Cute, Cuddly, & Crocheted

While pregnant with baby #5 recently, I saw a post by Jeannie at OFB showing some projects ladies in her sewing circle were making. One of them made some hand crocheted edging on receiving blankets. I thought they were lovely and decided to make some myself. It took a little trial and error to find the best way to make them. I ended up using 38" squares of cotton flannel, hemstitching them on my machine, and crocheting through the hemstitched holes with a #6 steel crochet hook and 10 weight crochet cotton.

Here's my first one; blue gingham with white edging:

My next one was on a special piece of blue Austrian flannel given to me by a friend:

I still had about 6 weeks till the baby was due, so I decided to make a white blanket with blue edging. BUT, it seemed too plain, so I embellished that one with a vintage puppy machine embroidery from one of my favorite digitizers, Juli at Sew Weird. She liked it, too! You'll see it's on her website!

I was having so much fun working on these. I'd keep one in a ziplock bag in my car and crochet on carpool, at dance class, OB visits, the dentist, and even while watching TV at night. I found the hand work relaxing and it was a special time to think about my soon-to-be little son. I found time to make one more: this one a buttery-yellow with matching edging and a vintage duck embroidery from EmbLibrary:

 I have used these blankets with Andy a lot! They are soft and cozy and wrap around perfectly.

I think these would make a great new baby gift, maybe with a matching flannel nightie. I may even make Andy a few more before winter!