Grow With Me

I made one weighted blanket.  And since then, I've gotten several requests for them.  Here's the problem with weighted blankets.   They get outgrown.  And fast.  So I got creative.  Or lazy.  But I'm going to go with creative.  I decided to do a rag quilt so that the rows can be added on when the kiddo grows.  And it is so much easier to fill the blanket with the weighted pellets.  So here's how it ended up.  And for once, I got to make a blanket for a tween girl.  Something more grown up.  But still girly.

And I think it looks great.   So here's how I did it.

First I cut all 96 blocks in 6" squares.  I was giving myself half inch seam allowance.  So my ending square size is 5".

Then I sewed around 3 sides of the squares.

So they looked a little like this when I was done.  I did one row at a time.  For me it was easier that way.  I also cut my edges after each row.  

And then I filled the squares with the poly pellets and sewed that side up.  

This was the much easier way to do these blankets.  Last one I did I was up and down and up and down.  It took an empty wrapping paper roll and funnel to fill it.  And then I had to worry about the pellets moving around while sewing up the whole row of squares.  No messes or mishaps.

And then I sewed those squares into rows.   And then sewed the rows together.  I did one row.  Then after the second row, I snipped the edges.

Because it's been so cold and windy and rainy, my wrists hurt.  I'm sure it's the weather.  So I stood my scissors up and held my wrist straight.  Less pain for me.  And by snipping after each row, I was able to be sure I got every single square/row/edge.

So this is what it looked like after it was all said and done.  I love the color choices.  It is for a tween.  And I figured a little bit grown up would be better than little kid fabric.  And this way, they can add on.  Or I can I add on as she needs it to grow.  I'm not sure I will ever find that same fabric.  But it could easily use plain pinks,blues, greys, and creams.