Babies and deadlines

There is nothing like a deadline to focus my mind. I had been dreaming of planning a baby blanket for a friend of mine for months - ever since I first found out she was pregnant. There was always something more urgent. Suddenly it was the night before the shower. Some days prior I had accepted the fact that I was never going to get around to making the blanket, but that night I was gripped with a frenzy. I had to make her a blanket. I think I've watched one episode too many of Project Runway. It was 7 p.m. I had just the materials in my closet and three hours interrupted by the need to get my little ones to bed and help my older ones as needed. Luckily, I had a decent stash. I chose a modified rag quilt design.

Here are the particulars, for any interested sewers:

The squares are 8.5 - why? Because the fastest way to make a template was to fold the corner of a piece of paper over to make a square.

The seams are about an inch wide. I sewed the squares into strips and then sewed the strips together. Then I cut the fringe about 1/2 inch wide. (I was in a hurry so I eyeballed a lot)

The hardest part to figure out was how to finish the edges. I could have just fringed them, but that didn't seem substantial enough given the thickness of the fringe from joining the squares. I found a finishing technique called the Hounds Tooth on project linus - cut fringe on the edge that is 1 and one quarter inch, cut a tiny hole at the base and pulll the fringe through the hole. I did that at both short ends and left the edges straight.

It came out well enough that both the 2 and 5 year old want their own version. The only problem is, they didn't give me a deadline!