WIP Wednesday: Crochet Flower Blocks

Thanks to the holidays and traveling it's been a while since I wrote a WIP: Wednesday post, but I'm getting back in the routine for the new year.

Over the last few weeks I had one major finish, the memory quilt for my good friend Linda.  I'll share pictures of it next week, I haven't had a chance to give it to her yet, so I want to do that before a final post.

While on holiday at my mom's, I made a lot of progress on designing my next art quilt, currently going by the name text messages.  It's actually inspired by illuminated manuscripts, specifically books of hours or prayer books from medieval Europe.  I think it's going to be pretty cool, but my mom and I are thinking about submitting a magazine article that features some of the techniques I'm using in it, so no pictures of it now either.

Instead, I thought I'd share pictures today of another long-term project on which I made significant progress in the last couple of weeks: my crochet sampler blocks.  Last year for Christmas my mom gave me this fun granny square book.  I started off crocheting them directly from the patterns in the book, and now I've done enough of them that I seem to be able to change them up a bit without too many dire consequences.  I love crocheting in the car, it's easier than paper piecing for me anyway, and I finally have enough of these that I thought I'd show them.  Sometime in November I thought surely I had enough blocks, but when I counted them up, I had barely a quarter of what I need.  Now I'm about halfway, thanks to many hours of crochet on the long drive to New Mexico.

Here's just a sampling of some of my finished ones, and below that are three of my current favorites.  I'm using 100% cotton yarn in just about every color I can find.  So far I really love the way they're turning out, although every single one will need extensive blocking, and I'm not sure how they'll wind up going together.  I guess we'll see!

I'm linking up with Lee, and hope you guys are all also making good projects on your WIPs!