Well, the story began last fall when Ewa came to get some batting. We started talking. I made her a couple of memory quilts. She wanted to learn to sew - so I loaned her my small Pfaff Hobby machine. She now has a nice machine. That’s the short version.

I showed her about Fidget Mats that I wanted to make for people with dementia. She though they were so cute and really a great way to use up much of the stuff that we can get on our zero waste or freecycle group.

Here’s the one I showed her - I bought this one at a quilt show in Ocala, FL a couple of years ago now. I bought it because while I could have just taken pictures (and I did) - I wanted it up close and personal for myself. It was so nice - I wanted to be able to examine it up close! So I thought, “Becky, just BUY it”. I think I paid $40 for it -- I believe the proceeds went to help pay for the Quilt Show.

Anyway, Ewa has really taken these things on as a project! This is what she’s been up to. I hope to make several along with Ewa.

She’s learning different stitches with her new machine and getting to just play and try out different ideas and patterns and textures/materials.

I’m so happy with what she’s doing. I have a lady friend who has a mother who has Alzheimer’s. I want to offer one to her.

Then I have contact with other people from here in our town who work with seniors who also have these issues.

The rest of these mats that we make (notice the generous use of “we” when so far I’ve not made a single one??? LOL) will stay local as I have another friend who works at a different residence home. Ewa asked me recently how many of these I wanted. I said, Twenty or thirty!

If we somehow make too many, there is a group home about a half hour away from us which has 800 residents and they are there because they are handicapped - either mentally or physically. I am sure they have some residents who would enjoy these as well. One of our ladies in our church lives there. Right now she’s not been able to come to church because of COVID-19, but eventually things will open back up.

So, we’ll see what we end up with, but Ewa has us going with a very good start. I’ve been collecting stuff for this as it seems to take a lot of fun things to use to handle and sew on. Plus, I’ve been trying to think of ideas so I can get started. I’ll probably make 1 - and then work on about 5 at a time. I have ideas on what to do - but Ewa’s creative juices are flowing!

and

I took a lot of close up photos so you can see. Just click on the arrow to go to the next photo.

You can see - she’s using parts of stuffed animals, threads,yarns, zippers, the belt loops - felt fabric to make pulls, tags from labels from clothing - they are often silky smooth, various ribbons, small toys, felt, silky ribbson, soft t shirt fabric, beads on clothes line, and so on.

Of course the denim shorts as the base are great! I really like that idea.

I’ve taken lots of close ups so you can get HER ideas.

We’ll give these away and get feedback from people who use them to find out what we can do better.

A lot of the items or materials sewn on are from the zero waste group that we have here in our town - so materials that people wanted to get rid of. Ewa has been doing a lot of making “something out of nothing”.

When I asked her if I could make these into a blog post, she said, “Well, they are yours now - and I wouldn’t have done them at all if it hadn’t been for you, so go ahead and do whatever you want!”

And there you are! Some more great ideas for fidget mats! A special thanks to Ewa for all her work on these!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!