Summertime Patchwork Quilt Blanket - finished at last!

 Happy news this week, as I've finished my Summertime Patchwork Quilt Blanket. I started this in September 2011 and it's been a really good evenings-in-front-of-the-TV sort of project. I've worked on other things in between as well, which is why it's taken two and a half years, but I'm happy now to call this project finished. It's the last week of summer so it's just in time... and actually today a wintery cold front has blown in, so I'll need this blanket anyway! (9 degrees in February, what??)

 I used a variety of yarns. It began as a stash buster, but I had to buy a few balls as well to fill out the colour range. They are all around the 4-ply weight and I used a 3.75mm hook. For a couple of yarns which were thicker (like the blue) I used the same sized hook, but did the last round in hdc instead of dc.

I sewed the hexagons together as I worked. My method was to make about 6 or so, then sew in the ends. Then I would lay out the blanket and arrange the new pieces, and safety pin them in place. (This meant I could fold up the blanket out of the way when I wasn't working on it.) When I had a good lot of hexies pinned, I'd have an evening of sewing them in. I used my most neutral coloured thread which I decided was peach, and whipstitched them together through the back loops only. This helped give a bit of textural interest and more of a 'quilted' look.

I always knew I wanted a simple white edging with perhaps some picots. I did dabble on Pinterest for a while looking at fancy lacy borders and whatnot, but in the end I went with my original vision and I think it's perfect. I decided to make half-hexies to fill in the obvious gaps in the ends, but I liked the points on the long edges and they set off the picots nicely.

 I even steam blocked the blanket to get it to drape nicely. It was very easy and made sure that the edges held their shape.

 Here's the whole blanket laid out after I blocked it. It's a good, drapey, 1-2 person blanket, nice and lightweight, perfect for cool summer evenings.

 You can see my project page here on Ravelry.

Basic Hexagon Pattern

(US terminology)

Round 1: make a magic ring. Ch 3 (counts as first dc), dc into ring, ch 1. 2 dc into ring, ch 1, repeat 4 times (12 dc). Slip stitch into first ch 3. (2 dc in each branch of hexagon)

Round 2: Ch 3, dc into next 2 dc, dc into corner ch, ch 1, dc into corner ch, repeat around. (4 dc in each branch of hexagon)

Round 3: Repeat as for Round 2, with 6 dc in each branch of hexagon. If using a thicker yarn, do this round in hdc instead of dc.