My Blanket Stack
Published on November 28, 2023

Gumdrop Garden Blanket FOs, Plus Tips to Finish More Pieces in Less Time!

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Hello, gorgeous crafter! Today I have some downtime, and I wanted to show you what I have been working on to keep me busy during these long Fall evenings. My Gumball Blanket pattern has been a go-to for making multiple motifs in one sitting, and then joining them with a continuous granny stitch join as-you-go for the ultimate comfort make.

Here is the pattern if you want to make this one too! Warning, the motifs are very addictive, but the good thing is that this blanket is very versatile. You can make any combination of the motifs given in the pattern, and you’ll have a different blanket every time.

Gumdrop Garden Blanket Pattern

You can find this pattern free, here on my website, and you can find the convenient PDF pattern on Etsy, Ravelry, and in my online shop.

Now let’s take a look at the blankets I’ve been working up!

Gumdrop Garden Blanket No. 1

This is the first little granny square that I made, and I used this square as the size example for all of the other motifs in the pattern. All of the other motifs needed to be this exact size, and with this exact final stitch count in order to make the blanket work.

A Rundown of the Motifs

My favorite thing about this pattern is that you can use any remnants that you have! You can hide odd colors in the granny stitch rounds, and use up all of your extra bits and ends.

Sometimes I even work two rounds in the same color just to use it up, and to create extra visual interest. You can see in the top two squares above, that there are two rounds worked in the same color. This is really to show that anything goes when you’re crocheting a whimsical blanket like this!

Next, I made a circle-to-square granny style motif. I just love this one! Such a sweet pattern.

Here are some examples of that square. These greens and purples are really calling me!

The star of the Gumdrop Garden Blanket is this floral motif. The blanket design layout is like a checkerboard with this floral motif as every other square, and then all of the other patterns are mixed randomly to make up the other color of the checkerboard.

I’ll show you what I mean when we get to the full photos!

These floral motifs are the most fun. I just love how the colors play together.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a CypressTextiles design without some randomness thrown in! So in this design, I also include a random lacy floral motif to break up the blanket and add interest.

Work in Progress Photos

Here is just a small example of how I work my motifs, assembly line style by starting all of the centers, then continuing with the next rounds, and so on until several motifs are finished all at once.

Faster FOs Quick Tip No. 1!

This allows me to feel more accomplished as I create my blanket and is just one of the ways that I finish more projects in less time! If you work one motif at a time, each motif feels like a “stopping point” when you can start to do something else, or get distracted.

If you work them like an assembly line, then ten motifs can be your stopping point, and you’re more likely to plow through them without getting distracted.

My WIP photo! Planning out where I want to place the motifs, and seeing how many more of each I would need to make for this blanket.

Okay, now for the nitty gritty… This is some of the scrap and remnant yarn that I am pulling colors from. This is another reason why I work my motifs in an assembly line manner, because it helps me spread out colors when I am trying to finish up extra balls of yarn.

Faster FOs Quick Tip No. 2!

I love seeing my pile of remnant yarn getting smaller and smaller as I go, and this feels the best when my little balled up yarn remnants are completely disappearing one by one. Working a little bit from each ball just doesn’t have the same effect as using them up all at once.

If you have several motifs going at once, you can spread out the color through the blanket and use up the whole remnant ball! This is all to work toward the goal of keeping you motivated, which of course leads you to finish your blanket faster.

Also pictures above at the left are little pieces of motifs that did not end up being used in their original projects, which will be undone, or frogged, to use in this scrappy Gumdrop Garden design.

Now we’re talking!

You can see here the checkerboard layout that I mentioned earlier. Every other motif is the floral pattern, and then all of the other motifs in the “checkerboard” are about half and half of the square granny and the circle granny, and then a few of the lacy floral motifs are scattered through as well.

This design feels like a charm bracelet to me! such a total comfort make.

My remnant pile decreased by a lot! This is what’s left over from my motifs.

Now I can use up these scraps in the next Gumdrop Garden Blanket!

Joining Progress!

My favorite fast join is this granny stitch continuous join as-you-go. I have the free pattern available here on my site! If you’re looking for something quick and easy to put your squares together, this is it!

I have heard so many times, “I love making squares, but I hate joining them together.” If that is you, then you should definitely give this join a try.

Faster FOs Quick Tip No. 3!

Working a continuous join as-you-go is a great way to give your project a speedy finish. I mentioned before that creating a longer “stopping point” is a great way to keep yourself from getting distracted, and this is another way to do that!

When you join one motif at a time, each time you join on a square, you are at a natural “stopping point.” On the contrary, working a continuous join essentially means that your natural stopping point will be after each row of squares, versus after each individual square.

All Finished!

Here is the blanket all done! For the Gumdrop Garden Blanket, I always add a simple border of single crochet, double crochet, single crochet. These three rounds give the design a stable finish without taking away anything from the motifs.

The texture of this join is adorable. I love how the joins kind of stand up a bit, creating a waffle effect. If you block the blanket out, you can eliminate this texture if desired.

Another close-up so you can see how the motifs play together.

Now let’s look at the next Gumdrop Garden I made!

Gumdrop Garden Blanket No. 2

Here are the motifs I used for the second Gumdrop Garden blanket I created from this pile of remnants. A lot of the colors are similar because it is from the same scraps basket, but some colors are left out, such as the orange, because I wanted to keep them all in the same piece.

The great thing about these blankets is that you can use colors that you would not normally put together, and they end up looking great.

In these motifs, I used a bright lime green that I could not fit into any other project that I have going on. So, I hid the bright green in some of the motifs, and it ended up just blending into the blanket, as planned.

Check out the finish of this piece! Isn’t this just the perfect cozy square blanket? Of course, you can choose like 8-10 colors and make a planned palette blanket, but for this piece, I just loved using my remnants.

I also made a decision to work a fun picot at the edge of this blanket just to add a fun finish.

What a gorgeous make this became. I love this pattern!

Blocking out, so that I can open up the join a bit. Those corners are so pretty!

The next Gumdrop Garden Blankets are made in a pastel palette. Let’s look!

Gumdrop Garden Blankets No. 3 and 4

For my third Gumdrop Garden, I took apart an old WIP that I knew I would never finish. Instead of throwing it away, I reused the yarn to create a whole new blanket.

Here is the first motif! A lacy floral square.

This palette is so cute with soft pastel colors. Those rich brown shades elevate the palette so it’s super sophisticated!

I wanted to show you the blanket that I am taking apart. There is a striking cobalt blue as well, to give a “pop” of color. This pattern is my Amazon Blanket, and the yarn is Scheepjes Softfun, and Softfun Denim. My favorite yarn for blankets is Softfun – I highly recommend it as it’s squishy, not fuzzy, and it has wonderful stitch definition.

Where to Shop

You can purchase these yarns through my affiliate links, and I will gain a small commission at no additional cost to you!

I used square grannies and circle grannies in this project as well. Here, I also used a darker brown to add some more contrast and to use up some more remnants.

This is the color I have been joining with for my Gumdrop Garden Blankets so far. Once I use all of this cream color in my stash, I hope to join a few blankets with a bolder hue!

These cutie squares 🙂

Finished Blankets!

And here is the blanket all worked up. The pops of dark blue and dark brown really give the blanket personality. If you have eagle eyes, you can find the little bits of aqua that I used up in this blanket as well.

With this versatile pattern, I decided to make every other square out of the lacy floral motif, and then use the granny square and circle for the other squares.

Surprise!! Here is the second pastel Gumdrop Garden Blanket that I made with these same remnants. They look like they could be the same blanket, but you can see that they are indeed different from one another.

After staring at these two pieces, I decided I really didn’t want to keep them apart, so…

I Combined Two Blankets Into One!

I simply frogged the borders and the final rounds of joining on one blanket, and I just continued the piece by joining the top row of squares on one blanket to the bottom row of squares on the other blanket.

This is the final result after adding a Floating Picot Border. I like this blanket much better, and I feel like it doesn’t even look as though I joined two blankets together because the colors are spread out enough.

I just love this piece! Talk about the ultimate comfort make.

One final shot for you!

And how the full blanket looks. Floating Picot Border is perfect for this blanket, but really any border will work as you have seen through this post.

Gumdrop Garden will forever by my go-to stash buster and remnant user-upper! I am working on another one as we speak, slowly making it through my Softfun stash. I never get bored with these quick little squares!

Thank you for dropping in to see my new FOs! Hope you have a great week, and happy crafting!

Rachele C.

Order my book: The Art of Crochet Blankets

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