Making a difference

I want to share a blog post by Sue from UK  @ SIBOL - Sunshine International Blankets Of Love.

She does some lovely work over there
and it keeps her very busy.  She uses
the butterfly as her symbol and has
had such a fantastic response from
crafty people all over the world &
 they are so talented. They have
made close to 300 blankets in a
relatively short time. She has been
mentioned in several magazines,
some  have given a free pattern &
the address for SIBOL.
The response has been so huge
that Sue now has volunteers to
help join the squares into blankets
& has also started to accept blankets as well as squares.
 I dedicated my free stained glass butterfly pattern to her group and sent squares too.
 I thought you might be interested in reading about the reactions of some elderly people receiving some charity blankets. I worked in a Nursing home for 5 years and saw how these blankets really brightened their day. Not only are they a source of warmth and a security blanket, they are a great topic of discussion and assist with providing interaction.
The photo above is not one of their blankets, just a picture of a pattern.
 I belong to K4C & I gifted the butterfly pattern to them, they are an online yahoo group here in Australia who donate to lots of different groups,  one project that we have at the moment is making blankets for the Quakers Hill Nursing home that had a devastating fire
Go to http://knit4charities.webs.com/ if you would like to help out.
 It is run by Pam and since 2006 over 117,000 items have been donated to charity.
As they say "many hands make light work".
Congratulations for making a difference to so many Sue.& Pam
http://sunshineinternationalblanketsoflove.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/i-love-sibol-delivery-days.html

Competition Winner

A big thank you to everyone who entered and to all those who made comments along the way.
Just a reminder about how the competition started, take a look here
and you can find the pattern here
I had a hard time naming this square by myself, so I put it out there for some help.
Some of the names I came up with were Joyces' Choice, Tussie Mussie,
I won't bore you with the whole list.
Before I announce the winner I want to say that all the squares were lovely in their own right.
Grandmas garden window, Violetta and Cherry Blossom were highlighted with darker colours
 and are very special.
Grandmas Garden Flower, The flower garden square and re-joyce-ing had a dapple to them that reminded me of a garden in partial shade.
Bluebell, Blueberry, Joyful pickings, round and round the garden, Marvin and Sleeping violet were all lovely shades of blue, pink, mauve and burgundy.
Feather Joyce and Floral fantasy are both in variegated colours, which I am such a fan of.

I enlisted my Mum for help with the judging and we both
(thankfully) agreed on the winner.
Based solely on the name of the square we chose
"Re-Joyce-ing"
Congratulations Nicole from Sunshine Acres in
Queensland, which is on the East coast of Australia,
not far from Fraser Island.

 Nicole entered 5 squares, Floral fantasy,
The flower garden square, Grandmas garden flowers
and Grandmas  garden window, so she had a very good
chance of winning.


Her prize is a copy of Leisure arts 99 Granny squares
to crochet, you can see inside the book  here 
I hope you enjoy your prize Nicole.
I will post it on Monday.

Competition square Update

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their kind words and thoughts for my interview today. It was with the National and Regional managers and went for over an hour Whew! It wasn't that bad really. 

Hopefully it will make me more relaxed at any future interviews. .

I have received more Competition squares, so some show and tell is in order,

This lovely square is from Lisa from

Victoria and she has chosen the name 

"Joyful Pickings" I love the lemony 

cream colour she has used and 

the lovely dusky pink, she has done

a wonderful job

Thanks Lisa

Next we have a group of crafters that have made squares as a group project, 

it sounds like a fun thing to do.

Ames from Le Tigre Papillon started a group called Plain Tiger Butterflies

meeting in The Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, you can read more about it here

So these squares on the left is Kathy's and she has named her square "Blueberry", her square looks yummy too.

On the right is Amy's, she has named hers "Feather Joyce"  Amy said she had 

a grandma called Heather Joyce, 

so it's nice that we can both honour our Grandmas together.

These two are made by Liz, 

she has named her squares "Bluebell" 
and "Round and round the garden"

they are so cute, like little twins. 

They remind me of the twinsets that
my grandmother used to knit for me.
I love the cute labels you have all
pinned to your squares, not only cute,
but helps me remember which is which

Last but by no means least, are these 2 squares from Wendy, she has named them "Cherry Blossom" and "Violeta", which I think suits them to a T. She did such a good job at weaving those ends in, I thought she had used special wool to achieve the great shading. I'm not sure if she realised, but
my grandmothers sister is called Violet, (Aunty Vi to me) 

I must say that I love how you have all added your own personality and I love your name  choices. I notice that you are all from Victoria, so hopefully we get some response from other states or countries. The pattern is here if you are interested. Thank you all for participating.

Crochet square competition

Well here are the competition details. 
As mentioned in my previous post "Grandmothers Garden", 
I was inspired to make a square in her honour. 
She was the one who taught me to knit & crochet 
and from whom I inherited a love of gardens.
I couldn't decide what to call it, so I am calling on you for help. 

To enter, all you have to do is make a square and send it with your details attached
(name, snail mail & email address and the name for your square) 
 to either myself in Australia or Sue in England (email us for our address)
( if sending to sue, please put the heading Jane's Competition)

Not only will you get a chance to name the square, but there will be a prize and you will be assisting in making a blanket for charity, (i am a member of Knit4Charities).

 To help you with your name selection, my grandmothers name was Joyce, her birthdate was 20th February 1917, and I loved picking violets for her. So here is a photo and the pattern.

© 2010 Jane Griffiths www.papillongold.blogspot.com
 This is a charity pattern . 
It is provided to you free, with the hope that you will make one or more of these and send it to either myself in Australia, email me at: jane2gr@msn.com for my address
or to Sue from SIBOL in UK.
Email her at : sueatpigsty@talktalk.net
 for her address
Finished items using this or based on this pattern may NOT be sold. 
This pattern is strictly not for profit, 
NO proceeds are to be made from this pattern.This pattern may not be published on the Internet or made available for download for a charge or fee.
Feel free to link to this post or distribute this file FREE OF CHARGE *IN ITS ENTIRETY*. I.E this coloured section must be included.

Materials required (Amounts are approximate) 

8 ply wool:

40m  of main colour A (your choice) 

3m  colour B (green)

4m  colour C ( cream or white)

 4mm crochet hook   *Use the size hook you need to get the required size.

Final size of the square is aprox 15cm (6”) square.Tension is 3 rows or 4 trebles to 2.5cm (1”)

 Dtr= double treble   Tr= Treble  Ch=chain  

Round 1……….USING COLOUR A

Chain 3 and join circle, ch 5, (1 dtr, 1 ch) 11 times and join = 12dtr ….tie off (3.5cm) 

Round 2………..USING COLOUR B (green) 

Join new colour in a chain space, ch 3, 2 tr, 2ch, 3tr in the same space 

*Ch1, (3 tr, 2ch, 3tr) in the third ch space 

Repeat  from * twice 

Ch 1 and join to top of 3ch……………Slip stitch to corner (5cm) 

Round 3……….USING COLOUR C (cream or white)

(Ch 3, 2tr, ch1, 3tr) in corner space 

*Ch1, 3tr in the next chain space, ch1, (3tr, ch1, 3tr) in corner space 

Repeat from * twice………….Join & slip stitch to corner space (7.5cm) 

Round 4…... ( CHANGE TO COLOUR A) 

(ch3, 1 tr, ch1, 2tr) in corner space……then 1 tr in between each treble 

next corner space is…………2tr 1ch 2tr, continue and join to top of 3 chain 

Join & slip stitch to corner space (9cm) 

Round 5 TO 8 is same as Round 4 using colour A . leave a 40cm tail for sewing squares together. 
Please note this competition is now closed, this square is now called the Re-Joyce-ing square....details of the winner are here

My Grandmothers Garden

My Maternal Grandmother (Joyce) loved gardens, she had a garden that can be described as
"having one of everything".

As a child I loved to explore the garden discovering the many different plants and picking a tussie mussie of flowers I thought she would like.  I also remember the dread we would feel if she asked "Do you want to come for a walk?" It meant she had seen a plant as she had driven past a garden. She only went for a walk if it involved picking a cutting from a garden and she would enlist anyone gullible enough to help. In her honour, I have decided to have a competition, involving crocheting charity squares to be sent to myself in Australia or to sue at SIBOL in England . I will publish details soon, in the meantime here is a  photo of myself with my Mother and Grandmother in her front garden, in front of the mango tree.