While I was working on the Hat Project, the ladies group at my church decided to work on its own project: prayer blankets to offer to members and friends of our congregation who might need a pick-me-up or reminder that there are people out there who care for them and are thinking about and praying for them. The Prayer Blanket Project began.
We decided to make some simple fleece blankets. It was something we could get together and do in a morning, and there are several different ways of doing the edgings that we could incorporate ladies of all skill levels. I made a few samples to show off the different tied and braided edgings that are popular with fleece blankets these days, but I also put together a little crochet edge sample for those ladies who might want to do something a little more advanced.
It takes a bit longer to do a crochet-edged blanket because you have to start with a blanket stitch around the edge. Then you have to crochet the decorative edging.
But the end result is just beautiful. I started with a shell stitch, and I think I did a double crochet around the outside of that. I had seen a tutorial about how to do a flower border, but I thought flowers every shell or two would be a bit much for this tiny sample. I only added them to the corners.
One of our ladies is a nurse in one of the local hospitals, and she is the one who came up with the idea initially in one of our meetings. She mentioned that in these trying times when patients are limited on the number of visitors they can receive, she noticed sometimes they have these small lap blankets with them that someone has given them, and it has brought them at least some amount of comfort. We hope that these blankets we have made will give our friends the same small comfort that she noticed in her patients. We certainly poured all our love and prayers into them.
If you would like some really great tutorials on no-sew fleece blankets, here are two that I found and loved:
- a Tied Fleece blanket tutorial by A Fresh Squeezed Life
- a Braided-Edge blanket tutorial by Cutesy Crafts
Both were super easy to follow and so great!
Don't Be Latte! 