Hexagons are too much fun. It seems like whether it's an African flower design or a simple double crochet style they pile up in a hurry. They're also one of the few blocks I prefer putting together with sl st by crochet hook rather than whip stitches with a needle. The reason is because they work very well with doing a ch 3 and skipping a small space between each sl st.

Also, the laying out and planning of the pattern is a good share of the fun in making blankets. I have an old version of Paint Shop Pro that works perfectly for what I need, starting with a template for block styles and using layers for particular parts of the design. This first one was a major stash buster and I felt like the colors were a little off. I also thought I had a picture of the whole thing but can't find it. However, I do still have my original template for it.

I ended up with some fuzzy yarn. I made fuzzy owls in a tree. The owl blocks are just circles outlined by a hex. For the other blocks I used a pattern from Yarnchick.

The most recent I made was specifically per request down to the colors, sizes, and styles of the blocks. I was happy to do it. They were thrilled.