Need ideas for niece's work with elderly

[Betty J.]

Hi all. I just got back from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show where my niece joined us on Saturday to see the show and visit. She is not a quilter, but is interested. She has a wonderful job working with the elderly who need day care and some physical challenges. They live at home, and have a wide range of interests and abilities.

She wants to work out some fun projects for them to do and was thinking of simple quilting projects she might teach them. It would probably have to be by hand, and may involve her doing the cutting herself.

She's going to check with the advisors at the facility to see if they think they can manage some iron work for fusing and pressing purposes. She wants to come up for a weekend of learning in a few months with me and my DIL, Beth (OriNebula). I promised to give it a lot of thought and some research as to what projects may be workable.

I have thought of some things like sewing together simple squares and quilting them for Linus quilts, or using printed panels for the central theme. But I thought I'd put the question out to all you brilliant people out there--do you have any ideas? Help!

[Betty J.]

I work at a senior center. Yo yos are a simple project that can be made to create pins, put on hats, decorate tote bags etc. They can be made in a in a short period of time. Circle patterns can be prepared for the seniors to trace and cut themselves or you could cut out the circles before the activity.

[Margo C.]

BJ, if they are looking for easy to assemble projects for charity quilts check out the 1600 quilts from Jelly Rolls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EomX7t7to_o
They will need sewing machines, but no cutting or hand work is required to assemble the tops.

[Margo C.]

I work at a senior center. Yo yos are a simple project that can be made to create pins, put on hats, decorate tote bags etc. They can be made in a in a short period of time. Circle patterns can be prepared for the seniors to trace and cut themselves or you could cut out the circles before the activity.

or you could thread lots of them up through the middle and make 'dolls'

How about pieced fronts for bags which are the right size/shape for hanging off mobility aids if they use them?
Armchair pockets for putting paper/books or remote control in.
Placemats.

Margo's suggestion of charity quilts is also good as then they can make something that is needed, but not necessarily by themselves, so they can have the pleasure of giving it away when finished (depending upon their finishing abilities this might need some careful policing)

[Hannelore N.]

A few years ago I saw an elderly lady with a walking frame that had a simple tote bag obviously purpose-made to be attached to her walking frame. When I commented on how nice it looked, she told me that everybody in her care home who was using a walking frame had been given one as a Christmas gift.