Chunky Crocheted Baby Blanket

For my granddaughter's baby shower three years ago, I had made her two crocheted baby blankets.  One of them is just like this one and she has carried it around for several years.  Needless to say, I think she is ready for a new one, so I made this for her.

It's made of the chunky Bernat yarn that is very soft and easy to work with.  This particular one is made using the variegated pink colors.  

I've made this baby/kid's blanket several times.  It comes together pretty quickly and I often give it as a baby shower gift.  

I've also made it in smaller sizes for doll blankets.  Last year my daughter gave me 10 skeins of it and I've completed several blankets from them so far.  

There are two skeins left and what will I do?  Make another one, for sure!

Here's the instructions if you'd like to make it:

Chain 50 very loosely.  In the first row, skip the first chain stitch and single crochet all across the row, chain 2 and turn.  For the second row, double crochet all the way across and chain 1. Turn.  Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until your blanket is the desired size.  Sew in ends with a large yarn needle.  

Here's a close-up of the rows.  Keep the stitches loose, but not too loose.  The single crochet rows tighten up the stitches a bit to keep the blanket from getting all stretched out.

I made this blanket a bit bigger for my granddaughter for her bed.  Now to just switch out the "old" one with this new one!  :)

Woodland Quilt

There are projects of all sorts lying around in the craft rooms at my house.  I guess if you're not a crafter, that's hard to understand.  But it's part of my life.  LOL

I like to start projects and don't always finish them right away.  This is one of those projects. Quilters like to call them "UFO's" - unfinished objects.  I found this quilt top already put together while I was doing some sorting in the sewing room the other day.  So I took it out, added some batting and backing and decided to finished it up!

The colors are very soft flannels and minky fabrics that I got at Joanns a few years ago.  The design on the print has little woodland animals on it.  The squares are about 3 1/2 inches big and if you look closely, there is a pattern to the layout.  

Here you can see the little animals.  I quilted simple straight lines on the squares and used minky for the binding so that the edges would be nice and soft.

While I was working on the binding, I set the quilt down for just a minute to answer the phone.  And when I came back, look who claimed it as her own!  Ginger loves her softies.  :)

 

Baby Blanket & Accessories

A few weeks ago I bought a new desk for my sewing room.  The old one was very narrow and didn't fit my sewing machine very well.  So now that I have a nice place to sew I have been in my sewing room working on things and actually finishing up some projects!  I know, don't faint.  Sooner or later I do finish things.  Mostly the later.

One of our family friends had a baby last week and I made this cute little quilt for her.  I started it about a month ago and didn't finish it in time for her shower, but I feel good that the baby is only a week old and I have the gift done! 

I had all of the fabrics in my stash.  I used the girl with the fox image on the fabric as the focal point and worked in some cutesy colors to coordinate with her. 

The pattern was pretty simple and it went together in just a couple of days.  I would definitely make this pattern again. 

And then in my spare time (!) I made some matching bibs with terry cloth on the back.

I found a pattern for some little shoes and decided to try it out.  They came out cute, but I think they took as long as the quilt did to make!  They were very tiny and I had a hard time fitting them und3er my sewing machine.  Mostly I had to sew them by hand.  They may be the first and the last pair that I make -ha ha. 

Here are the bibs with the shoes.

And here is the entire gift.  I hope she likes it!