Some ladies at church became aware of a need with one of our local Hospice Care facilities for activity mats. (I have also seen them called activity blankets, or activity lap quilts, etc. Whatever you want to call them is fine!) So we put the RS Sisters to work. For several weeks we had a collection box set out and we gathered all sorts of sewing notions and fabric scraps. (My mom even told her sister in Kansas about it and she had a friend who donated a whole box full of zippers that she had received in a storage unit auction of all places. ) We then took the fabric, cut them into 6 squares, each one approximately 8 1/2 in x 9 1/2 in and sewed them together.
The night of the activity, we gathered together, and sewed on all the "activities". The activities really vary in nature. Obviously we have zippers and buttons, or ribbons. We even sewed on pockets and connected little stuffed animals to ribbons to stuff in the pockets. Each top is as unique as the lady who sewed it!
That pretty much took up the entire activity night, but we now have several volunteers from church who are finishing the binding on them. I can't wait to see the finished product and then deliver them to the Hospice Center,
They are given to Alzheimer's and dementia patients to give them something to fiddle or play with while they sit. Evidently they can be calming and soothing to the patients.
I am so happy to have been a part of this project and am so excited to be able to post pictures of the finished product soon. It's amazing what can be done when we pool our resources and work together to help others!
Here's a couple of pictures of just a few of the unfinished tops...
Here's the flyer I made for the activity:
