mpeters1200

It would be fantastic if you made a tute as you go. I'm trying to wrap my head around making bean bags or bean bag style and I'm just not understanding.

The the quilter who posted the attachment, you and your quilt club are angels in disguise! Not a lot of help out there, quilt wise, for kids affected by autism and other developmental or sensory affected kids out there. Thank you for all you do.

I didn't even think about making a heavier quilt for my youngest son, who has ADHD...he likes having heaps of covers on him at night, but kicks them all off cause he gets so hot. Maybe a weighted one would be a good idea. We haven't had one in the house in a long time. Our nearly 11 year old doesn't need them anymore. I can't wait to follow where this thread takes this project.

tngal22

I will try to take pictures as I go, maybe write it down for ya. I am going with pellets. Going to look at JoAnn's either today or this weekend since Wal-Mart didn't have any. I am still debating on size but I will try to post a progress report as I go.

tngal22

Finally found the pellets. Phew. Wal-Mart nor JoAnn's had any, had to go to Hobby Lobby! Took Little Bit to Wal-Mart and let her pick out two fabrics, oddly enough she like the Mickey Mouse then the Minnie Mouse one. lol

tngal22

Ok, for those that wanted to know how it turned out:

I used 2 standard pillow cases for the pellets; sewed 5 columns and filled each with 2ozs of pellets, sew that line up, and so forth, did about 5 rows...forgot sorry! I sewed them together. I then made a cover for it and this is where the issue came in. I should have left at least an inch on the pillowcases with no pellets because in order to secure to the cover I had to try not to hit a pellet. A removable cover would be great but unless it is super tight, then the pillowcases shifted. So what I did was fold the top of my blanket down to cover the top of the pillowcases, which luckily had a large area with no pellets. So the bottom would not move, I felt around for the bottom part and tried to sew at least 3 areas securely to keep the cases from shifting. I will have to re-think my plan for the next one but at least Little Bit seems to like it right now. It was storming so I put it on her and she stayed calm for the most part.

I will try to get a picture tomorrow.

bettysew

I've made several for various children in our family. Part of the trick is knowing how many (weight) beads you need in each compartment in the quilt. We found Poly Beads at Walmart and at Hobby Lobby. My DGS has severe ADHD and his weighted blanket helps him a great deal.

mpeters1200

I look forward to the pictures. I'm not sure I followed that.

Ethel Hoffman

Yes my granddaughter is a occupational therapist (not sure about my spelling) she uses these and she says they really help. We made them about 12 or 14 inches square. Cut two pieces of colorful fabric. She said even cords or fabric with heavy weave would work we sewed seams about 1 to 1 and half inches apart across the two pieces of fabric and filled them. Then enclosed the ends some we made filling with a special filling we found at Walmart than we made some filling with rice. She did not believe we would be able to wash the ones fillled with rice. But she needed so many in her job that we were being economical. I am sure you can goggle and find out more.

tngal22

Here are some pictures:

The two cases together, after I put pellets in. This is where I should have sewn them together first, then left an inch all around to sew the cover on to.



This is the cover and back...I have a love hate relationship with minky as it moves too much if I don't keep it tight. But I was kinda rushing as it was storming, tornado warnings around and I was upstairs and DD was scared of the storm.



Since I didn't leave room on the pillow cases to use to sew down to the cover, like you do for batting, I could not sew the bottom of the cases very well.