Crochet Baby Blanket

About 6 months ago my best friend told me she was pregnant. I knew I wanted to make something special for her, but didn't know how long a crocheted blanket would take, what colors to use (boy or girl?), or even if I could follow a pattern all the way through successfully. I found a pattern I loved in the Spring 2009 issue of Interweave Crochet and some super soft recycled cotton yarn at Ben Franklin that looked perfect. I figured I could start the project with sage green, brown, and cream colored yarns, then add either a blue or pink border later.

As I started the project I made several trips to the local yarn store in Bellevue. They helped me learn how to form Tunisian stitches and showed me what a Tunisian needle is. The stitches ended up being easier than I had expected, almost like knitting with just one needle.

About two weeks ago I had all six star sections completed and began reading about stitching the chunks together and learning how to block. I didn't really think that blocking would help my pieces all fit together, but I was so wrong! Due to stretching while I was making them, the pieces were all slightly different lengths. Once I had them all flat on the table, I squirted the edges with water so they would stretch or shrink a little as I needed, then I pinned them all in place to dry.

I finished the blanket the night before the baby shower, perfect timing!

Quilted Pillow Covers

When we got our new-used couches back in the spring, we knew we'd eventually need some throw pillows to jazz them up and to stuff behind one's back while watching a movie. I'd looked at pillows at a few different places and finally decided to just buy uncovered pillows and make something fun to cover them with. A few weeks ago when we were at Ikea I found two 19" square pillows that I thought would be dense enough. They've been hanging around on the couches since then, making me look like an odd decorator, but now they're finished!

I used a couple of ideas I found at Red Pepper Quilts because I decided it would be fun to use some of my fabric scraps. The first pillow cover used strips of fabric cut into 3" x 9" randomly sewn together. I used 1.5" strips of white in between the colors. The second pillow I used sets of 4 pieces of fabric from one color group cut into 1.5" x 4.5" strips. I finished the tops just like a quilt, with batting for stability, then sewed a double sided envelope-style back.

A Batch of Cards

30 cards that is. A little over a week ago I got two orders for thank you cards. One was for 10 cards, the other for 20. It took me a little longer than normal to get through them because I've been sick for the past couple weeks, but at last they are done and in the mail! I took some pictures of the process. Basically, I cut the card paper, stamped the trees and cut them, cut yellow and blue layering paper, added the yellow twine, stamped and cut thanks, layered and cut the blue behind the greeting, and glued them all together!