What 65 lbs. of rice will get you

So, I have a couple of goals this year: to spend less money and to de-stash my fabric stash. This means a lot of handmade gifts. Remember how I said I wanted to make some more rice bags for Christmas this year? Well, I wasn't joking.

 I made two dozen! Here's the empty bags--really simple rectangles--just using up a lot of scraps I had.

This particular crafting delusion of grandeur started when I needed some rice bags right away. My niece Amber, who is in China teaching English, didn't expect to be completely without heat in the school where she lives with her roommates, and they are freezing their little heinies off every night. It would cost the same for me to ship six rice bags as it would one, so I went ahead and whipped up these for them:

They do have a microwave, so all they need to do is heat these for a minute and a half and they'll be toasty warm.

Then I figured I'd send a few to my cousins Brent and Amber Peterson and their son Stephen:

 They have been at St. Jude's hospital in Memphis for the past four months having an absolutely miserable time while Stephen fights brain cancer (which has since cropped up in his pelvis as well). I thought some rice bags might be nice and comforting. To read more about their day to day journey, click here.

The rest of them....welllll....one thing led to another and I made new ones for me and the kids.....then for my visiting teachers, girls I visit teach, the ladies I serve with in the RS presidency, my grandma and my in-laws. It feels good to have those Christmas presents already done.
10 months ahead of schedule!!

I only made two of them the fancy compartmentalized way (tutorial here), since they take extra fabric and effort. 

 

Luke wanted to help fill all the bags with rice. I can tell you that the process goes 10x faster and neater without a 2-year old "assisting" you...sigh...

 Finished dimensions of compartmentalized bag: 8 1/2 by 15 inches, with lines sewn every 3 inches. Adult sized bag: 11x10 inches. Child sized bag: 8 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches. 

 (When I cut out the bags, they were 1/2 to 1 inch bigger all around.)

These can be filled with  uncooked rice, dried beans or dried corn. I know my folks made a bunch with dried feed corn they probably got at IFA or something. We're in a ranching community so that stuff's not hard to come by (although I completely forgot and just bought 20 lb. bags of rice at Walmart...).

 

Madelyn has used her new bag two or three times a day since I finished it. It's great for warming up after you play in the snow, after you get out of the bath, or to snuggle with as you go to sleep. It's great for aches and cramps and can be frozen to use on sore muscles, too.
Not bad, huh!

PS. Once I am finished de-stashing my fabric stash, do you know what that means??? I get to buy NEW FABRIC! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...