Fidget Quilt

My father-in-law turns 90 this week, and I wanted to make him a lap quilt, He has dementia, and I read about people making fidget quilts for dementia patients, so that is what I decided to do.  Many of the example I saw were multicolored, but I decided to go with a tighter color scheme.  I bought mostly blue fabrics, with different textures.

I started out by using the embroidery function of my new machine, and making blocks that included his name, one that says "Jesus loves you" and also one saying my father-in-law has always said "do you live around here or ride a bicycle?"  I also ordered a patch honoring the fact that he is a WWII Navy veteran.

Then I made some blocks with "toys" - a block with a zipper, one with a little rope of fabric knotted at the end, blocks with piping and pintucks for texture, a denim block with a fuzzy heart appliqued on it.  Half of the 36 blocks included in the quilt had either embroidery on them or a toy feature.  Since the fabrics were an assortment including denim, flannel, broadcloth, fleece, and minky, even the plain blocks offer interesting feelings and textures.

I backed the quilt with fleece, and did not use any batting.  I quilted by stitching in the ditch with my walking foot.  I turned the fleece over onto the front of the quilt and used it for the binding.