Blanket in a Bag.... Revisited

Tomorrow night is our turn to host the team dinner for the cheerleading squad. I'm sure it's a lot easier (and cheaper!) to feed twelve teenage girls when compared to team dinners for the actual football and basketball teams for which they cheer! We're serving fettucine alfredo, spaghetti with meatballs, salad, garlic parmesan breadsticks and S'more brownies for dessert. I have to admit that I purchased the sauces and breadsticks from GFS (love this supplier - great quality!) so the meal will be very quick to throw together.

Easy Peasy, right? But no.... instead of keeping it simple, the squad started a tradition that the hosting family gives each girl a little "something." Last year, I made key chains. Cute... relatively quick and inexpensive. The girls liked them.

But this year, the "trinkets" have become more elaborate. One family gave each girl a pair of sweat pants embroidered with the team name, logo and each girl's name. Another family had the MOST ADORABLE ceramic bobble head dolls made for each girl (painted in matching uniforms, same hair and eye color as each girl, etc.) Now, I'm a crafty gal... I oughta be able to come up with something, right?

So after pondering awhile, my daughter and I came up with an idea. Remember the baby blanket I made my niece? Remember, too, that I recently purchased the embroidery machine? Well, voila! Personalized fleece blankets that fold into a pillow for the girls.

When I originally heard about these blankets, I think they were called "Magic Blankets". I actually taught a class to make a quilted version of this blanket/pillow at our local rec center years ago. I also heard them called Blanket in a Bag. Well, tonight while I was googling to see if I could find a diagram with folding instructions (that's always the hardest part!), I found out they are also called "Quillows" (quilt + pillow). I like that name! More pictures of the process:

This really is a simple project that is quite cute. I think I will make my other niece and nephew one for Christmas. They are great blankets to keep in the car.

If you want to make one, I used one yard (60" wide) for the blanket and the pocket was cut from contrasting fleece and measures 12" x 20". I prefer straps but my daughter nixed that feature.