Morning Glory Flower Placemat

I finished crochet all the pieces for the flower placemat last week. It took me some time to sew it all together. The pattern is not so easy to follow. It doesn't give the finished dimension or any clear picture of what the lattice mat should look like. The lattice mat was worked from the centre outward in rounds and I struggled on round 8. This is what mine looks like. I used a 27" diameter hula hoop ($5 from Walmart) and some waste yarn to block the washed lattice mat. It is about 17" x 10". The next problem area is the morning glory flower. I think there is an error in round 2 of the instruction. In order to have the petal symmetric this is what I think the correction should be:

Rnd 2 With periwinkle, pull up a loop in last sl st, (ch2, fpdc around next dc, work dc in next dc, fptr around same dc you just worked in, ch1, sl st in front loop and side bar of same tr, work dc in next dc, fpdc around same dc you just worked in, ch2, sl st in next dc) 5 times, ending with sl st in same st as first loop.

I worked all my flowers with this correction.

The single bud spray is worked in two pieces: the bud first then the leaves.

When I had all the pieces I decided not to use hot glue as suggested by the pattern to attach the flowers. I used the same cotton thread to sew them together. This saved me the task of blocking any of the flowers, bud sprays, leaf sprigs or vines. I cut a length of thread about 1 yard long, separated the strands (there are 4 strands in this thread) and used one strand at a time. The single strand is very weak and breaks easily, so I folded it and gave it some twist to add strength. This gave me a thread that is of the same color and is fine enough to use. Some of the flowers and leaves actually hang outside of the lattice mat.

The finished flower placemat with two different color background.

Thank you for dropping by. Please feel free to leave any comment you might have. I would love to know if you like the hula hoop idea for blocking the lattice mat?

Material:

Worsted weight/4 ply cotton thread

4.00mm crochet hook

Pattern:

Floral Placemats & Hot Pads by Annie Potter