet and Julie tested the motif and Maggie draw a chart of the motif that I added to the pattern.

The pattern has also all the details on how to use the different yarns and the placements for each of the 96 motifs in the blanket, plus all the stats for Susan’s version. I think it is a lovely variation to the pattern and I hope it will give you the confidence to use this versatile pattern with the colours of your choice.

You can download the pattern either from here or from Raverly

Peachy Petals Blanket- Digital Download

So THANK YOU Susan for sharing your project, and Maggie Bullock for the motif’s chart.

LasT but not least you can get all the yarn for the blanket from the Woolwarehouse just press the icon , they have just started to send yarn internationally again after teh lockdown and the MUSKAT is on sale at 40% less until the end of JULY !!!!

Woolwearhouse MUSKAT LINK

So I hope you will give my new blanket a go !

Happy crocheting,

Lucia

Is it TOO EARLY ????

Lucia & Francesca / October 2, 2018November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Patterns, seasonal pattern

Hello everyone!

You might be wondering what the title of my blog is all about…

it is about, surprise, surprise…COLOURS.

So let’s take a step back and give you a bit of a background… Many of you are probably aware that, as every year, October is the time for the

STYLECRAFT BLOG TOUR!

Back in July, at our summer meeting, we got given two packs of BELLISSIMA yarn to choose from. I loved them both but I decided to opt for the Autumn Leaves ..because somehow the hues reminded me of Christmas!

Then I start to think Gosh is it October too early to talk about Christmas?? probably it is, at least in my book, but I might be forgiven this time as you can decide to make the cushion ANYTIME!

I am not going give you a time or a deadline to download the pattern I decided to leave it free and available so you can enjoy it whenever you feel “Christmassy”

I also made sure that looks pretty both sides! hahhah because, let’s face it, cushions are there to be used and not just to be displayed..so we want the bottom part to be as nice as the front!

I really hope you will like my cushion, it is a quick, cheery, little project, something that you can make it in no time ( the yarn is used two strands together), It is something for your home or to give to a loved one , or something special you can add to a hamper full of Christmas goodies!

I am going to add a Christmas picture of my studio to put you in the mood..:

Please, if you make one, let me see it! Join us on our facebook page: “Crochet with Poppy’s and Lucia’s Figtree”

it is a closed group where we share projects, tips and also you can get discounts for yarn and giveaways https://www.facebook.com/groups/crochet/?hc_ref=ARQTzC0B_0QGNHRJfadJfD7Z-BfC7Nno93j6pXunCuGmaMYRrj4XH3xx8zJhoTiuXHI and spam me with your cushions!!!

The yarn is perfect for the project, it is soft, but has a beautiful stitch definition. which is a perfect base for Cross Stitch.

If you have never attempted cross stitch on a crochet cloth, please give it a go! it is easy, very effective and it will open lots of options for your future projects.

bottom line?

DO TRY my little cushion!

As always there is an opportunity to win a pack of yarn entering this giveaway,

LINK FOR FREE PACK GIVEAWAY!!

share my page and give an opportunity to your friends to try.. and I cannot wait to see all your lovely reindeers !!

as always,

lots of love and thank you for reading my blog.

Lucia xx

HERE IS THE PATTERN!!! PRESS THE LINK!

Reindeers Cushion Download

Beating the January’s blues: a plate of leftovers for a “presto-pronto” quick cushion.

Lucia & Francesca / January 13, 2017November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Patterns, Stories

I always feel the first few weeks after the festive season can be quite a bit of a challenge, cold and dark days ahead, if you are like me in the northern hemisphere, back to work, maybe a depleted bank balance after the festivities or are you overwhelmed by far too ambitious list of ‘new year resolutions’?
If that is the case all you need is ..CROCHET of course!!!
What you want it is a small project: something special to look forward and to concentrate on, something reasonably easy and quick for instant gratification, and if that also put a dent in your stash of leftover yarns it is even better!
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you might have seen a picture of some shriveled colorful little strip ..well that is my first new project of the year!
I thought my kitchen looked quite bare and needed some cheering up after I took down all the Christmas decorations, I needed some bright colors, so I made a new cushion for the sofa.
The cushion took just a few hours in between following Lucy’s Moorland Cal.
I used some leftovers Stylecraft chunky special I had. But any chunky in bright colors will do the job. The colors I used are: petrol/spice/gold/meadow/copper/pomegranate and plum.
The cushion measures 45 cm square.
For every block of color, I used about 28grams of chunky yarn.
The pattern is Margaret Willson’s “Bargello pillow” you can find it on Ravelry, this is the link:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bargello-pillow
I bought just the pillow’s pattern, but all the magazine’s issue looks quite nice too.
Now a few tips:
ONE:
Use a smaller hook from what the yarn recommend; I used instead of a 6,0 a 4,5 hook. My hand is quite loose so just have a try. What you want is a dense, stiff fabric. Doing so will make your pillow less prone to lose its shape with use.
Do not worry if it looks all wrinkled and misshapen, all you need is some steam-blocking! And voila’ you have a lovely, smooth, perfectly shaped square!!
TWO:
The two sides of the cushion are different. That not only optimize the use of your stash but also create an alternative look;
THREE:
Make sure that your cushion pad is BIGGER than your crochet cover!!
My cover is 45 cm square, but I used a 50cm feather’s filled pad from Ikea.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/textiles-rugs/cushions-inner-cushions/fj%C3%A4drar-cushion-pad-off-white-art-80300518/

I like Ikea’s pads because they are cheap, mine was 4 pounds, fluffy but still quite firm and more so they DON’T lose any feathers!!!

Well that is all for today, I hope you like my cushion and I wish you all a lovely weekend
Lucia xxx

ANATOMY OF A BLANKET…OR TWO

Lucia & Francesca / December 9, 2016November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Patterns, Stories

ANATOMY OF A BLANKET…OR TWO

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you might have seen snippets of the two new blankets I made.

Do you know that each blanket tells a unique story? A story about you, about what you like, about materials, journey to the shops, endless rummaging in your stash or afternoons on the laptop looking for a magic shade, they also tell about your love and caring because often they are made as a gift.

So no pressure!

I keep journals of my blankets, some sort of record where I can note down sources, patterns, observations, colour swatches primarily mood boards.

These are a few pages of my journal with the most recent blankets I made; they might look a bit chaotic as they are just meant for me but they can still give you an idea so you can create your own.

You might already keep records of images and virtual mood boards for your projects, but I found the process to make a ‘real’ one very useful as I like to see the shades and patterns in real life.

I start with a few questions:

-Who the blanket is for?

-Time schedule?

-Budget?

The answers to the above will determine, size, material, pattern,

Then comes the mood…

This is my favourite part of making a blanket as it is the creative one! And that is where the journal come indispensable for me because allows me to create different scenarios without committing to a final one.

I start with collecting pictures, images anything that attracts my attention then I select what I like best, and I print them, I also start to narrow down colours ‘s possibilities with pencils, crayons, little bits of paper, Leafs anything that can be glued on a page!

Colours for me are the most important part because you can be an amazing crocheter, or having an amazing pattern but if you mess up your colours, you mess up the all thing.

Colours are also a huge topic and I will get to it in more depth with a few entries I m planning for the new year, with details on COLOURS WHEEL, HUES, SATURATION and VALUE.

It sounds complicated but it is not at all once you get the basic you will be able to make your own combinations easy-peasy.

The fact that colours are so important you can see it in those 2 blankets, both similar size, same pattern, same material, VERY DIFFERENT LOOK and FEEL because of the colours choice.

The bright one is for a colleague of mine that had a baby recently. I know she likes bright strong hues and , I hope, the blanket will reflect her taste and her heritage with loads of red for good luck.

The border is bold and strong n the joining is virtually invisible because what matters is the colours.

The second blanket is for another little girl, this mum loves pastels, muted colours and she has chosen neutral shades for the nursery . so I introduced more traditional baby hues, with a hint of colours to create some interest.

The joining is a flat braid because I like the lacy delicate effect that compliments the border and the colour choice.

Did it helps? I hope so.

Some technical details if you are interested:

For my journals I use a moleskine A4 watercolour folio, landscape, 200 gr paper. Shop around because the price can vary between suppliers. It is perfect size to be transported, has an elastic band so it can keep everything inside, the paper is heavy so you can use watercolours crayon markers, whatever also it holds swatches, bits of yarns and anything you want to stuck down.

I also use double sided tape for the ‘yarny bits’, Glue, pencils, pastels, stickers , buttons anything really.

BRIGHT BLANKET DETAILS:

YARN: STYLECRAFT SPECIAL DK

COLOURS: emperor,petrol,turquoise,meadow,mustard,claret,lipstick,fuchsia purple,shrimp, magenta and clematis.

The border is done in lipstick. The pattern is adjusted from something I found in the internet sorry I have just the print on the journal and a swatch.

PATTERN :

it is the small square from @Catherine Blight’s Demelza CAL

PASTEL VERSION

YARN: STYLECRAFT SPECIAL DK

COLOURS:

Stone, pistachio,saffron,spice,duck egg,apricot

BORDER: Echkman: ‘crochet borders’ n.27

Joining as you go flat braid.

Lucia xx

so where to start?

Lucia & Francesca / November 28, 2016November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Patterns, Stories

After my all singing and dancing introduction, I thought better I start with something easy …
If you follow me on Facebook, you probably have seen my round cushions that I made a few months ago. A lovely lady called Pamela asked me the other day how I did my blue denim one and if I had the pattern for it.
It is very simple to make, and it is 2 flat round circles, joined with some lovely little flowers and leafs as decorations.
The pattern I followed for the circle can be found on several blogs, and books but I like Lucy,s one at @attic 24: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/crocheting-a-flat-circle.html there is a photo tutorial too.

another blog you might want to have a look to it , if already you are not familiar with is Sandra @cherryheart http://sandra-cherryheart.blogspot.co.uk/

http://sandra-cherryheart.blogspot.co.uk/ she posted two new cushions just yesterday!
The yarn I used it is STYLECRAFT SPECIAL DK in denim. My circle is 22 rounds wide, and it measures 45cm (18in) in diameter.
I used a 3.5 hook because I wanted a dense fabric, so please do a little swatch with your yarn of choice, so you are happy with the results.

FLOWERS….
There are hundreds of amazing flowers out there to be inspired with! You can source some on the internet on Pinterest, just type crochet flower, on the search engine, or you might have some books in your library.

I love books because I love something tangible to hold, but they can be pricey, so I buy mine mostly second hand from Amazon, charity shops, bargain bookshops, TK Maxx.., etc. so when you go shopping for other goods spare a moment to find a hidden-gem! Another source for free publications it is Danish electronic publishing platform for magazines, catalogues, and newspapers called
@ISSUU
https://issuu.com/
ISSUU has a tool, CLIP, that allows readers to take a snapshot of any part of a publication and share that on social media or through email.
Under’crochet’ you can find lots of magazines from around the world, books and articles. It is especially useful if you, like me, love Japanese crochet books.
One note about Issuu, I read some controversy about infringing copyrights, so if you are unsure about it, please accept my apologies, as, I assume, having over 100 million active readers all over the world, it is a legit site.
Back to Japanese books, I love them as they are made with lots of care, they have lovely pictures and great diagrams, the only downside is the price especially when you add the delivery costs to the UK. So I always have a look on Issuu first, and check if they got a digital version of it, and if I like it I might buy it otherwise I just pick a couple of patterns that might be useful.
If you want to buy Japanese crochet books and are in the UK the best platform it is Etsy. I get mine from:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/pomadour24
Pomadour24 is a very reliable company so far, I bought books from them few times, they come beautifully packed, via airmail, in about a week. I am waiting for delivery in the next few days …
a note:
I might mention in my blog websites and links where I buy materials or patterns I would like to say that any of those companies does NOT sponsor me, I just provide you with some information that you might find useful. In the eventuality that I get asked to try or test something, I will make that very clear to you all.
Besides If I want to sell something I have a shop here, at the moment it is empty, but I might use to sell blankets or whatsoever in the future.
The blog is a platform for me to share my experience and my unbias view only.

the pattern for the flowers on my cushion is:

FLOWER

1st round: make a magic loop,2ch (to make the first dc),11dc in the ring, pull the ring tightly close n ss on the top of the 2ch. (12dc)

2nd round: change colour,2ch , dc at the base of the first ch,*3ch, skip a dc from the previous round,1dc on the next dc,* repeat **6times, close the round with a ss.( 6dc, six ch3 spaces) do not cut the yarn

3rd round: in the three ch-space work: 1htr-3tr-1htr,1ss on the dc of the previous round, repeat all around; fast off the yarn.

4th round: new yarn, fold the petals of round 3 as we are working on the back of the flower, one dc around the dc of the 2nd round,5 ch; repeat all around do not fasten off the yarn,

5th round: ss on the dc of the previous round, in all the ch5 spaces, work as follow: 1htr,5tr,1htr. ss on the last dc and there you go you got a flower!

LEAF

a little basic leaf:

Ch 8, start on the second ch n work as follow: 1dc,1htr,3tr,1htr,1dc on the last dc work 3 dc together. This makes one side of the leaf.
Now turn, we are working on the foundation chain row as follow: 1dc,1htr,3tr,1htr, 3 dc in the last ch. That makes a little comma that looks quite lovely n very ‘leaf-like’.
As I said, please experiment and see how you like your leaf, there are so many of them to choose from all easy n VERY quick.

for some extra decoration, you can add a little embroidery of chains in the centre of the leaf.

leave a long tail so you can sew your leafs n flowers on your circle!

FILLING YOUR CUSHION
I like to use feathers pads because I like how they ‘sit’.Normally I have no issue with the squares ones, but I tried to buy some round feathers pads on the internet, but they have been of poor quality, I ended up returning them n tried a different source, still not so good either. So be aware of that. Another point is if your cushion measures 18 inches consider to buy a bigger pad. Especially if you have used acrylic yarn (like I did), it stretches quite a bit, and you want your cushion to look nice and plumpy.

HAPPY HOOKING!!!