May 16, 2018

I chose my colors and made my first square last night -- the Ana Maria square, which was technically square #2 from the first CAL. It measures exactly 6”.

May 17, 2018

I’ve added the dc round and the Celtic Lace Mini Join to the first square as a test. I think they look lovely so my plan is to join the future squares as I go.

May 25, 2018

I finished the Rebecca square today (which was actually square #1 from the original CAL). I tried it first but found the tall puff stitches a pain to get neat, so I skipped it, but I hate backing down from a challenge! I substituted hdc and dc for the last two rounds (which were sc in the pattern) in order to get it to the same size as the Ana Maria square.

Rachele released the first week’s squares for the reboot CAL today! She’s doing videos for them all which is nice (the 2016 CAL did not have videos).

May 27, 2018

I have finished the first two squares from the reboot CAL and added them with the JAYG. I like how she joins into the top of a beginning cluster to make it look like all the others -- very neat.

June 8, 2018

I’ve just finished two more VVCAL16 squares, Cecilia and Nicolas, as well as the two from VVCAL18 week 2, Weeping Willow and Madrone. I still need to join them to the four I’ve done so far, but first I need to decide what the dimensions are going to be.

I just measured the squares and they are 10.5” including the borders. So, if I do 8 across that will be 84” before the border. If the border is about 6” wide (strangely I can’t figure that out from the pattern), that will add 12”, so 96”x96”. This should be perfect since a standard Queen comforter (according to Google) is 92”x96”. (My plan is to use this as the Summer blanket on my queen size guest bed, whenever I get a guest room set up, with the Stardust Melodies blanket being for Winter.)

Rachele released two more squares for VVCAL18 today so hopefully I’ll get a chance to work on those (and two from VVCAL16) this weekend.

June 23, 2018

I added three more squares today, so I’m up to 16, so I’m basically up to date (a little ahead) of the CAL except I’ve done VVCAL16 squares instead of the plain grannies, and I’ve joined them all already.

July 10, 2018

I just finished and joined the Red Maple square, which is #20 out of 64. I also made a color plan using the (free) Autodesk SketchBook app that I highly recommend for this purpose.

July 27, 2018

I’ve finished the Cypress and Palm Tree squares from week 9 of the VVCAL reboot though I haven’t joined them. Now I’m going to do the Rachel and Mary squares from week 8 and week 10 of the 2016 CAL. (Note that I skipped the Michele Square and will need to come back to it.)

I also switched the order of a few squares (from my color plan) in order to avoid similar style squares right next to each other, so the next to join will be Cypress (Plum), Palm Tree (Grey), Rachel (Petrol), Sunflower (Lincoln), Mary (Grape). Maybe I’ll also do Michele (Vintage Peach) so that I have 1/2 the squares (32) done.

August 3, 2018

I have finished the week 10 squares, Cedar (Grape) and Plumeria (Grey), and next I’ll do the 2016 CAL squares Sofia (Raspberry) and Ashley (Parma Violet). But I’m going away this weekend (to the Berkshires) so I won’t be able to finish this week’s squares before the next come out later today.

August 12, 2018

The week 10 squares are done and next I will border and join them.

After that I will do week 11, Ponderosa (Duck Egg), and Australian Gum (Cypress). Followed by two from VVCAL 16, Faye (Petrol), and Raymond (Storm Blue).

The week 12 squares came out two days ago, so I am a little behind at this point.

August 20, 2018

I’ve just added the week 11 squares to the blanket, finishing the fifth row. Next up are week 12: Redbud (Lincoln), Lilly Pilly (Petrol), Gabriella (Duck Egg), Beth (Grape).

August 23, 2018

I’ve just finished adding the last square of row 6. So, 48/64 squares or 3/4 done with the body of the blanket.

September 9, 2018

I just finished the 7th row! Just 8 squares left -- 56/64 done.

September 16, 2018

All the squares are done and joined!

September 18, 2018

Yesterday and today I finished the first four rows of the border (including the DC setup row because I am using the Celtic Lace Mini Join). For the last two rows I did them concurrently since they are in different colors which made it more fun. (Each side is 263 stitches on the initial SC round, so it takes quite a while to get around the whole blanket.)

September 25, 2018

And she’s done! Exactly four months after I started, I put the last two rounds of the border on today. The border turned out every bit as lovely as I hoped it would be and it is a perfect complement to the lacy squares and join. This blanket was a pleasure from beginning to end.