1/10/2016: My first ever swap with the Vanna’s Choice Fan Club! I’d been patiently (read: impatiently) waiting to muster up the courage to join one of the swaps they help. There were several temping ones going on that fall, but this was the one that put me over the top. I simply couldn’t resist these colors, especially the tweeds - they are some of my favorite colorways in this brand.

This swap was a great experience for me. I’ve never done 9 inch squares for anything before and I found that I love making and designing them. They take so much less time than a 12 inch square. It was quite refreshing. Six new afghan square designs came out of this, and I’m extremely grateful for that. It helped keep me focused on my passion while I battled settling into a new job that I hated.

We swapped 24 squares among 14 swappers from September 2015 to November 2015. The 24 squares are labeled with their maker’s name in their photos. The 6 additional squares (already equalized) with no label are ones I made after the swap to make a larger blanket.

Something about the look of these colors tells me this blanket needs to be extra warm. So, I bought a 50” by 60” fleece blanket at WalMart with the hopes of lining my afghan to make it extra snuggly. The fleece blankets come with stitching around the edges and I’m hoping I can make my stitches into the same holes and just remove the thread they used. I might be crazy. It seems too easy, and I’m wondering what unforeseen problems I will encounter.

All the squares have been made and equalized. I have taken pictures of all of them. I can now load up the photos into Photoshop, mask them, and play with layouts. I’m absolutely dying to get on to joining.