Crochet for Mom's Birthday

Since my mother has been admiring an incomplete crocheted pillow cover that has sat in my house for a few months now, I decided to make one especially for her (like she has been hinting) as a birthday present!



There she be!! :)

The pattern I used was the Flower Accents Throw from redheart.com (with a little tweaking of my own). I know what you are thinking, this is a pillow, not a throw. Well, the nice thing about this pattern is that the throw is built out of blocks!

I followed the pattern as instructed, made the flower squares, joined the squares and STARTED the border. I emphasize "started" because I ended it with something a little different than the pattern stated to accommodate the piece being a pillow cover and not a throw. This also made it easier to sew the two sides together.

The only change I made was to Round 3 of the blocks border as follows:

Round 3: Join A (or color of choice) in any corner ch-1 space. Ch-3 (counts as dc), dc in same ch-1 space. * Dc in next stitch (or next dc), dc in ch-1 space, dc in next stitch, dc in ch-1 space; continue to corner ch-1 space and work 2 dc in corner space*  continue * around and join with slip stitch at the top of beginning ch-3. Fasten off.

Now, to sew the two pieces together, I used a technique called the Horizontal Mattress Stitch found in The Chicks with Sticks 'Guide To Crochet' book that I purchased when I first started crocheting. I did the stitch backwards so it would give the pillow an "edging" (here is me tweaking patterns again!). The technique was pretty easy and kind of fun to do ;) 

Click HERE for a tutorial on the Horizontal Mattress Stitch!



Threading through the stitches.........





Now remember, I am sewing the pieces together OPPOSITE of what the link instructs you to do. In other words, if I worked the seam "correctly", the edge of the pillow would look flat like the picture above. Instead, I've created a crease like in the image below.

Pretty neat huh?? Of course my mother enjoyed it!! And I obviously enjoyed making it ;) It didn't take very long (to my surprise) and I did it in the midst of creating some baby shower invitations. Don't worry, I am creating a tutorial for that too!

Hope this helps you become inspired to create some soft and fluffy little creations of your own!

P.S. I'm spoiled and my other half is letting me get a subscription to Crochet Today! Plus, I splurged and picked up this gianormous magazine published in the UK, The Crochet Collection. I'm SUPER excited to try some of the MANY new patterns I have collected in just these two magazines!