FM June 8, 2009 and RIP Mrs Donley

I was Ida Mae Donley's "senior beacon" which meant I was supposed to sent her no guilt mail - you know, cards for holidays, that sort of thing. The relationship evolved slowly until I felt I really got to know Mrs Donley (I could never bring myself to call her by her first name - she was older than my grandmother and it just didn't seem polite.) Mrs Donley was quite the quilter, even well into her late 90s. She would quilt lap quilts and walker bags for the other folks in the nursing home. Even though we didn't do the same type of handwork, the fact we both did handwork bonded us.
Mrs Donley passed away last week, at the age of 101 years old. Later today I will be attending her funeral. Granny squares and motifs are the closest thing crocheters have to quilt squares, so I thought I'd honor Mrs Donley's memory by just having all free patterns for those items.


How to crochet a granny square
http://www.crochetcabana.com/tutorials/granny_square.htm


A quarter granny square:
http://promotions.drgnetwork.com/newsletters/talkingcrochet/pages/TCNL2806_patt.html

a half a granny square
http://www.geocities.com/riverglorious/Patterns/halfgrannysquare.html

Off kilter granny
http://sofar-sogood.blogspot.com/2007/05/off-kilter-granny.html

Lacy Spoke motif
http://www.crochetmemories.com/archive/misc10.html

This site uses symbol crochet, no instructions
http://www.mypicot.com/qumo.html

This motif creates a star
http://cache.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/faq-search.cgi?store=/stores/eyarn&faqKey=342

sunrise granny square
http://crochet-mania.blogspot.com/2009/02/sunrise-granny-square.html

Stuffed circle square
http://www.squidoo.com/freestuffedcircleafghansquarecrochetpattern

Heart square
http://www.crochetnmore.com/heartafghansquare2.htm

Fish afghan square
http://www.crochetnmore.com/fishafghansquare.htm

Little flower square
http://www.geocities.com/alyssa5000/flowersq.html\

The usual disclaimers apply (I didn't get paid to post these sites).
FYI I will name the winner of the book on Tuesday, June 9, 2009. Sorry for the delay but I'm not in the mood to pick a winner right now.
_Enjoy_

Today's offering - a log cabin square

This was something I worked up for my "senior beacon"* or pen pal as my beloved calls her, Ida Mae. She turned 100 and they had a party for her. We attended, but I forgot to take this with me. (Probably on purpose). I was inspired by the article in "Piecework" about quilts and it featured a knitted design.
She has made and still makes quilts for all the residents in her nursing home. She makes those little over the walker handle bags, too, at her volunteer activities. I had visited her before and there was a display of quilts in the large community room and she talked about quilting and how much she liked it.
So I decided I'd make a log cabin square. I used #3 perle cotton and a C hook. (The #3 is thicker than the #5.) You need the first square color, plus 3 skeins of 4 different colorways (light, medium color and dark for contrast). I used yellow, purple, blue and green.
So here's how I did it. I chained 6, skipped the first chain, single crocheted in the next five chains. row 2, turn, chain 1 , single crochet in each of the 5 single crochets. Repeat this row 3 times, giving you a total of 5 rows (you can change this up any way you like) . Break off and leave a long tail.
Turn your square on its side. Attach your #1 colorway with a slip stitch to the corner. Using your #1 colorway, evenly single crochet 5 single crochets on the side, repeat for a total of 5 rows. Break off, leave a long tail.
Turn your square on its side.Attach your #2 colorway with a slip stitch to the corner. Using your #2 colorway, evenly crochet 10 single crochets on that edge. Repeat for a total of 5 rows. Break off, leaving a long tail.
Turn your square on its side.Attach your #3 colorway with a slip stitch to the corner. Using your #3 colorway, evenly crochet 10 single crochets on that edge. Repeat for a total of 5 rows. Break off, leaving a long tail.
Turn your square on its side. Attach your #4 colorway with a slip stitch to the corner. Using your #4 colorway, evenly crochet 15 single crochets on that edge. Repeat for a total of 5 rows. Break off, leaving a long tail.

Second "round" of square

Turn your square on its side. Chain 6 with your #1 colorway. Skip 1 chain, single crochet in each of the chain 5. Single crochet in each on the 10 single crochets (total of 15 single crochets). Chain 1, turn, single crochet in each of the 15 single crochets. Repeat this second row twice, for a total of 5 rows. Break off, leave a long tail.
Turn your square on its side.Attach your #2 colorway with a slip stitch to the corner. Using your #2 colorway, evenly crochet 10 single crochets on that edge. Repeat for a total of 5 rows. Break off, leaving a long tail.
Turn your square on its side.Attach your #3 colorway with a slip stitch to the corner. Using your #3 colorway, evenly crochet 10 single crochets on that edge. Repeat for a total of 5 rows. Break off, leaving a long tail.
Turn your square on its side. Attach your #4 colorway with a slip stitch to the corner. Using your #4 colorway, evenly crochet 15 single crochets on that edge. Repeat for a total of 5 rows. Break off, leaving a long tail. Weave in all the long tails.
_enjoy_

*"senior beacon" is a person that the nursing home assigns to another person, like me. I'm supposed to send a card via snail mail at least once a month - and I do.