Finishing someone else's WIPs

In with the yarn that I collected recently were several projects that had been started but not finished.  One was a pile of lilac double crochet squares, a couple of which had a darker lavender border.  Another was a granny square approximately 26 inches across.  Seeing these unfinished objects or UFOs really gave me pause for thought; how many have I got of my own?  At least half a dozen, I should think!  I really must finish them off before I start any more new items.  But then a friend sent me some beautiful 4 ply yarn in pale green which was crying out to be made into baby cardigans with a lacy leaf design, so guess what I cast on at the weekend...........

But I digress - back to the blankets.  There were 23 lilac squares in total, 3 with a border.  I tried to reproduce the border on one of the plain squares, but without success.  So the 20 plain lilac ones were joined with darker lavender yarn using a slip stitch join, which gives the illusion of a border.  I then made a broad border of half trebles and v stitches, before finishing with a shell edging in the darker colour.

At 30 inches by 36 it's a practical size for a baby blanket.  However, I am rather tempted to crochet some motifs (flowers?) and sew them on some of the squares to make it a bit prettier.

The other blanket was crocheted in 3 or 4 ply yarn in cream, brown and fawn.  I found additional balls of cream and brown in among the stash, but I couldn't find the fawn.  So I added in some apricot 3 ply from my own stash which seemed to go well with the other colours.  By trial and error I decided a size 3.5 hook would best match my tension to the previous crocheter's, and carried on until the blanket was approximately 38 inches across.  A simple shell border finished it off.

I'm not sure that the colours are ideal for a baby blanket, but perhaps this one could be used to wrap around an elderly person's shoulders or legs.

It is very strange, completing work started by someone else, not really knowing what their intentions were.  There is another pile of crochet squares, 18 of them this time, that I need to plan to use.  But I have a green cardigan with a leaf pattern on to finish first!