Originally Posted by nana2
I sent you an e-mail on your personal mail to say how much quilting has helped my 15yr old autistic granddaughter. She started quilting by hand at the age of 10. Really helped with her behavior and she is really proud of her accomplishments. In your "spare time" some of this might help your grandchildren. I bet they would have plenty of tools to work with. Hope everyone get a break now and then.
I have done some stuff with my grandkids. My grandson who is now 20 made a quilt with me when he was about 10 with a stack of samples of men's suit material. They came from some sample books my mom got at a yard sale. They were wool and synthetic and the resulting quilt was very heavy! But he used it for a long time. I'm sure he stilll has it somewhere.
My granddaughter his sister Nicci painted me some large squares of broadclothe with some fantasstic designs she came up with at the age of 10 or so. I still have them and have never made them into a quilt but should some day. Maybe I will have to find someone to quilt it for me!!!
My grandson Joey who is now 10 loves to design on my EQ5 and he is quite good! His little sister Rachel 7 loves to play on it too. Joey has asked me to teach him to quilt but he doesn't have much patience so we will see!
I like to start them with a piece of burlap and an embroidery needle and yarn for thread. It gives them a feel for the way the thread goes through the cloth.
I haven't really taken the time to sew with the littler ones but Joey has been making his own graphs on paper and drawing his own designs for a couple of years now.
As for my autistic grandson Zach he also has ADHD and is not good at staying in one place and I don't think he is interested yet. He may some day but his obsessions right now include DVDs and swinging. He is very much into sensations. I did make a top for him with differant textured fabrics but he could care less about it! Oh well!
The twins Daymon and Devon are 5 and Daymon likes to watch me and he shows a lot of artistic signs so he may be my quilter!! Time will tell!