Just the Basics

Sometimes there is a line of fabric that I love so much that doing anything fancy with it takes away from the fabric itself. 

"Little Black Dress" by Basic Grey is one of those (in my opinion).

I love this fabric. It's one of my favorites. 

I made a postage stamp quilt with this same line for my dad and step mom for Christmas 2012. I figured, there are two of them…I should make another one so they each have one. 

When I bought this fabric I bought a jelly roll (for the postage stamp quilt) and then a fat eight bundle. I had no idea what to do with the fat eight bundle, so I paired it with some white and made some basic blocks. I actually have enough to make another quilt identical to this one. Which is a good thing because when my (almost) 10 year old saw this one she said, "OH MY GOSH! I WANT ONE EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE FOR ME!!!" 

When making this quilt, everything went right. I was so happy. The quilting was fun..the binding went on like a breeze, the whole process was enjoyable. 

They received it and said they loved it. Which makes me happy!

Measures approximately 58"x81"

A LATE Christmas Gift for My Sister

I'm such a slacker! 

For Christmas this year, my sister requested a quilt for her bed. She loves Chevrons and wanted a Chevron quilt. She found all the fabrics she wanted so I purchased those and got to work on it. It's fairly easy to piece, so that part went rather quick. But this was big. The hard part was the quilting. I knew I wanted to do straight line quilting but it's so time consuming! It took me a while to get it done. Plus, I have such a hard time with straight line quilting especially with such a big, heavy quilt. But I got it done and I hope she likes it! 

Measures: 78"x82"

Crochet Baby Blanket Pattern

I get more and more requests for this pattern. So I thought I'd just do a post about it. I pretty much "winged" this. (Well, the body of it is a pattern and the edging was totally improv.)

For the Body:

(This is a baby blanket size. I think around 34"x39". I typically buy 1000 yards of yarn for a blanket that size.)

Foundation chain: multiple of 3 + 2 chains 

Once you get the length you want…

Row 1: In 2nd ch from hook work single crochet and 2 double crochets. skip the next 2 chains. In the next chain work a single crochet and 2 double crochets, skip the next 2 chains. repeat this all the way down. In the last chain, do a single crochet. chain 1 and turn.

Row 2: in first single crochet work a single crochet and 2 double crochets. Skip the next 2 double crochets. In next single, work a single and 2 doubles and so on to the last single crochet. In the last single crochet, do a single crochet, chain 1 and turn. 

Repeat row 2 until you reach the length desired. At end of last row do not chain 1 do not turn. 

For the Edging:

This was improved so I don't really remember how I did it since it's been so long. I'm pretty sure I went around the whole blanket with a single crochet, (3 singles in each corner). For rounds 2-4  I did a half double crochet (3 hdc in corners). Then I believe I did some variation of this: (oh and because I did a couple rows of half double crochets (hdc) and not just a single crochet all around, I worked the corners accordingly. I think I usually do a hdc in the first sc of the 3 sc in corner then 2 in the center one then one in the last) Does that make sense? Like I said, I just sort of wing it on the corners to what looks right.

Next round: Ch 3 (counts as a dc), (2dc, ch3, 3 dc) in same hdc for corner, *skip 2 hdc, 3 dc in next hdc, repeat from * to next corner, (3dc, ch3, 3dc) in center hdc of 3 hdc corner group; repeat from * around ending last rep (skip 2 hdc, 3dc in next hdc) to beginning corner, skip 2 hdc, join in 3rd ch of begin gin ch-3.

Next Round: Ch 5, skip next dc, sc in next dc; in next ch-3 work sc, ch 5, sc) for corner, * work (sc, ch 5, skip next dc, sc in next dc) to next corner, and so on all the way around.

Edgings are tricky for me and I usually get so lost in the directions and on which round I'm on, so I almost always never follow a pattern. I just go for it and see what looks good. This is the only blanket I've made that has this fancy of an edging and I don't even remember how I did it!

I was having a hard time keeping track of the numbers when I was going around, so I ended up just sort-of creating my own pattern. If you're looking for a good Crochet Edgings book, this is a pretty good one.