Lots of people and therapists talk about the benefits of weighted blankets for people who have sensory issues, anxiety, ADHD, Autism, etc. I have Restless Leg Syndrome and frequently suffer from insomnia. A relative recently asked for a Weighted Blanket for Christmas, so I decided to figure it out.
Note: The first one I made turned out nice, but I did all the grid work on my domestic machine. What a giant pain in the butt…I mean neck! My neck and shoulders hurt for a week! I was determined to improve the process, so I made one for myself using the longarm for the grid work.
Background: DIY tutorials and commercial suppliers show Weighted Blankets that typically are two layers of wholecloth fabric sewn together like a pillow case, that is then gridded and beads are distributed between each of the squares created by the grid.
Most are not really as fluffy as the picture, because they are just two single layers of fabric, with beads in each square. I didn’t like the idea of the beads being against my body, separated by a single piece of fabric.
Issues:
- For the ones that are fluffy, tutorials suggest that you stuff each square with polyfill.
- Stuffing each square with beads and polyfill is a giant pain in the neck, literally!
- The style shown, frankly, is boring. Quilters want to make a quilt!!
- Because you need to fill beads through columns and then row by row, the logistics of keeping the beads handled, i.e., out of the way of the sewing machine needle, dictate that you have to sew the blanket on a domestic sewing machine.
My Approach: I wanted my Weighted Blanket to look and feel like a quilt, plus I wanted to do most of it on my longarm. I figured I would let the longarm frame bare the weight of the heavier-than-normal quilt.Quilt Top: Make your quilt top. I had purchased this top already pieced from Susan Mayer of Quilting Discoveries, so I was ready to quilt it. Tutorials suggest that the blanket be large enough to cover the individual, but not much bigger. My top was 52 inches by 66 inches. Just right!Quilted Top: Quilt the top on your longarm. I used wide Premium Muslin for the backing because it is 108 inches wide and scrap pieces of Quilter’s Dream Wool batting. I prefer wool batting because I like the weight and the loft it creates for quilting. Use your batting of choice. I chose Sticky Buns, an E2E design, from Anne Bright. After quilting the entire top, I removed it from the frame, squared it up and trimmed the edges. Set it aside.Quilted Bottom: Quilt the bottom of your quilt. I prefer to use soft fleece blankets for my backings. I like the feeling of them and they are wide, so no piecing is required. I bought my Queen size blanket from Target. I loaded it just like I would for other quilts…the fleece blanket was on the bottom, a layer of wool batting, and then a layer of the wide Premium Muslin for the top. Just like you would for any quilt, make sure it is wider and longer than the intended quilt top, i.e., the one you already quilted and set aside. I quilted the bottom of the Weighted Quilt using the same E2E design, Sticky Buns. Once finished, I left it on the frame because I planned to add the beads and top to it.Bean Bag Strips: Create poly bead bean bag strips. I have an HQ Infinity which means I have 26 inches of throat space. I wanted to make bean bag strips the width of what would be my column and the length to fit within my throat space. Actually 26 inches is too big, so I made them shorter.Poly Beads: I bought mine for just over $2.00/lb from Amazon. I bought 50 lbs because I figured if I made one Weighted Quilt, friends and relatives would want one!Given the size of my quilt top, I figured I would make 8 rows of strips going horizontal across the quilt. Since the strips were 27″ long, I would need about 2.5 rows to cover the length of the quilt, which meant 16 27″x7″ strips, plus 8 strips that had 2 squares per strip. Follow these steps:
Rip the muslin into 27″ x 7″ strips.
Fold in half lengthwise and sew right side and bottom. (Black thread for visual aid)
Turn inside out and press. Then sew a 3/8″ perimeter around 3 edges, leaving the now 6 inch top open. Creating a perimeter has two functions. One is to strengthen the seams so that beads won’t escape over wear and tear of quilt. Second is that it creates a barrier where beads cannot get to.
Now mark 6″ square sections. You should be able to create 4 sections. Measure 6″, mark it. Then move up 1/4′ and mark again. This creates another barrier where beads cannot roll into.
Next you can start filling each square with beads. The recommended formula is 10% of the person’s bodyweight, plus a pound or two. If a person has a high BMI (yep, I do) then calculate based on what the optimal weight is. I figured I’d go for about 15 lbs which would work for me or if I decided to gift this to someone else. Calculate the number of squares you will end up with. Multiply 15 lbs x 16 ounces, to get total ounces needed. Then divide that number by the total number of squares to determine how many ounces go into each square. Measure out that number of ounces for one square and see which measuring cup is closest to hold that amount. (I wasn’t all that scientific since the quilt was for me). Turned out 1/4 cup held the number of ounces I needed…which by the way was just over an ounce.
Shake the beads down to the bottom, each time you close up each square.
Quilting the Weighted Quilt: Create a horizontal line at the top of your Quilted Bottom. Now place your Quilted Top along this line and sew it horizontally. Now flip up that top, back over the take-up bar, and start placing your strips vertically. But start placing them from the middle and go either left or right.Note: in my pictures, since I have no quilt project going, I am using a completed quilt, just draped over the deadbar, in order to give you a visual. The first picture represents – as if – we had already sewed the top first set of bean bag strips.
You lay the bags vertically, one next to the other. Shake the beads down, before you lay them down. Then sew via Channel Lock a Horizontal line covering the tops of the bags, right in that perimeter you created that has NO BEADS in it.
Repeat with the remaining bean bags for the other half of the quilt. Now you have one row of 8 bean bags that have been sewn on just their tops, horizontally across the quilt.
The trickiest part is doing the vertical channel locks because we fear we will hit the beads. But you can avoid them, just by feeling and moving any beads out of the way. Pull the top down so that your machine is covering the top. You will notice that you have to find those little channels in order to move the machine around more easily. Once you get the machine on the Quilted Top and you’ve placed it in the middle of the quilt, where you are going to start your first vertical channel lock, drop the needle down.Now lift of the Quilted Top and holding two of the bean bags, you can grab the side of each and shake the beads out of the way. Do it to both adjacent bean bags. Some bag perimeters may overlap each other. No big deal, because then the channel lock seam will secure them. You just have to make sure the beads are out of the way.
After laying them back down, now using both hands, run your fingers down the two adjacent bean bag perimeters, to check that beads are not in the way. Carefully, straighten out the Quilted Top, deploy Vertical Channel Lock and sew towards your belly bar. I went slow since I fear those damn beads. I didn’t hit one bead!You repeat until you finish that row of 8 bean bags. Advance your quilt, and now place another row of bean bags. So you end up with just a few horizontal sewn rows. If you are brave, you could try to sew horizontally between the square perimeters because those channels are bead free. If I were doing it again, and wanted horizontal lines throughout, I would make the channels between the squares 1/2″.When you get to each side, you may have extra bean bag material, or not quite enough. No worries, as long as you have the beads within that vertical channel, it is fine. Just tuck any bean bag material out of the way so that you can enclose the sides and finally the bottom.Having those perimeters around the bean bags also helps when you go to bind the quilt. You have created “safe” barriers to keep the beads out of the way.I need to finish binding my quilt and then I can hardly wait to try it out. I hope this explanation helped you!
Thanks,Paulette