Hello again. Here I am, siting in my little blog corner, having some quiet time to put together this special post. In today’s post I am going to tell the story of the Love Garden blanket journey. It’s so important to me to bring it here in my personal blog. This journey was a very unique opportunity I had with my mom. There is so much to document in this journey and so many special moments to remember. Moments that I want to keep here as part of my little blog corner. This is a Must-Have post for me. It might be too long for you or in some parts not very easy to read, PLEASE feel free to skip. I am very happy to have you here and to be able to share all the beautiful and inspiring things with you, but in this case it’s not just about that. If this is too much for you I suggest that you enjoy the photos without reading the long story tale. In case you feel inspired I will give all the essential links at the end of this post, scroll down and jump right into these links to start your own Love Garden creation.

The Love Garden Blanket was a journey I made with my beloved and so special mom, Eva. This blanket holds so much Mother – daughter love in each and every stitch. I feel so lucky that I had this opportunity to spend with my mom in her last weeks making a blanket with her. In the middle of April 18 my mom was diagnosed with a Brain Tumor. From that moment on I spent most of my days next to her. I felt that I want to do everything for her, and to help her with everything she needed in her last months. I just couldn’t fight my soul’s need to be next to her as much time as possible. I wanted to be close to her 24/7. I spent hours sitting at her bedside. At first I didn’t feel any need in me to crochet or knit but luckily at some point the creative bug came back. While finishing two socks projects next to my mom I understood that my creative hands bring the much needed happiness in our days together and that she enjoys this creative activity next to her. It made me understand I need to start a new project to be made next to her and with her. I was looking for a new cheerful crochet project. I looked for something colourful and not too complicated. One day just before I left to my parents house, I only had a few minutes to put some nice cotton colours in a bag. I just picked up a group of colours “happy-together”, without thinking too much, and went out. I made a very happy bag to start with – something that when you look at it, your heart will make this little happy jump. I started crocheting colourful Flower Squares. The Flower Squares pile got bigger and bigger and it became a colour festival  – my mom just loved them, she looked at them and touched them with her happy eyes. Theses colourful squares became our Love Garden Blanket journey.

I crocheted Flower squares next to my mom for hours and every evening when I came back home to be with my family, I spread all of the squares I made with her, on the carpet to take an over all look at our work. Every morning, using the morning light, I took a photo of the lay-out and printed it so I can show her the progress when I was back with her. As the days went by it got harder for her to communicate, but we found our way. She showed me with her fingers what needs to be moved, what area is too hot and where more blue is needed. My mom had a sharp eye for colour and her creativity strongly existed till her very last moments. She loved the process of this blanket . It was a very creative routine that drew so much love and care from both of us one to each other. I am so thankful for those memories. When I finished crocheting all the Flower squares and started framing them with 3 more rows of solid dc’s, I wasn’t sure regarding the colour for framing. I tried a few options on how to turn them into Love Garden squares and she helped me make this decision. She said all the beautiful words on earth while looking at these squares. One morning I found this A4 printed paper folded under her pillow, I will never ever forget that moment, she asked my aunt the night before to put it under her pillow, before she went to sleep. I could hardly hold my tears. My heart was full of THANKFUL feelings till this moment and forever.

At a certain point I realized this project is going too fast, I was afraid in so many ways to finish it. I decided to add one more row to our Love Garden. The final blanket ended up with 9 columns X 7 rows = 63 squares. I also decided to create a lay-out so that there are no two flowers in the same colour in any row or column. My mom was very positive about this idea, we both liked the challenge and felt ready for it. The lay-out story in the Love Garden blanket is not just about not having the two of the same colour flower in any row or column but also about a strong memory I have connected to my mom. It was the first ‘real’ set of colours she bought me when I was a little girl. It was a very special set of colours, bigger than the usual basic ones. I was a young kid but I strongly remember that I was totally in love with this pack. What attracted me the most was the way the colours were arranged in the box, it was that very rich rainbow colour flow. I was in love with this box of colours. I loved using it and felt I own a special thing. I remember trying so hard to keep the original order of colours in that box. I was afraid to lose this magical rainbow flow. Now take a closer look at the order of the squares. Look at the colours that frame the flowers. Can you see the way I arranged them? Just like in the box of colours, where a few shades of the same colour were placed next to the each other, the inner squares in each column are made out of two shades of the same colour. Like if you look at the first left column you will see four Turquoise squares on the top of the column continued by three Teal squares. I tries to keep them all arranged in that rainbow flow. The flowers that sit on top of that flow show the mess created in my colour box after using the set so many times:)

My first ever ‘colour talk’ was with my mom. I was about 3-4 years old and I painted something. She looked at my painting and said that  it is really fresh and clever to put Magenta next to Citron and Lime Green. This was the first time I realized colours have so many more names then just Red, Blue or Green. The Love Garden blanket holds all these sweet memories and my heart is full of thankfulness for being raised by such a special mom.When we were both happy with the layout and all 63 squares were ready, I put each of the 7 rows in a pile to get ready for the joining. I really liked the idea of graduating from Platinum colour to Shale Grey and than to the Sand colour on the joining. So Sand was picked for the joining – all included in my Love Garden Yarn pack. As I shared in my Joining tutorial, I worked by rows, starting to join from the top row, using Sand colour for the joining. Thank G-d at this point she could still recognize me but her memory was gradually effected. She could still communicate, but it wasn’t easy for her. I could understand everything she tried to say even if she used some broken words. I made almost all the joining next to her, and she was still with me in the making. I could feel that just like me, she was excited seeing it all come together to one piece. Our Love Garden blanket is one special happy piece. When I finally made my last joining stitch and spread it all next to her bad she could barely talk but her eyes told me she loved it. I knew she loves it, It was so clear. When I came back home that day I spread our Love Garden on the carpet and I was so happy she had the opportunity to see it all joined. It was even prettier than what I could except and I was glad we made it all together up to here. This special project brought gazillions of happy moments into her last weeks. It’s really hard to describe how I felt at that moment, it was a very mixed-emotional moment. All 63 Love Garden squares became one piece and their fresh colours popped up from the Platinum framing and on the other hand I knew that it is not sure at all she would still recognize me tomorrow. The squares where all joined and it was the time for framing, but I just couldn’t make it. I left it folded in it’s bag for a while without being able to make any progress on the framing. The only thing I could do was to keep on with the same Sand colour and make the first dc’s round, around the whole blanket. It was just like a therapy, crocheting dc’s around without too much thinking or designing needed. I didn’t know what kind of framing I was going to design but I knew it would need my creative brain in it’s full capacity. It was too much for me to search for the right framing at that point. When I finally picked up my hook again it took me ages. I crocheted tones of trials designing my final Love Garden Edging. I really couldn’t make up my mind. I crocheted millions of options and still couldn’t feel that ‘this is it’ feeling. If I liked something made late at night I just didn’t like it the morning after. I just couldn’t make up my mind and I decided to let go. I knew the right time would come.Time didn’t stop and neither did the ugly thing in my moms brain. As the days went by, my moms stopped communicating completely. We all knew the time will shortly come, and I spent most of the time right next to her. In her last days we moved her to the Hospice, because I felt that’s what she wanted. I could feel she didn’t want to go away at home. I made my best to make everyone around me understand that and I finally did it. My beloved and so special mom passed away only one day after we got there (I will NEVER forget the horrible ambulance ride on our way there). She passed away surrounded by all of the family. We were next to her till her last breath, giving her back all the love we got from her all the years, there was no other way to let her go. I felt covered by her love and I knew that my Love Garden Blanket will hold this love and cover our family for years to come. Our Love Garden Blanket holds part of her soul that will cover us warmly like she always did. After the Shivah was over I couldn’t wait to go back to my Love Garden Creation to complete it. I felt my hands burning and I knew this will be the first thing I am going to do when I’m back home. The moment I took it to my hands, it just flew out of my fingers and the Love Garden Edging was completed in no time.I just LOVE the way it finally came out. It keeps the whole Love Garden story FRESH and VITAL just like my mom used to say. Yes she used the words Fresh and Vital when she wanted to describe some ‘made-her-happy’ thing 🙂 my beloved mom. The Love Garden Edging frames our Love Garden Journey in a gentle way. It plays a very important role in this journey, it keeps it all together and makes it one completed piece in a very optimistic way. I knew I had to let her go and I am so sure she is in a better place. In my Love Garden framing I used all the bright colours of sun light that would always continue to rise on us all no matter what. My special mother appreciated and honoured the power of nature in such a way that I have to keep it in my mind and to draw strength from it. My Love Garden blanket found it’s place in our family life like it’s been here for ages. I really can’t wait to show it all to you now. Are you ready for some Love Garden blissfulness in it’s full power?The Love Garden Blanket reflects my mom’s personality in SO MANY ways. My mom was a Love-Life person, nature admirer, flower lover, flowers made her go out of her mind (she even gave me a name of a flower, read here). She was funny, with a great sense of humor, I will miss her laugh. She was the most creative human-being I’ve ever met, warm, intelligent, a noble and aesthetic woman, caring, loved to learn new things, generous, always there to help anybody in need, the best cook ever with the most delicious kitchen sense on earth. Take it all and imagine what a fab grandmother my kids had and what a mother-in-law my husband lost, how lucky we were to have her in our life. My heart is full of a THANKFUL feeling. For me the Love Garden Blanket symbolizes the way she covered us with her warm personality ever since I knew her.Well don’t get confused, while on the making I could strongly feel the unbelievable good vibes and the special energies of this project. One day, when I sat next to her and she, very aesthetically, eats her breakfast, I told her about your awesome comments on my WIP posts. I told her I think this is going to be a new kit. She stopped eating, looked at me and said: ‘but WHAT a kit!’ while moving her head in her special ‘move’ when she wants to describe something really delicious. So, this Love Garden project became a yarn pack and together with the Flower Square Pattern and a few tutorials I wrote down for you it makes a VERY delicious kit. So, if you feel inspired to start your own Love Garden creation here are some essential links you will need:

The Love Garden Yarn Pack
Love Garden Squares colour list download here: LoveGardenCoList
Flower Square Pattern
Love Garden Square Tutorial
Love Garden joining Tutorial
Love Garden Edging and Blocking Tutorial – coming soonEach Love Garden Square measures just a little more then 12.5 cm which is about 5 inches.
Love Garden Blanket size : 108 cm (42.5″) X 142 cm (56″)Thank you so much for reading my Love Garden Journey. This was a very long and not so easy post. Not easy to write and I guess not easy to read. I really appreciate you’re still being here. It was important for me beyond words, to put this post together although it shook my soul once again. But on the other hand made me go through some very happy steps I had with my mom. Our life will never be the same without her but I can tell you she is with me every single minute and she will always be. I am so thankful to have had such a special mom and so thankful we made this creative journey together.

Now, just to let you know, we are going for a long and much needed vacation, all five of us, during September. Our plan is to travel in Vietnam from the north to the south for more than 3 weeks. Which keeps me happily busy planing it all with E. That means that my Etsy shop will be closed for a while and I am still not sure but maybe only patterns will be available during that period of time. So, if you plan on making this blissful project make sure you place your orders by the end of August. This project will fill your hearts with gladness. xxxMo

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