First let me give you the background to this blanket. I have been part of a rather amazing group of ladies for five years now. They live across the length and breadth of the UK and beyond and come from all walks of life. We all have one thing in common, we were all pregnant in 2009 and had similar due dates so are, I think, a unique support group for each other. For me that 2009 pregnancy is now a wonderful independent spirited little girl who is known to her family as Lulu.
Anyway, one of these ladies contacted me recently after seeing Lulu's Nursery blanket, if you haven't seen it you can read all about it here. She had seen my photos and loved the blanket and what Lulu herself calls its 'purple heart'. She asked me could I make a similar, but smaller version of Lulu's blanket for her new baby. I of course said "I'd love to"
so I began making all this rainbow squares again
This time I made the squares smaller, as the blanket was to be smaller. and I edged them in cream, just to be a little bit different to Lulu's blanket
Once I had made all 56 squares the girls and I set about laying them out in various different designs, always with purple at their heart, for the blanket's owner to choose from. The good news for me was that she pretty much loved everything we showed her, the bad news was she couldn't decide which she liked best, so we decided to ask the world of Facebook and instagram for advice. I made up a photograph with nine different layouts on it:
I then posted it on Instagram and Facebook simply asking which one people liked best. My plan had been to make up a wee graph or pie chart with the results to see if there one clear favourite. However we got over 100 replies on IG and on the Facebook post here we had almost 700 responses. I have to be honest we were both blown away by this. I know how many 'follower' my Facebook page has but have never had a response like this to anything I have posted, and I suspect I never will again.
What was interesting was that there were two real clear favourites, I quickly abandoned the pie chart idea, because quite frankly I was overwhelmed with responses, so much so that I switched off all notifications for a few days as there were just so many.
Eventually a decision was made, and after another day or two of indecision a layout was picked, so I set about making it. And I am now proud to show you the new blanket and the winning layout:
It is a riot of colour and I adore it, I even got a sunny day to photograph it
The winning layout was by far the most popular choice on Facebook, and it was picture number 5, so if this was your favourite and you took the time to tell us, thank you. If this wasn't your favourite, thank you just the same for taking part in our not so little survey, and I hope you like the final blanket, even if it wasn't your first choice.
It will shortly be heading off to its new home where I am confident it will be loved as much as it is here. Thank you again to everyone who helped
Kirsty
