Blankets for Hospice

Recently, I've been making blankets to donate to the local Hospice. A lady at church (who heard me somewhat complaining that I loved making blankets but had no one to give them to) told me about it, saying that the workers would give blankets to patients as comfort items, and then it would be something for the family to keep as well, later on. I thought  it was a fantastic idea, and jumped in whole-heartedly. 

I thought originally I would make just straight up crochet blankets, like this one.

 While gorgeous, they are very time consuming (and unfortunately time is a precious commodity these days). I remembered seeing on a few websites things about adding crochet edging to fleece blankets, so I began looking into that as well, thinking those would be a nice way to supplement what I could crochet. 

I purchased a Skip Stitch blade from SkipStitch.com (which, by the way, is completely awesome and SO worth it), obtained a stockpile of fleece, and set to work. 

I decided I could use this as a means to learn some new edgings/etc. I haven't experimented a whole lot yet, but I will!

  

This was the first blanket fleece blanket I was able to finish. The fleece was a remnant I picked up at JoAnn Fabrics. Remnants there are ALWAYS 50% off, so I don't think I paid over $5 for this. The remnant section is always a good place to check for deals, just make sure you get a decent size. I usually look for those that are 1 yard, or just under.

 

 I also bought a few of the fleece blanket kits - the ones that come with two pieces of fleece you're supposed to tie. I used 40% off coupons on those to make them cheaper, and then used each piece of fleece separately. Two blankets from one kit! Usually, there's one printed fleece and one plain. 

This blanket was part of a kit. The other fleece was a plain green. I taught myself the picot stitch for this, because I thought it mimicked the dinosaur's ridges. 

 

This was a blanket kit too, paired with black. I loved the colors and the ruffle-y edge just seemed to fit!

 

 

This was another remnant from JoAnn. I grabbed it especially because it's more masculine in color/style. Can't forget about the guys! :)

 

 

There's a few blankets I didn't bother getting photos of, as they were plain. There's one more blanket that I didn't mention that I'm going to post about separately, as it's a bit more special. 

I've already started on my next batch of donation blankets, so hopefully there'll be another postful finished soon!

I was also asked to make some 'prayer squares' for memory boxes, and maybe even some flowers. Already got a start on those too! :)