It really does feel like a lifetime ago that I cut out a whole lot of chenille and fabric five inch square to sew lap blankets with.  I have had two sets cut out ready to sew for about ten years.  It was time to get that project done!

Clare gave me a hand figuring out the placement of the squares. There were more chenille squares than fabric ones for this lap rug. Mixing fabric of such different thicknesses and textures meant that it was very unlikely that I could do perfect matching where seams met, but I gave it a red hot go. I chose to sew the squares together on the overlocker – gasp! – because those chenille squares drop fluff all over the place and the edges really did need to be finished.

It was surprisingly fast to sew the squares together, and before I knew it I had two finished tops. The chenille is vintage, repurposed fabric that I believe came from bedspreads. The fabric squares are often from scraps left over from clothes that I sewed for the girls when they were little, so they contain quite a few memories.

These colourways and fabrics really do reflect where things were in the world of craft blogs 10+ years ago! Fortunately, they still really appeal to me, and to the girls. The next thing that I needed to do was back them. I wasn’t planning on them become proper quilts with batting in the centre and stitching; just simple lap blankets. Because of the stay-at-home rules I jumped online and found some plush velour/microfleecwe backing at Spotlight. It was delivered suprisingly quickly! I then just laid the rug on top of the batting, right sides together, sewed around them leave a small opening to turn the blanket to the right side, and then topstitched around the edge.

They’re just the right size for draping across your knees. And I’m so glad to have them finished!