Free Motion Mavericks - Week 305 - A Weighted Blanket

Stretched out on my daughter's bed in all its lumpy glory, the weighted blanket looks colourful but slightly odd.  Because it is so thick and heavy it can't be folded, so it has to be stored rolled up.  It ends up creased and lacks the soft and cosy visual appeal of a quilt.    

Every pocket contains a weighted pad, and the total weight is approximately 9 kilograms.  Being of a certain age, I had to convert all the measurements to imperial, which conveniently worked out as approximately 20lbs.  With the blanket measuring 6ft 6in x 4ft 6in, I calculated that it needed about 2 and a half ounces for every 6 inch square.  A single pad doesn't feel particularly heavy, but once the whole blanket is rolled up it is like carrying a small sack of coal.  I tried it out, just lying under it for a couple of minutes, and felt as though I was being crushed under a board, thinking that if I slept under it it would give me nightmares.

Last Friday we visited my nephew and his family in Berkshire to deliver the blanket to them, so they could arrange for it to be passed on to my niece and her husband, who live in Surrey.  It reached its destination on Sunday.  Yesterday my niece gave me the first progress report on how her husband's night had been - 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep, the best he had managed for ages.  Of course I was pleased that the blanket seemed to be having the desired effect, but also aghast at hearing how badly he has been sleeping.  As expected, the request has now been made for another pocketed cover, but in a more manly colour scheme. 

Meanwhile, all the nursery prints have been a great hit with the family.  My niece is on a nostalgic roll, remembering all the pyjamas and nighties her granny used to make.  Altogether, I used seven fabrics left by my sister in law's mother, and two left by my mum.  The blue flowers on a white background made up most of the back...

... but I needed a large piece of a different floral fabric for one corner.  When we were at my nephew's house on Friday, his 7 year old daughter immediately recognised these flowers, and produced a doll's coat made by her great granny with this fabric for the lining.  It was wonderful using up all these scraps and keeping them in the family.

Here goes for Week 305 :-

Many thanks to Chris for linking up with her flower appliqué mini quilt.  If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more.

 

If you have no free motion quilting to show, feel free to link up and show any project you like.  Here are the usual rules, but feel free to ignore them.  To keep the original emphasis, however, preference will be given to free motion quilting when featuring projects from the previous week.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-

1.  Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2.  Link back to this post in your own post.

3.  Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.

4.  The link up will remain open for five days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Tuesday.

So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France, Macau, Russia, Ireland, Brazil and Sweden have taken part.  The 

first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.