The Block Party Report #1

Here is the post, finally! (Beware, before you start reading - this is a really, really long post!) Last Saturday went really well! I think everyone had a great time, and we got a lot done! (Okay, not really a lot, but more than I expected!) And the totals are.... (drum roll please) ....
249 crochet blocks and 60 knitted blocks! Which brings the total number of blocks to - 309 blocks!!! That will make 8 blankets! I had hoped for 4 blankets at the most, but I had no idea we could make 8!! We didn't have enough to make a ninth blanket, so we will make two scarves with the leftovers. Each blanket takes 36 squares. And our total number of baby/toddler hats collected is ... 22 crocheted hats, and 18 knitted hats! Which brings the total number of hats to 40 baby/toddler hats! We also collected 3 baby sweaters.
13 wonderful ladies (and one wonderful man) donated squares and baby hats! 8 of those ladies attended (9 including dad, but he didn't help, he kept the other kids busy)! Thank you so much everyone for all your time and yarn and help! I really appreciate it!

We are going to be donating the blankets to a man in Ukraine named Max. His ministry works with several Ukrainian Orphanages, Abandoned Baby Hospitals, and children and adults who are handicapped. You can visit his website for more information at http://truehopeukraine.com/. We know of him through Alice S, if any of you have met her. Her website is http://www.gotoeverynation.com/.

Mrs. Pasty O getting her baby fix in

Deciding how were are going to do it

Sorting the blocks into baby colors, and non-baby colors

Laying out the design (Anna has her input too)

Laying out the other blanket

"This purple one should go here"



Let the construction begin!

I'm showing my grandma how to sew them together

Mrs. Diane P showing Cortnie how to sew them together

My mom showing Anna how to sew them together

Mrs. Diane P and Cortnie working hard

Mrs. Barb O and Mrs. Pasty O working hard

Mom working while keeping Rachel asleep

Grandma working hard

Mrs. Patsy O working hard

Mrs. Barb O working hard

Ms. Valerie W working hard making more squares

This is another blanket that we laid out near the end, but never finished sewing it up, so my mom and I are still sewing it up

Mrs. Connie G holding up one of the finished blankets (it still needs a border) that she finished up. She is a professional photographer, and she took most of these pictures. (I took this picture.) Thank you, Connie, for taking pictures for us!

Two of the finished blankets that still need borders and the ends woven in

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 - "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."
This passage talks about the different parts of the body and how they work together. It is like how all the different squares in the blanket come together to make the blanket, and all the ladies that helped had to work together.
Like I said above, we collected enough squares for eight blankets and two scarves. However, we only have 4 of those blankets (and none of the scarves) sewn up. So, we are having a round two of the Block Party this coming Saturday. We aren't asking anyone to bring squares, as we have enough work to do, we just want your help. Just bring your yarn needles. If you came last Saturday, please do not feel like you have to come this Saturday. We are inviting people who were not able to make it last Saturday. I will be sending out an email this afternoon about this Saturday, so if you want that information, please email me.
Thank you to everyone that helped! I really appreciate it! Many Ukrainian babies, children, and adults will be blessed as the one "True Hope" is shared with them.

Block Party Preparations

This post is mostly pictures of items I collected before the Block Party. Pictures from the Block Party itself are still to come.

Here are 8 knitted baby hats that are soft and warm from Barb F. She wasn't able to make it to the Block Party because she was going to be in Hawaii.

Here are some knitted blocks that were made by Evelyn L. She also was not able to make it. She made 18 blocks.

Here is a close up of a few of her squares

Here are 9 crocheted blocks from Geri E. She wasn't able to make it yesterday either.

Here are some blocks my mom made

This is one of my favorite blocks - my mom made this and she used all of her scraps up to make a granny square

On Thursday I got a package in the mail from my aunt - she lives in Ohio, so she wasn't able to make it yesterday. She sent 5 knitted squares and 54 crocheted squares!

Here is one of the colors she used. She used two patterns for all her crocheted squares, a granny square and triple crochet back loop only.

Here is another color she used (really there are two colors the granny square one is different than the other two).

And here is the last color - this is actually the same color I used for Anna's hat, and my mom used for Anna's Scarf

This is the other one of my favorites - my aunt also made this one with her scrap yarn

Here are my aunt's 5 knitted squares

Before the Block Party, my mom and I decided to sew a blanket together to see how it worked. We are glad we did because we learned alot about sewing them together. Here is a picture I took of when we laid it out. We laid it out so the stripes would go diagonal.

I had meant to get this post up before the Block Party, but I didn't so here it is now.

Everybody Wants to Help! Including Dad!

The other night, my asked me to teach him how to crochet. Why? Because he wanted to make a block for me! Isn't that nice? So I taught him. He learned really fast. I told him his chaining was too tight, so he pulled it out, and started over, and it was loose enough. The first night he got 3 rows done. (I had him do 12 rows of double crochet and put a round of single crochet around it) The next night my mom and I went shopping, and he stayed up after the other kids were in bed and got the other rows of double crochet done to suprise me. Then I had him put single crochet around it. He also made a second one.

Working on the first one

Working on the second one

Working on the second one

Smiling for the camera with the first one

He thought it was funny that he held up one

I made too! :-)

The finished two blocks (Sorry, they are kind of hard to see because the yarn reflects the flash when I take the picture) Thanks Dad for making these!!!!

(My dad told me that he will learn how to crochet, but he will not learn how to knit because his vision of knitting is an old granny sitting in her rocking chair! :-))

More posts to come on how the Block Party went this morning!

National Craft Month

March is Natoinal Craft Month! I am hoping to get lots of crocheting, sewing and knitting done (not that I don't get any done during all the other months, but I want to get more than the normal amount done), and I hope you will too! I am working really hard on charity items right now! (such as stuff for the Block Party) Happy Crocheting! (and knitting and sewing, of course!)

P.S. Only 7 more days until the Block Party!!! (I am counting down the days!) And I am so excited!!! I don't not know how I will stand a whole entire week of waiting! I will crochet the time away, I guess.

My Grandpa's Hats

As I have mentioned before in the posts about my sibling's hats, my Grandpa asked me to make a bunch of hats for children in an orphanage in the mountains of Mexico. I bought some yarn, and used up more of what I had, and I ended up making 12 hats. They are all the same pattern, except for one. The pattern I used for most of them is a kids earflap pattern, which can be found here. It works up very quick, and I enjoyed making them! I just had to change the pattern a little, by taking some of the deceasing out. The other hat, which is yellow, is the same except, I kept going instead of putting the earflaps on. Below are bunch of pictures.

All 12 of the hats together

A zoomed up veiw of a few of them


The left side of the group

The right side of the group

My little sister Rachel - I was trying the hats on my siblings as I got them done, so I decided to try one on Rachel. This was the first hat I got done, so the picture was taken awhile ago, but they picture of her on the previous post was taken the day I posted it. Rachel is just over 3 months old in the picture here.

Another picture of Little Miss Rachel

I know I already posted this picture, and the two below this, but I thought I would post them again because I used the same pattern. This is Rebekah.

Isaac

Anna

My First Knitted Block

I have been busy crocheting blocks for the Block Party, and I decided to try knitting a square. I started it in Saturday, and finished it yesterday. It doesn't seem like it took me that long, but I could have gotten three or four squares crocheted in the time it took me to knit one square. But if I keep practicing my knitting, I will probably get faster. For the square, I casted on 20 (I would do 18 next time), with size 11 needles, using 2 strands of yarn. I knit every row until it was square. Below are some pictures of my knitted block, and some other blocks that are crocheted.

The Knitted Square

A Basic Square - it is double crochet with single crochet around the edges. The yarn looks like it is totally different than the knitted square, but I used the same exact yarn! The edges aren't woven in on some of the squares yet, but I will weave them in when I get a chance.

A square that I made working in rounds instead of rows. The pattern for it can be found here. It is the second one down from the top, called In the Round.

Here is a basic Granny Square - I learned to do this kind of square from this YouTube video. I would also recommend checking out her website! She has alot of good tips, patterns, and videos to help crocheters!

This is the same as the basic square that is in the picture above, but I only worked in the back loop of each stitch. You can kind of see the ridges.

If you would like to have any of these patterns, please let me know!