Baby Blankets from Donated Squares

All_Crafts_4_Charity, one of my Yahoo groups, is making baby blankets for a hospital in Wyoming this month. I volunteered to join squares for this project and these blankets are the first two done.

The Ships Project

The Ships Project helps support our troops by sending hand crafted items and more. I made these slippers for them and will be making more throughout the month. They have a special page listing what they are currently sending and you need to use approved patterns
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The pattern I used is called Vicki's Slipper boots.

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New Blog and New Contest

I started a new blog about Going Green, recycling and crafting, if you haven't seen it yet it's called Deb's Going Green. I'm having a contest to get things rolling by giving away three of these green grocery bags, I'm going to try to do this on a regular basis, depending on how this first contest goes. So hop on over and don't miss the article on making "yarn" out of old T-shirts.

Deb's Flower Dishcloth Free Crochet Pattern

Here's another dishcloth pattern for you. I only had the two colors of cotton yarn with me and so was unable to show the 'flower' off like I wanted to, but this pattern is based on my sunflower lapghan pattern so you can see how the flower can look if you want it to. My pink flower blanket is another color variation.

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Although it is based on the square it is not quite the same so here is the pattern for the dishcloth.

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I used a J hook and the pattern made a 10" dishcloth. I used Sugar & Cream cotton yarn, an ounce or two of each color depending on how you want to arrange the colors.

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Rnd 1: With flower center color, Ch 4 and join, ch 3 (counts as 1st dc) 15 dc and join to top of ch 3, 16 dc
Rnd 2: With flower petal color, Join to any dc, ch 4 (counts as dc, ch 1) *dc, ch 1 in each dc around, 16 ch 1 spaces
Rnd 3: With flower leaf color, Join in any space, ch 3, in same space 2 dc, ch2, 3 dc, ch1, *sk next ch 1 sp, 3dc in next sp ch1, sk next st, 3dc, ch2, 3 dc, ch1 repeat from * twice, sk space, 3 dc ch 1 and join.
Rnd 4: With background color, Join in any corner, 4dc into corner space, 4 dc ineach ch1 space and 5 dc into each corner, Join to ch3

Rnd 5: ch 3, dc in each dc and 5 dc in center stitch of 5 dc in each corner

Rnd 6 an 7: Repeat Rnd 5

Rd 8: Change color to border color and repeat rnd 5

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You can change the size of your dishcloth by changing the number of times you reapeat Rnd. 5

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For another dishcloth pattern try Deb's V-stitch Granny Dishcloth

Stuff from My Trunk

Since I do in-home live-in care for the elderly, most of my crocheting is done away from home, I have this really bad habit of putting partially finished projects in the trunk of my car and going on to something else. This time while I was at work I forced myself to finish all of them. I didn't make it since I still have two baby blankets partially done still in there.

So far I have finished two blankets, one made from donated squares for a special project for All_Crafts_4_Charity, seven preemie hats and a baby sweater that just needed the ends worked in for Cooper Hospital, four dishcloths and three scrubbies for a battered women's shelter and two finger puppets that were made for the CraftingForACause April and May challenge that didn't get sent in with the others.

Charity Crafting Contest Winner

The winner of the last contest was once again chosen very scientifically. I called my daughter and since my grandsons are in summer school I let her choose a number between 1 and 12.
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The winner is Trish and here is her entry:
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I love to make quilts and give them to mothers who are expecting a baby and don't have anything special for their baby. Around this area we have lots of young ladies who find themselves pregnant and then their boyfriend takes off, leaving them to deal with the whole pregnancy alone. We also have a lot of people who don't really have enough money to pay their own bills and to try and supply the needs of an infant on top of it is really tough. My daughter knows a lot of people and is never past coming to me and saying, "Mom, someone needs a quilt for their baby...." I've gotten pretty good at putting together a basic baby quilt pretty quickly while making it attractive and unique. There's just something special about sharing the gift God gives you with someone in need. It puts things in perspective.
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Trish if you can leave a comment with your email address (It won't be published). I will contact you for mailing info for your prize.
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Since Trish is a quilter her prize will be fabric of course! I am going to fill a Flat Rate box with as much as I can shove in there!

While I'm gone... Contest

I'm going to be gone at least 5 days and maybe more so while I'm gone let's have another contest. Just tell me your best story about charity crafting. It can be sweet, funny, touching or even bad, I don't care. Please do not include your email address since I will not post any comment with personal info. Your comments won't show up until I can get home and moderate them. Make sure you make clear your craft of choice so I can make the prize appropriate if you win. Watch the blog in 5 or so days to see the stories and to see who wins.

Deb's V-Stitch Granny (Dishcloth) Free Crochet Pattern

We have a challenge going in my Yahoo group CraftingForACause to make dishcloths for a women's shelter. After making a few from patterns, of course I had to try one of my own. The reason I put the dishcloth in parenthesis is because that's what I made with the pattern but it could be used for any project using squares. It's a repeating pattern and I'm going to write it in a way that you can make it any number of rows.

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For the dishcloth I used 3 oz. Sugar & Cream variegated worsted weight cotton and 1 oz solid. I used a J hook and finished size is about 12" square.

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Starting V-stitch: Ch 4, dc in same stitch

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V-stitch: dc,ch1,dc in same stitch

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Corner: in corner space 2dc, ch2, 2dc

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Start Dishcloth

Ch 4 and join.

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Rd 1: ch3 (counts as dc) 2 dc, *ch 2, 3 dc* 3 times ch 2 and join

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Rd 2: ch 3, dc in each dc work corner into each ch 2 space and join

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Rd 3: Make sure you are in the center dc of the side make a starting V-stitch, sk next dc, 2dc, work corner, 2 dc, skip next st, V-stitch, sk st, 2 dc, work corner, continue around join to 3rd chain of first V- stitch and sl st into V-stitch

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Rd 4: Starting V-stitch, skip next st, dc in next 4 dc, work corner, dc in next 4 dc, V-stitch, work all the way around in this pattern, join in same manner as above, sl st into V-stitch

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Rd 5: Starting V-stitch*sk next st, dc, sk next st, V-stitch, sk next st, dc in next 2 stitches, work corner, dc in next 2 st, sk st, V-Stitch, sk st, dc, sk, st, V- stitch around and join

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Rd 6: Starting V-stitch, dc in every dc V-stitch in every V stitch and work corners around

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Rd 7: Starting V-stitch, *dc in every dc, V-stitch in every V-stitch to the last V- stitch of that side, sk1 of the side, dc in next st, sk 1, V-stitch, dc in next 2, corner, dc in next two stitches, sk 1, V-stitch, sk, continue around from * Join

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Repeat rds 6 and 7 and end

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Solid Border (optional)

Rd 10: Join solid color to any corner, ch3, 4 dc in corner, dc in every dc and in ch 1 space of V- stitches to corner, 5 dc in corner and continue around

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For another dishcloth try Deb's Flower Dishcloth