New Aunt Traditions

Several years ago I started the tradition of making fleece blankets for my nieces and nephews for Christmas.  In our family we rotate the siblings and their families each Christmas so we only have to buy gifts for one family each year instead of 4 siblings, 3 spouses, and 14 grandkids each year.  


Making tied fleece blankets is pretty common and I wanted to come up with something that would take my blankets to the next level.  I wanted it to be cool and unique!  I had an epiphany!  What would it look like to quilt two pieces of fleece together?!  Was it even possible?  Would the thread also show up in the design if I used a different color other than the fabric color?  


So I searched online for a lady that had fair prices and would work with me in my experiment!  To test things out I sent her 4 mini blanket pieces of two pieces of fabric for one "blanket".  I picked out 4 different designs from her website, picked out variations of thread colors and had her do 4 different finishings for the trim of each blanket.


Here is what she returned to me!

A squiggly lined design, it has lime green thread but as we found out, the thread isn't thick enough to show up as well as the design.

This is a starburst design and the edging she sewed all around the edge of the blanket leaving an inch and then cut the edges to have a similar finishing to a normal fleece tied blanket

This one is pretty cool and we used blue thread.  

This was one of my favorite designs, I love dragonflies!   

I now use these pieces for seat covers in my car :)  I had to get some sort of return on my money!  So!  The conclusion we came to was that it didn't matter how busy the design was it was all going to come out in the fabric really well!


So the tradition is that I'll make blankets for all of the nieces or nephews I have for that Christmas and one niece or nephew will get a special quilted blanket!  Here are three of the blankets I've had made so far!

First was Bug's blanket, it was made with that squiggly lined pattern.  Since she was the first blanket, it was also the blanket that I learned from.  The only thing that bugged both of us was that it ended up being a lot shorter than I had anticipated.  Usually six feet of fabric is more than enough but after the sewing and trimming it was a lot shorter.  But, I'm making it up to her for her birthday this year...  It's being made as we speak :)

The second blanket I had made was for my niece, Sissy.  I used the dragonfly pattern on hers and it came out beautifully!

The third one I had made was for my nephew, Nenner.  His was also the first boy quilted blanket I had made and I totally would of stolen it from him if he didn't like what I had made for him!  The Geckos pattern turned out so awesome!

Traditions are so much fun!  I've also had a blanket made for myself but I am currently lending it to my grandmother who is fighting breast cancer.  She lives in California and I wanted to send her some love!  Blankets are the best!