Another blanket done

This is a blanket I made for a friend who is having her baby in June. I made it the end of April, but I let it sit wrapped and ready to mail, on my desk for 6 weeks so I couldn't post pictures of it. I finally mailed it last week, so now I can post the pictures. =)

I went to a class at the mall to learn how to do this. It is similar to a rag quilt, but it is using a chenille technique. Basically, you take four 1 yard pieces of flannel, make a sandwich out of them, and then sew on the diagonal every 1/2 in. of the fabric. We used a really cool product called 505 spray to keep the fabric from shifting. It is like a spray glue, and it was applied to each layer of the "sandwich". Anyway, after you sew every 1/2 inch, there is this cool cutting tool (called a chenille cutter) and you cut the first three layers of fabric between the sewing lines, making very sure you don't cut through the last layer. It ends up showing the middle colors of the blanket in a fuzzy kind of pattern. On this one, I made the diagonals go in two directions and only sliced every three lines, but some people made theirs look like a checkerboard...one square blank, and the next with the fuzzy lines. After all the sewing and cutting, you have to wash it and dry it, and that is what makes the cut lines get their fuzzy look. This was a fairly quick project. I got the whole thing sewed and almost all the way cut by the time the class was over, and when I got home, I finished the slicing and washed and dried it. I finished it by sewing around the perimeter, and snipping it, but you could also bind the edges.

Finished blanket

Close up

Front and Back