Constellation Baby Blanket

In the spirit of free hand crochet items, I thought I'd also post my very first attempt at totally making things up: a constellation baby blanket!

A friend of mine in nursing school is having a baby!  And given he frequency with which he wears space-themed shirts, I thought this would be the perfect plan.  I looked up a constellation map online, and found a portion that would be somewhat square.  I also wanted it to include my favorite constellation (Cassiopeia) and a famous one (the little dipper).  I happened to use August 2012.

Here's the final result:

And a closer look at eat of the constellations:

Cepheus 

Freestyle Van Gogh Blanket

I love Vincent Van Gogh.  I think his art is amazing, and his personal history is intriguing.  You can only imagine how thoroughly excited I was to discover the Doctor Who episode Vincent and the Doctor.  Holy Moly. Yes, I know I'm a huge nerd for that admission.

My brother is also a lover of art.  He is by far my superior in skill, creativity, and sense of humor; he just rarely actually does it.  His ceramics and cartoons blow me out of the water and he barely even tries. So when I didn't get a birthday present done in time I knew I had to bring my A game for christmas.  I am a fast worker, but I started this months in advance and still didn't finish it quite in time for christmas.

Without further ado, here is the painting that acted as my inspiration:

I tried to pick a painting that I could simplify to a few colors and more simplistic shapes. I wanted it to be recognizable. So I ended up with this lovely painting of a wheat field with cypresses. I printed it out and broke it up into color shapes.  Basically a color-by-number kind of deal.