Design a “Touch Quilt” for Alzheimer’s Patients
November 22, 2006 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Home & Living
The Touch Quilt, at the Alzheimer’s Store (http://alzstore.com/ ) gave me ideas for quilts we can design for family members or friends stricken with this disease. If we don’t have time to make the quilt, we can always purchase one and then create more as needed.
However, they appear very easy to design and make with 13 x 15-inch blocks of different colors and textures. For instance you could use a variety -flannel, corduroy, nubby fabric and others – to create a quilt that appeals to the Alzheimer’s patient’s tactile sense. Using different colors and designs also will give the quilt appeal. You can vary the size blocks, although if they’re too small, the patient might have difficult differentiating.
When I saw this quilt/blanket pictured and described at the Alzheimer’s Store, I remembered my aunt. She would sit in her chair rubbing and squeezing her skirt, sweater, a blanket or a towel. In those early days of caregiving, I didn’t realize she might be getting comfort from the various textures.
This can be a very simple quilt blanket of lap size and doesn’t need to be lined. You can make it rather quickly to give as a gift. Sometimes quilters provide lap blankets and quilts for nursing homes, giving the residents pleasure and warmth.
(To find the Touch Quilt on the Alzheimer’s Store, scroll down the “product selector.”)
You title your article “Design a “Touch Quilt” for Alzheimer’s Patients”, but you say very little about HOW to do it.
I am looking for specific directions about how to make one; what items (if any) did you attach? Are your “blocks” actually 13 x 15 , or is that the size of the quilt?
I love you for what you are doing.
Hello Rick,
Thank you for stopping by and inquiring about the Touch Quilt. Right after you commented, the Quilting and Patchwork blog was absorbed with others under Blisstree, so I didn’t have a chance to answer you immediately.
You can make these quilts of any size blocks and make them any size. Having a finished quilt about 36″ x 36″ is convenient for a lap size. Then the blocks can be various sizes to conform to that. Larger blocks are easier and quicker to put together. Use different textures and different patterns for the various blocks gives a nice tactile sense for the Alzheimer’s patient.
This type of “Touch Quilt” can be purchased online fairly inexpensively… making one is always a nice idea, but a straight purchase can significantly reduce the time to get a nice lap quilt to your loved one.
I found these online at http://www.evasalaboroflove.com.
Thanks for visiting and letting us know about the quilts that can be purchased if someone doesn’t have time to make them. These tactile lap quilts definitely are ideal for Alzheimer’s patients and others.