Fidget Quilts for Alzheimers/Dementia Folks

One of our charity projects at Tacoma Lakes Quilters is to make fidget quilts that will be donated to places that care for Alzheimers/Dementia folks.  We had a workshop/sew-in day this past Wednesday.  I had two tops already made that I'd been working on earlier in the week that I took to show:

This one has a birds and cats theme going on.  It's a pretty one for a woman.
There are buttons tied on, vintage belt buckles, a frog closure, a doily, a felt flower piece and a felt pocket, a little cat sewn on with a ribbon that can go in and out of the pocket, a tassel, patches of polar fleece fabric, velvet ribbon, lace...

I made this one for a guy, using a fly fishing vest cut apart as the main focus.
Lots of zippers and velcro pockets, a buckle, a bead on a ribbon, even a tiny level on a keychain buckled on.

The idea of a fidget quilt is to give the person holding it lots of things to play with--different textures, a variety of objects to fiddle with, zippers and pockets...anything to keep their hands busy.  It is suggested to use bright colors and busy fabrics.  Lace, velvet ribbon, other trims can also be added.  One rule of thumb is to only add things you'd let a child have. 

I now need to add a thin batting and a backing to each one and then quilt it to hold the layers together.  I could eliminate the batting if I back it with fleece or flannel or blanket material.  I think the finished size will be about 24" square.

15 Jungle Lane AKA the muddiest road ever

This is what the town road/Jungle Lane looks like today after driving in and out six times over the last two days.  This is a town-maintained road which really hasn't been maintained other than plowing in the winter for the last twelve years or so.  At that point I did get my Ford wagon stuck in the mud up over the door frame and the town hauled in some rocks and more sand and they dug out the ditch deeper.  

Every year since it has been sort of muddy but never anything like this.  The ruts today are 8-12" deep in places.  Maybe if the road wasn't all sand it wouldn't be this bad.  I do worry about getting a firetruck or ambulance in/out of here if it were necessary.  And with plowable snow predicted for this weekend, I wonder what will happen with the town plow and our own driveway plow guy.

My post today on Outside the Box...March 3rd

Packaging Easter Treats--Peeps and Chocolate Bunnies
Cards, Tags, and Pillow Boxes

See the entire post at:  http://davebrethauer.typepad.com/outsidethebox/

SNOW...and more on the way...

snow by the back entryway...piled up to the top of the greenhouse

the path to the front door

Show and Tell at Tacoma Lakes Quilters meeting 2/18/15

These photos were taken at the meeting of Tacoma Lakes Quilters on 2/18/15 and show two of the projects I've finished this month.

This is the "Office Supplies" strip quilt that I think should go on my computer table.
After all,   there are vintage typewriters in the second fabric panel!
Here's what's on each strip:
typewriter keys
vintage typewriters
white paperclips on gray
notepads, pencils, clipboards
white paperclips on orange
eyeglasses

This is the 6X60 quilt I made for the chapter challenge--
season:  fall;
restricted color palette:  white, black, brown
The leaf panels are my design and the animal/bird panels
are based on Charley Harper notecard designs.
Those panels are Squirrel, Two Owls, Bear in the Birches, Chipmunk with Seeds, and Eagle.
I appliqued each panel and then quilted them individually before sewing them together into the long strip.
The chipmunk panel is definitely my favorite one.

With another snowstorm coming tomorrow I have plans to work on the winter 6X60 quilt using blue, white, and gray as the colors of my fabrics.  My theme is birds in the snow with alternating panels of appliqued birds and snowflakes.  I purchased the rest of the fabric today that I needed for the summer panel--orange, red, and purple; but I haven't yet settled on an idea.  I already have the material (pink, green, brown) and a deer/moose design for the spring one.

Valentines

These are some of the valentines I've been making:

Sewing Projects Update

These are two photos taken at Tacoma Lakes Quilters this week showing two of my finished projects:

black and white placemats, a set of four, using only four fat quarters
The fabrics in each placemat are in different places, so they look kind of interesting all together on a table.

This is the paintbrushes lap quilt, my own design, with seven brushes appliqued on top of the ones printed on the fabric--they overlap the gray stripe a bit.  I think if you click on the image you get a larger picture.