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August
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September
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For July, I'm posting twice this month since I'm adding an additional category of crafts. The Beckman extended family, aunts, uncles and cousins meet every summer for a week long family reunion, a tradition that's been going on for years. One of the favorite activities, besides eating, is doing crafts together and/or bring completed themed projects, themes usually decided the previous year. Over the years we have made quilts (including how to do a stained glass quilt), Christmas ornaments, woven baskets, made items from drink cozies, made items from wooden embroidery hoops, decorated hats, painted pictures and various other crafts. We are a creative bunch and always have a wonderful time making things together or sharing what we have created prior to reunion time. This year, we did a color of the month block project. We designated a color for each month beginning in August, which was after last year's reunion. Each person could decide how they would accomplish the project and use whatever medium of their choice. Several cousins and my youngest daughter, Aubree, are using fabric and making quilts. My oldest daughter, Tabitha, is knitting a multicolored scarf. Several cousins crochet like me and are making afghans. I've been crocheting for over 40 years, and find it very relaxing and am always working on multiple projects. I also have a considerable collection of yarn and completed crocheted blocks of various sizes so decided this was the perfect project to use stuff from my stash and make myself an afghan. I have been making 12 block granny square afghans for years, over 10 at least, and I've lost count how many I've given away as graduation, Christmas, wedding, and birthday gifts but have never made one for myself.
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October
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November
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My first afghans were made for my daughters while they were in high school and I patterned them after a scrap quilt using different yarns within the same color scheme to make the blocks then crocheted them together with a coordinating yarn. After that, I just kept making them as gifts, using the recipient's favorite or chosen colors. Over the years, I've also crocheted multiple baby blankets as well. I've been given yarn and unfinished projects, bought yarn at stores and also picked up yarn and completed squares at garage sales especially church ones. I also inherited a whole bunch of finished granny squares made by my husband, John's maternal grandmother. I incorporate these squares into my own finished squares, crocheting them together with coordinating yarn. I feel it's a way of honoring the women that crocheted them by making them into something warm and useful. Each square tells a story, sometimes I share that with the person receiving the afghan, sometimes not. But for this afghan, I'm sharing the stories.
August color is yellow, I had just finished a wedding afghan for one of my nieces and her colors were yellow and red so used the leftover yellow yarn for my square.
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September is orange, the small orange squares were from a bunch of squares I had gotten at a church garage sale years ago. A lady from the church had made a bunch of squares in various colors and they sold them together in a bag and I bought the whole bag. I've used most of those squares over the years. The rest of the yarn was small balls of leftovers that I used to make the square.
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May
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October is black, I crocheted another niece a Batman themed afghan as a wedding gift and made a bunch of 2 inch black squares and then realized they were too big so made smaller ones. I used these extra squares putting them together with leftover gray and black yarn.
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June
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November is brown, the middle yellow and brown square was made by John's grandmother, Mama Steve, put together with several small balls of leftover brown and variegated yarn. I never met her, she passed away before John and I were married but I have added her squares to every afghan I have made for a Beckman family member so added several to mine as well. In her later years, she would sit and crochet granny squares for something to do making hundreds of squares. Over the years, I have used almost all of them.
December is silver/gray, I had several skeins of red, green and metallic silver Christmas variegated yarn in my stash, probably purchased after some Christmas sale, plus some really soft gray yarn leftover from making fingerless gloves for Christmas gifts.
January is white, I like the contrast of white and cream so just used leftover yarn of each.
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July
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February is pink, I had made a wedding afghan and several baby blankets using pink yarn so used leftovers for this square. I put it together with leftover white yarn to unify the different shades of pink.
March is green, so this square is made by 3 different people. I got the dark green squares in a bag at a church garage sale years ago. I'm not sure where the light green squares came from, I either picked them up at some sale or someone gave them to me. I put them all together with some green yarn I had.
April is purple, I had several skeins different shades of purple yarn in my stash which I used to make a wedding afghan in purple and gray. I used the leftover purples for my square.
May is blue, the blue and white squares were also made by Mama Steve. I put them together with white and a small ball leftover blue variegated.
June is aqua, the aqua and white square in the middle was also one of Mama Steve's. I had a small leftover ball of aqua yarn and put it all together with white.
July is red, I have a lot of skeins of red yarn in my stash and had completed a wedding afghan in red and gray so used leftover reds with white in between for this one.
Enjoy
Bamah
