Another item from the sewing chest....

was this beautiful sampler of swans - although badly stained with coffee....

 

This became an inspiration for a new duvet cover inlay for babies....

 

The words are from a very well known nyrsery rhime/prayer in icelandic...

 

This is made with ecru thread nr.30, and 0,85 mm hook.

Sadly, one of the unfinished projects in my stash! Will have to finish it someday soon.

The nursery rhyme/prayer is a beautiful one, and translates roughly into this:

Now be over and all around

with your endless blessings,

may the angels of God sit in a circle

upon this duvet of mine.

Doesn't really translate that well, but one of the prayers that all Icelandic children know by heart.

Through the garden.... for more than a year

Yes, it took me more than a year to finish this thing of beauty. I was far from calling it a thing of beauty while making it, though. What a headache that pattern gave me! Of course, I have no one to blame but myself, since it all boils down to not reading the whole page of the pattern before I was halfway through! For a relatively smart brunette, I sure can have blonde moments sometimes!
Finally noticed, after cussing and throwing the blasted thing into a storage container several times, that the pattern was for advanced experienced crocheters.
Well I finally finished the thing, and got to blocking and starching it. That took almost as long time as making it (well it sure felt like it (",)    ) with sore fingers to match! Had to make an emergency run to the local home-depot kind of store,  to get more styrofoam, since the tablecloth was way too big for my styrofoam sheet. Finally I had it starched and blocked, and now it awaits delivery to a new home. It's meant as a birthday present for my mom. She has a beautiful octagonal dining table, but she's always in trouble finding tablecloths and toppers for it. I just hope she likes the blessed thing!!!!
The pattern is called Through the garden, and was published in Decorative Crochet Magazine, September 1999, issue number 71. I found it in a Danish crochet magazine/booklet from DMC, called Haekling nr.29.

 Here it is after the first round of roses...

 

Here it is, blocked and starched, more than covering my more than large dining/kitchen table...

Details of the blocking...

A thing of beauty, right....

Close up of the dreaded center that gave me soooo many headaches....

Close up of one of the wedges....

And finally a close up of the roses and the increase...

I'm quite sure that somewhere my granny and great granny were laughing at me, while I struggled with this, but in the end, I think they'd have to be quite pleased with the final outcome!

I swore I would never ever do this pattern again, but only a few days later, I'm thinking: Well, I MIGHT want to give this another try someday....

Well I've got an excuse, I'm certifiably crazy!!!

One of the treasures...

... that came out of the sewing chest was this one here...

 

  

Beautiful lace inlay for duvet covers, made with thread #30 or #40

I also have one of those already sewed into a duvet cover, but I haven't taken a picture of it yet.

But this inspired me to try and make some inlays of my own....

 

  

  

The pattern I found could be be used either as an inlay or as a shelf border, so I did both. Haven't used the inlays though.... at least not yet.

In the beginning....

there was a crazy Icelandic chic, who inherited her grandmother's sewing chest. Inside were the most beautiful samplers of thread crochet, made by her grandmother and great-grandmother. The chic decided to give this a try, grabbed a hook and some thread and taught herself to crochet. The rest, as they say, is history....