A block with options…

Today kicks off the second Project Afghan/Lapghan class over at the Loom Class Group on Yahoo. The pattern is Flowers in my Baskets. It is a simple basketweave pattern decorated with flowers. The pattern describes how to embellish the square with embroidery. Not everyone enjoys embroidery so I wanted to talk about a few other options for this square. The first and simplest option would be to leave the square undecorated. 

As you can see, this square looks nice without the embroidery. However, if you are feeling like doing a little decorating, there are a few options. You can follow the pattern and embroider on your square.

    

The drawback with this option (in my opinion) is that the embroidery creates a right side and a wrong side for the block. This picture shows how the back will look after embroidering.

I am thinking the wrong side could be left as it is or decorated by adding some pretty felt shapes or squares.

Another option for this block would be to make Loom Blooms with the spool knitter and tie them on to your square. I really like how this turns out.

    

I love this option because both sides of the square are adorable. I’ve tied the loom blooms on the square with double knots. Then I made a bow and double tied that too. They should be quite secure.  This is how it looks on the other side.

    

A final suggestion would be some Simple Crochet Flowers. These can be attached with the same method as the Loom Blooms and so both sides of the square would be attractive with this option too.  I will have pictures of the crochet flowers for you tomorrow. 

For an afghan that needs to be less feminine, the block could be embroidered with sunbursts, stars, leaves, etc. - or just left undecorated.

Tomorrow I will post the instructions for the Simple Crocheted Flowers and the Loom Blooms so we’ll see you then Have a great day!