Handmade Ric Rac

      Well it snowed all day yesterday, and was bitterly cold. Much colder this morning tho. News said it was -5 degrees but feels like -22 degrees. Too cold for me. I got bored yesterday, and thinking about my planned crazy quilted pillow. I started thinking about the samples I have seen done that used the wide ric rac then embroidered over it. Couching, I believe its called. I dont have any large ric rac on hand.  My crochet hook ,however was handy. So I got to work on my version of ric rac. I think it worked out pretty well. It will however require a little guesswork for length. I think I crocheted a chain about double the length I wanted finished.

I used a size 6 crochet hook and size 10 crochet thread. It is slightly less than 1/4" wide. About 1/2" overall.

I simply made my chain. Then turn, and sc in second chain from hook. Then sc in next 2 chains. Now do 2 more sc in the same space as that third sc. You will have 3 sc in same chain.

Now sc in next 2 chains.  Then skip next 2 chains, and sc in next.  Sc in next 2 chains. Now for the top peak again, do 2 more sc in same space as last sc.

Basically, to form your peaks you will have 3 sc in one chain, then to form the valleys you skip two chains and sc in the next. Cute Huh?

Pretty Crochet Heart & Crazy Quilitng

        I have decided to finally give crazy quilting a try. I thought about it many times in the past, but always shied away because it seemed like to much work for a quilt. All the beautiful hand stitches people put on these are just stunning. I love doing handwork in front of the TV of an evening, but this just seemed like way too much work.
         I dont know why I didnt think of it before, Looking back on it, I was "crazy" for not thinking of it. Yea, pun intended. I was emailing back and forth with an internet friend who is extremely talented. She is the one that mentioned trying crazy quilting on a small pillow. Duh! I should have thought of that. This was about a month ago. Since then she has frequently been sending me emails with wonderful tips. I have been saving those, and hitting Pinterest, pinning all the beautiful pieces I seen, embroidery stitches, and ribbon embroidery. Check out my pins HERE. For ideas check out  my boards titled Crochet, Crazy Quilting and Embroidery, and Ribbon Embroidery.
         Now that the holidays is over, I have buckled down and started thinking of things I want to add to my pillow block. During one of my many pinning sessions I found this pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chalklegs/heart-in-crochet
You may have to sign into ravelry to get it. However its simply the pattern found here:  http://www.freecraftunlimited.com/heart-crochet-hot-pad.html
With a different border. The lady on ravelry has you sc, ch 2, sc in each loop around the edge. I wanted a little more ruffled look so I chained 3. Here is my cute little block. It measures about 3" wide by 4" high. It was done is crochet thread that was size 12 I think.