Cut-chenille blanket

I recently came across this beautiful blanket and its tutorial. I thought to myself: "I only have two part-time jobs, a baby and a home to care for. I'm so bored that I should totally do this."



It's not really a cheap project, or a fast one. That's because you need a yard of quilters cotton and three yards of flannel.

I started with these fabrics. I am not one for peace signs, but I knew you couldn't see them in the end result, and I like that they had the chartreuse color.



The basic idea is that you layer all of these together, channel quilt every 1/2 inch and then cut through only the flannel.







Then you bind and wash. The washing fluffs and frays the flannel into beautiful chenille. See the lovely tutorial at Aesthetic Nest for more detail on the how-to. Hers was so beautiful, I had to try it. I thought it would be a fairly easy project, but it did take quite a lot of work, so I don't think I'd do another.



Instead of doing a square, I left mine as a rectangle to utilize more of my fabric. I'm glad I did, because it was pretty wonky by the time I finished all the channel stitching, and I had to cut off quite a bit to square it up.



Although I loved Aesthetic Nest's beautiful satin binding, I decided to go with a cotton in a chartreuse that matched the blanket. I'm loving the effect.

As much as I want to stare at this forever, I have decided to give it to Amy "Chickenbone Jones," who is having her second baby in June (I think! I know a lot of pregnant people right now and I'm starting to lose track of due dates.)



I hope Amy doesn't see this, but if she does, it will be there eventually. I am pretty lazy about visiting the post office. She doesn't know the sex of her baby, but I think this blanket would be fine for either a girl or a boy, despite it being blue.

Just for fun, here's the quilt I made for Mia, her first.