A Crafty Yarn

People with Alzheimer's or dementia fidget as a way of dealing with anxiety.  Being able to pull at things or repetitively touch something with a unique texture can help to calm them.  One of my friends has a mother with Alzheimer's and I wanted to try my hand at making a fidget apron for her. I really enjoyed the process.  It was quilting and mixed media wrapped into one.  I also really enjoyed the feeling of being very intentional with each aspect of it.  I wanted it to be beautiful and interesting to play with.  I wanted there to be touches that could potentially spark a memory.  The absolute best part of all was hearing that my friend's mom immediately put it to use and seemed to enjoy it.  This picture of that makes my heart happy. 

The ladies at work have been wanting to try their hand at a craft while we are still on night shift and have some down time.  After quite a bit of internal debate I decided that cross stitch was probably our best bet.  I demonstrated the process and walked them through the basics and they ran with it!   I'm really impressed with the quality of even their first projects!  They have both gone on to do several more...I think they might be ringers because these two "non-crafty girls" rocked this!