I haven't been doing much sewing, and am trying to adjust my expectations that I won't be doing much for the next 2-3 years. So any time I can sneak in and work on something and have it actually be finished, I need to celebrate it!
I heard from a couple different Project Linus chapters that they are less interested in the tied fleece blankets now, for two reasons - first, they are too warm for kids who are in hospitals (and the Linus where Mom and Sis are mostly donates to hospitals) and second, the knots can be really hard to lie on - again particularly a problem for kids in the hospital. So now they are looking for other ways to finish them, and someone near here showed me a blanket with a braided edge. I had a pack of two pieces of fleece, meant to make a tied blanket with, and decided it was a good time to see what else I could do. I found directions online here and used the "Looped or Optional Braided Finish" that is listed most of the way down the page. I wanted the dark pink for an accent color, but used a strip that was 3.5" wide to start - now I don't remember why I used a smaller strip than they recommended, but it looks nice anyway. The first time around, I just butted the edges up together and sewed a straight stitch about 3/8" in from the edge. Then I folded the strip around to the other side, about 1/2" past the first seam, and used a decorative stitch along the edge to sew it down. It looks nice - but I'm having a LOT of issues with my thread getting messed up - I think it is an issue with either the machine or the thread - it doesn't happen when using a straight stitch, only the decorative ones. Anyway, once I finally got it on, I used scissors to cut that strip into loops about 1/2" - 3/4" wide, and the kids helped with the braiding. I found it does matter if you keep the technique consistent, as in whether loops get turned inside out as you pass one over the next, and different amounts or directions of turns produce different results. I ended up undoing the amount D had done, as she used a different technique than L's, and it was quite noticeable. So for the future - they can each help but not on the same blanket! Anyway, here is the finished result, which I'm 80% pleased with but is definitely ok to go to Linus:
I might possibly have gotten sucked into a sale rack at JoAnn's the other day, so expect to see more of this type of blanket. Plus it was relatively fast to do and a good way to include the kiddios!
After cutting strips of the solid pink for the above blanket, I still had most of the pink left from the bundle I'd bought (remember, it was intended to make a double layered blanket). For the future, I will remember to buy one "edge" piece and 3-4 center pieces that can coordinate with it. In the meantime, I had a piece of the Hello Kitty flannel sitting around leftover from the quick blankie I made D that I wanted to use up. I found a piece of pink floral flannel that mostly goes with it, cut some 10" squares which was what perfectly used up the HK piece, and put this together:
It measures about 38" x 50", and uses the pink fleece as the backing. Between the flannel and the fleece and the fact that it is probably going to be for someone in a hospital, I decided to not put in any batting, but it did need some quilting to hold it from slipping too much. I came up with a big continues square spiral, put on the walking foot, and did an ok job of it. Mostly I was just glad to come up with a pattern that was continuous; I need to work on my accuracy some but again I don't think this will go unloved because of my inaccuracies! To finish, I folded the fleece around from the back, mitered the corners, and top-stitched the whole thing down. It is very soft and cuddly, used up two different leftovers which would have probably otherwise been lost in the abyss of "figure out a way to use this someday" and was fairly quick to complete. Definitely a win!
Today I worked a little on two other projects, then ended up getting out one of the fleece kits I'd bought and sewing on the strip. The thread may be part of the problem, or at least a combination of being 100% polyester and being from a certain brand, because changing seemed to help with the thread vomit problems I was having. I started cutting a few loops while we watched tv as a family, so hopefully there will be another completed project to share soon.
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