The Blanket Filled With Love...

Our oldest grandmonster, Miss Katelyn Nicole Squires, was able to spend Christmas with us this year. We had two entire weeks with KTNik. When she arrived she was telling me about a lap blanket they made in school to be given to charity. Katelyn was wondering if we could make one for Mimi while she visited. I assured her we could do this and it would be a wonderful project to work on together. Years ago when we lived in Maryland and Katherine came with Katelyn and family for a visit, I taught them both how to sew an apron. Those aprons ended up being long enough for skirts to the floor. But Katt and Katelyn were both very happy with these 1st time sewing projects. When Katelyn suggested making a lap blanket I really was pleased we would get another chance to make a sewing project together and increase her skills and confidence a bit more. The first day we sat in my sewing/computer/office/craft room in our basement. I was working on editing Hawaii pictures while Katelyn went through the trunk I have full of scraps of fabric. I showed her the templates I had for making squares. She picked the size she wanted to work with. Then she took grid paper and made a grid of the number of square she would need. Then she dug into the fabric to pick all kinds of colors and textures for Mimi to enjoy. With her Alzheimer's sometimes the warmth and the texture are all she gets out of something in her hands. The next day with her fabric picked out, Katelyn set to cutting squares with the templet and the rotary cutter. Then she laid the squares all out on the floor the way they felt best to her for design. She drew that design on her grid. The next day she started sewing squares together. She just did a really nice job. She tried very hard to have all the squares meet perfectly. Most did, a few didn't, but this was such a grand first effort and I must applaud my young granddaughter. She even took the time to do some cross-stitch on two of the squares. We finished the blanket closer to New Years. I have it completed here with me and will take it to Mimi tomorrow when I sing with Papa at the nursing home. I'll wrap it around her while Papa sings and Mimi will drift off to sleep to the sound of her honey playing and singing music and warm in the love of her oldest great-granddaughter's precious gift made with lots and lots of love.