Memory quilts for Alzheimers' patients are a terrific thing to
make. It is a quilt with photographs of the patients loved ones
on it. The reasoning behind the quilt is very simple: to keep
them grounded in this time to the family. When someone is
afflicted with Alzheimers' they lose their latest memories first
and keep their oldest memories the longest. So they may not
recall where they parked the car, or what they had for dinner,
but they remember things that happened along time ago with such
clarity, that it is at times, very intimidating.
My mother-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimers' in 1996. The
idea to make her a memory quilt came from the fact that I made
my Mother a family quilt one year for Mother's Day. I decided on
using 35 pictures for Peggy's memory quilt. I chose pictures
that showed her children at different stages of their lives. As
well as pictures showing her and her husbands age regression.
Her favorite color is blue, so I chose a dark blue with a light
blue design, and a light blue with a dark blue design for the
blocks. One thing to keep in mind when doing one for a person
with Alzheimers' is to try and keep the material fairly plain or
quiet. When using a material that is very busy or loud, it just
adds to their overall confusion. Something you definitely do not
want.
I scanned the photos and then printed them onto photo transfer
sheets. I ironed the transfer on to a piece of white material
that was just a little bit larger than the picture. The white
square and photo was sewn on top of one of the 12" blue squares.
I then added eyelet trim and blue ribbon around each photo.
Putting dark blue ribbon on a light blue square, and light blue
ribbon on a dark blue square.
I then sewed all the squares together, in an alternating
pattern. I now had the quilt top. I used soft fleece for the
backing and put a piece of quilt batting in between the two. I
found that if you spray an adhesive on the quilt batting it
helped to keep the pieces from shifting too much. After pinning
the quilt, I sewed a dark blue blanket binding around the
outside edge. All that was left was to tie it. I used 6 strand
embroidery floss, and hand knotted every corner except the
corners at the blanket binding.
When I gave her the memory quilt, she didn't quite know what to
do with it. She would sit and touch the pictures for hours at a
time. She is now in the final stages of Alheimers' and we have
hung it up on the wall next to her bed. She stares and talks to
that quilt every day. Of course you can't understand what she
says all the time, but that's OK. I know she is still enjoying
it, and that's what counts...her enjoyment.
By Billie Fultz
I am married to my childhood sweetheart Larry, and have been for
soon to be 35 years come the 27th.of October. I am a mother to
one daughter Beth,a son-in-law Larry, and a grandma to my
grandson Dalton. I live in Indiana where I grew up. My husband
was in the military for 20 years, so we moved around the first
20 years of our marriage. We have lived here in Indiana for the
last 15 years.
