January 28, 2010

Carol Carbutti the Owner of Comfort Keepers, an In Home Non-Medical Caregiving and Homemaking Service in Wallingford CT, Would Like to Remind our Retired Elderly Parents and Their Interactive Caregivers about How Enjoyable Quilting Can Be on a Cold Winters Day,

By Carol Carbutti

Quilting is for all ages, especially in the senior retirement years, the craft seems to grow in its appeal and meaning. With innovative new tools, the hobby is even more accessible to our active elderly clients. It’s the perfect way to relax, keep their mind occupied, and utilize an aging parent’s imagination in a meaningful way.

For ages, quilting has been an important part to many American families. The quilt is like a canvas to paint their memorable stories and the needles are their brushes. Caregivers and family companions can encourage quilting at home or they can contact a local senior center to see if they sponsor quilting groups.  These elderly groups are quite popular and often meet once a week to socialize, snack, and create rich works of textile art. The popular film, How To Make An American Quilt (1995), is a great example of this.

Although it seems like quilting would be nearly impossible for our healthy aging elderly seniors with certain difficulties like low vision, arthritis, or back problems to enjoy, in reality there are some simple tricks that can help a lot.

Personal care companions can try raising their elderly clients work surface to relieve minor back and neck aches. Family Caregivers can also purchase table-leg raisers which are shaped like a plastic cone and go right under the legs of their table. This handy device will keep aging seniors from bending uncomfortably over their work space.  This will also help our retired parents by keeping them relaxed and efficient for a longer period of time.

Now if your elderly mom has trouble with her eyesight, quilting can seem like an impossible task. However, family caregivers and personal companions can find a needle- threader with a magnifying lens built right in at their local craft store.. You can also look for sewing machines that have an automatic threader to relieve our seniors of this task altogether.

If your elderly client needs additional help you can purchase magnifying lenses that are mounted on the neckline and angled so that active seniors can lean forward and look straight through the lens and onto their work. Again, family caregivers can ask their local hobby store for assistance.
If your in home elderly parent has difficulty using their hands for finely detailed stitching, they can use the more traditional method of “tying” on your quilt-top. With this method, senior citizens use widely-spaced yarn ties to join the quilt, instead of countless smaller stitches. They can also use a larger needle for this method, which is very helpful.

Personal care companions may suggest using a machine-quilt for their quilt-tops. Caregivers can also encourage using an electric sewing machine, this will speed up the process and make it easier for a senior citizens arthritic hands. Another alternative you could try would be to contact an affordable machine-owner and have them do the quilt top for them after your aging parent does the piecing. At-home entrepreneurs will run a quilt through a long-art quilting machine and charge only a modest fee. They might also provide binding materials and backing as well.

With these simple tools and techniques, seniors can continue to quilt well into their golden years with ease and enjoyment.

Check out these sites online for quilting tools, or go to your local Michaels’s or JoAnn’s craft store:

www.KeepSakeQuilting.com
www.fabriclandwest.com
www.quilt.com

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