Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? Comfort Incoming!!!

Hi, all!

Welcome to Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday!  For a change, I'm actually writing this on Friday instead of Thursday night - I forgot my husband and I had a work-related obligation last night, so I'm up early this morning.  Excuse me if I'm a little bleary-eyed!!  But I'm chugging caffeine, so all will be well shortly!  Are you ready to get your dancing shoes on? I know I am!  So let's get started!!

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If you follow me on Instagram (@fabricaddictquilts) you know that for the last two weeks or so I've been working on a pair of weighted blankets for a customer.  Many people on IG have been asking the purpose of weighted blankets, so I'll share a little info here that I found on the internet....

Traditionally, weighted blankets are used as part of occupational therapy for children experiencing sensory disorders, anxiety, stress or issues related to autism.  But even kids without such a diagnosis find important benefits.  The extra pressure on the body is helpful for kids of all kinds, but particularly for kids with autism and sensory processing disorder.  The added weight causes the brain to release neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine that improve moods and induce a calming effect.

A couple of years ago, at the request of a school teacher friend, I came up with a tutorial for a simple, inexpensive, weight-adjustable weighted blanket that she could make for her classroom.  I've also made these for my grandchildren (the deaf ones) and we've found that they help with some of the sensory issues they face, and improve their sleep.  However this was the first time I had made any as commission jobs.  I had to adjust the pattern for the larger twin size - and now I will need to add that info to the tutorial!  

Everything started with this enormous pile of 90" wide muslin...

...which got cut into strips and sewn into this (note to self: press as you go, not after assembly!)...

...and ended up looking like this!

Here's another view of the weight pockets.

Then it was off to the chain sewing races, putting together 140 little bean bags for the weights.  It helps if you remember that for 140 beanies, you need 280 pieces of fabric!

Whew!  That's a lot of chain stitching!!!

Then it's time to stuff those babies!  My postal scale came in very handy, because each beanie was filled with 1.3 ounces of pellets for the lighter blanket, and 1.6 ounces of pellets for the heavier one.  I use a weighting pellet similar to what you would find in a Beanie Baby - made of a poly substance, so liquid doesn't affect it.

140 weights, all sewed shut and serged around for added strength.  Did you know that sergers are v-e-r-y s-l-o-w??????  That took a LONG time!

Then it was time to stuff all the little pockets on the blanket.  There are ten rows of seven pockets on the twin size blanket.

Next comes loading the blanket into the cover.  The blanket has loops sewn into the bottom, top and sides, and the cover has tie strings sewn into the seams at coordinating spots to secure the blanket in place.  It's rather like putting on a rather complicated pillowcase!

And in the end, two finished weighted blankets, ready to go to their new home!  

For any who are interested, the tutorial for the crib size blanket can be found by clicking the Weighted Blanket Tutorial page tab under my blog header.  I probably won't get the twin size info on there for a couple of weeks, but if you need it, email me and I'll be glad to send you a pic of my notes!

And I learned a funny thing while working on these blankets - I really don't like the feel of fleece!  I actually found that handling fleece for any extended period of time (like folding, cutting, pinning, sewing, you know, all the important stuff!) totally sets my teeth on edge, like fingernails on a blackboard!  Who knew?

And one more fun thing to whoop about, even if it is a day late - Thursday was Cochlear Implant Day!  Having two grandchildren with cochlear implants, I can testify to what an amazing difference they make in the lives of people with hearing disabilities.  Hooray for cochlears!!!

Oh, and one more thing!  Remember this?

Well, on Savannah's Sweet 16 birthday, 2/23/16, my friend Robin filled up this truck.....

 with large storage tubs filled with 17,212 pairs of socks and took them to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital!!!!!  (If you want to see a video of the many tubs she filled, check out her Facebook page, Savannah's Sweet 16 Sock Drive.)  Savannah is surely smiling down from heaven at the sight of all those happy feet at Vandy.  The socks are still rolling in, so I imagine that number will increase, but what a wonderful showing of support from the global community!  She received socks from all over the world, including Spain and Australia.  Many of them came from readers of this blog. You should be proud of yourselves!!  

Good work!!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop??

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And now it's your turn!

What are you whooping about this week?

What's making you dance a little happy dance?

Share - we want to dance with you!

And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight.

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah

150 in 5, A Cause With A Giveaway - Day Three

Hi, all!  

Welcome back for the third day of “150 in 5”!  I know I promised a guest blogger today, but life happened, so that’s going to come tomorrow.  And I know you’re going to love her post, so be sure to come back then.  If this is your first visit this week, you can read more about “150 in 5” here - but here it is in a nutshell...  My daughter and her family are in the process of adopting a little boy in China who is profoundly deaf.  She’s handcrafting and selling necklaces to help cover the high cost of the adoption.  And she’s offering a great giveaway this week!

I hope you’ll help my daughter reach her goal, either by purchasing a necklace, or spreading the word on social media!

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Today I’d like to share a bit with you about childhood deafness.  As many of you know, my youngest granddaughter (age 2) was born almost totally deaf.  

There's a big "hi" from Emmy!

Amazingly enough, they discovered this fact before she ever left the hospital!  Tennessee has a very good early intervention program, and she has progressed incredibly well.  It turned out that she was a good candidate for cochlear implants, and she received her first cochlear implant at the age of eight months and the second one a month later.  Nowadays we are entertained by her belting out “Let It Go” at the top of her lungs!

Here are some facts I’ve learned recently...

About 2 to 3 out of every 1000 children in the US are born deaf or hard-of-hearing.  Nine out of every ten children who are born deaf are born to parents who can hear.

 A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.  Cochlear implants may help provide hearing in patients who are deaf because of damage to sensory hair cells in their cochleas. In those patients, the implants often can enable sufficient hearing for better understanding of speech. The quality of sound is different from natural hearing, with less sound information being received and processed by the brain. However, many patients are able to hear and understand speech and environmental sounds. Newer devices and processing-strategies allow recipients to hear better in noise, enjoy music, and even use their implant processors while swimming.

Here you can see the lights on Emmy's
implants that let us know the
battery is almost dead!

As of December 2012, approximately 324,000 people worldwide have received cochlear implants; in the U.S., roughly 58,000 adults and 38,000 children are recipients.  The vast majority are in developed countries due to the high cost of the device, surgery and post-implantation therapy. A small but growing segment of recipients have bilateral implants for hearing stereo sound (one implant in each cochlea).

Cochlear implants for congenitally deaf children are considered to be most effective when implanted at a young age, during the critical period in which the brain is still learning to interpret sound.

"I really don't want to listen to you
right now, so here are my processors!"

Despite the fact that Emmy has cochlear implants, it is still necessary to teach her sign language for the times when she is not wearing them.  (Like when she takes them off to avoid hearing you, as above!)  Believe me - the signs for “no” and “stop” are important with a two year old around!  But she is also getting quite a vocabulary in American Sign Language, and actually taught me the words for “boy” and “girl” the other day!  This is all part of her speech therapy sessions, so she is essentially learning two languages at once!

For various reasons, children who are profoundly deaf tend to develop slower physically than hearing children, so in addition to speech therapy, Emmy has been attending physical therapy sessions since she was a few months old.  Part of Tennessee’s early intervention program, this is all done towards getting her on an equal footing with her peers before she reaches school age.

And just an interesting fact - teaching any child a second language has been shown to increase cognitive performance in overall basic skills in elementary school. According to the College Entrance Examination Board, they go on to score higher on SATs. Children who learn a second language at a young age also exhibit better problem-solving skills, enhanced spatial relations, and heightened creativity. Learning a second language early on encourages flexible thinking and communication skills, helping children consider issues from more than one perspective.

American Sign Language (ASL) is considered a second language too!  If you have young (pre-speech) children in your life, try teaching them simple words like more, milk, eat, sleep - you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to find out what they want and you’ll want to teach them more!  There are videos available on YouTube that can show you how to sign many words…  many are very simple and logical.  For example, the sign for "milk" is to use both hands like you are milking a cow!

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So now you can see what I've been doing for the past two years - learning a new language - and what we'll be doing when my daughter and her family bring home our Chinese grandson!  It's a lot of work and lots to learn, but it's so rewarding when you see the results - like a child belting out a song that, without cochlear implants, she never would have heard.  I wish I had a video of Emmy singing - but it's still so new I just sit and listen in awe, only remembering too late to turn on the video!

And this will be the last "informational" blog post for the week - be sure to come back tomorrow for our guest blogger's really interesting quilt-related post!  I'm so excited to see what she's going to share.

And now I'll leave you with a little American Sign Language…

Hugs!

Sarah

PS - if you're looking to see who won the AMB Blog Hop giveaway, click here!