Greysons Puppy Blanket ( A baby blanket!)

My daughter just gave me my first and only grand son! And he is the final grand child to this grandmother, so he is a bit special! I am so excited to have him. I won't be seeing him to much as we live to far to see to often, and that breaks my heart, but I will love him anyway all the time! I made him this blanket and I hope he will keep it forever.

My daughter is rather picky. She doesn't like my homemade/sewing things. Never has. I made all her clothes until in the fifth grade, she asked for a store bought dress for Christmas! I have made everyone quilts, but the parents don't like them (the other grand kids love them! Parents, they are so odd!)  But I wanted a thinner, softer, more of a blanket than a quilt, so I picked a thin flannel, no inside batting and a thin, soft, pile fleece..similar to Minkey and much better than anti pile/Blizzard fleece, which is rather stiff and heavy. This fleece was $14.99 a yard! But....don't panic.. I used a 50% off coupon so I got it for about $8 a yard..which is my yard limit anyway! The flannel was "Snuggle Flannel" (at Joann's Craft store) was on sale for $2.99. My daughter had said she was going to do his room in dogs/puppies so I saw this flannel and thought is was perfect and got 5 yards intending to do other things with the rest. Now, that he is born she tells me she isn't doing a theme, and doing in greys, yellows and beige! Oh well, all those colors are in there and I think she will love the puppies anyway! I think if she doesn't like the blanket, she will let it be used as a decoration item in the room... let it hang over the edge of the end of the crib or on the arm of the rocking chair.....



This is also my first time using Satin blanket binding on a quilt. Usually I use the 100% cotton that matches the pieces in the quilt, but I thought my daughter will like the satin effect..soft and smooth and maybe help it to look "expensive" and less homemade! I bought the Wrights brand of polyester satin binding.  I had real trouble with it tho.. how do you know you are catching the back edge of the binding when you are sewing it on the front? You don't do it like cotton binding where you sew it to the back, then roll it over and can see the row of stitching you made and can follow that. No, with this binding tape....you put the blanket edge all the way inside to the fold of the tape..then sew and hope you catch the front and the back edge of the binding in the zigzag stitching! Some areas I did great, others, not so great, but can't do anything about it now! I just hope after a few washes, it will soften up!

I also got all these puckers in the binding. I am on a facebook group of wonderful ladies that are like the encyclepedia of sewing....great helps, inspiration, tips, tricks etc. Great group of ladies! I was told it looked fine and that it is not unusual for it to look like this!  So, I leave it looking like this! I hope my daughter will accept it!How she got so picky, I don't know! She was not raised that way!!!

I also did some FMQ'ing on it... a wide meander stitch. The wider the area between stitches is what makes the blanket or quilt more pliable, cuddley and soft. And yes,  it did work that way! That part worked out great!

 

And one thing I didn't find the answer to, in all the vids I watched about it...when you make those corners, easy enough to make, but...once with the binding on... those corner flaps can pull open!  I was able to catch the little edge of it in the sewing of the corner, but the flaps still were "open" so I just got out the old needle and thread and did tiny stitches to blind stitch it down. If you weren't looking for it, you wouldn't see it!

So.. here it is... all done and ready to give to my little grandson, Greyson. He was a premie.  He was due April 3 but he couldn't wait. She went into labor the previous evening and had him about 12:30am on March 14. Had some problems tho in that he didn't know how to eat, or suck or what to do with anything in his mouth so he didn't eat and his blood sugar dropped to 20...fortunately with lots of tries and work from his mommy and some eye dropper feedings from his daddy, he is doing fine now.


Oh, it is 50"x50". To big for him right now, but he will grow into it! It will be a good soft blanket for her to lay on the sofa and lay him down there..and heck, if she wants to toss it over her legs while she feeds him...she can do that and I will be just as happy!

             

The blanket binding I used was this.... single fold, 2 inch wide. It is 100% polyester, no shrinking!

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