I should really be working on the last blanket instead of writing this (or I should be in bed), and yet, here I am.  My mind has been racing with all the holiday crafts ideas floating about and I'm dying to get them all down. 

Of course, I'm sure I've forgotten the majority of the ideas, but they'll eventually come to me again.  I have a file box somewhere with ideas from years ago.  I wonder if some of the recent ideas are really old ideas I've forgotten.  That's certainly something I would do.  Unfortunately, hiccups are preventing me from remembering much of anything right about now (or is it lack of sleep?), so I'll have to start jotting down those ideas when they come to me.

I considered writing out the instructions for the no-sew blankets but I found a link for the No-Sew Fleece Blanket that works just as well.  It's so easy, even my craft-challenged friends can do this.  Thankfully, it's not necessary to follow the directions exactly.  I am pretty confident that my strips are not all exactly one inch wide nor my corners five inches by five inches. but once it's all together no one will know the difference.

These are the two fabrics I selected for all three blankets.  I spent one evening laying them out and trimming them all.  I pinned them with safety pins so they wouldn't come apart when I moved them since I knew there would be no way I would get close to cutting the strips that night.  It takes an amazing amount of time to get these fabrics trimmed, especially times three!  I made one of these for my mother-in-law a couple years ago (used pinking shears that time... never again!) and I vaguely remember it taking me slightly longer than I had expected.  I attribute that to the pinking shears and lack of experience.  This time, I think it's just taking me so long because of the fact that I'm dealing with three blankets here (and I'm slightly less than motivated).

I started cutting the strips yesterday during Sophie's nap.  I managed to make it halfway through one of the blankets (wasn't being my most efficient).  I took the time to pin the edges just so my strips would be somewhat even, but I didn't bother to measure.  I have this extremely awful habit of eyeballing measurements and placements, but I'm usually pretty good at being very close, if not dead on.  When pinning this, I pinned one side and then cut (here, the pins shown are all on one side, but folded in half to make it easier to pin the second half - only half the guesswork involved this way!), and then pinned another side and cut.  Tonight, when cutting the remaining strips in that blanket, I actually folded the blanket in half and just used what was already cut as a guideline.  The second blanket I cut tonight was done in a slightly different manner.  I folded the two sides together and then cut them together (talk about saving time!).

I put a safety pin in each of the corners to make sure the blanket stayed together enough that I wouldn't have to worry about which way the material goes and now have two blankets ready to knot.  That can easily be done with Sophie around since there are no scissors (I use my deadly-cut-yourself-and-bleed-super-sharp scissors for projects like this, so I don't like to have them out when she's awake) and no pins (again with the deadly - these little glass head straight pins are killer!) involved in knotting.

Most likely I will have to spray these again with the Static Guard.  I noticed a bit of static electricity tonight, but not much.  I don't want to have to deal with that at all, though.  I'll spray them tonight before I go to bed and they should be fine for tomorrow.  I will definitely have to vacuum and lint brush when the blankets are completed because the green fabric loves to leave fuzzies behind.  It's rather annoying to see all of my pillows, my sofa, our clothing, and even the dog covered with little green fuzzies.

Now, off to attack the last baby blanket and then to bed!