Need Advice For Helping Handicapped Quilters
 

I am very close to a person,who early on suffered a stroke, which left her right side weakened.There is little or no muscle tone in the right hand, making it difficult to grasp an object.Now she wants toquilt but the impeded
right side makes it impossible to hold the edges of the fabric together when piecing.Does anybody have any ideas
or tips on helping her?Is there any quilt she can make without piecing? Are there any impeded quilters on this forum
who have ideas?Help!

I know this isn't what you asked and may not help you very much but we had a lady who came to our quilting class at Hancock's who had only one arm. She amazed me!! She had the best attitude too. Her best friend helped her to make all of her quilts but she always brought one to show and tell every month, and they were great! So, with a little help from her friends, your friend should be able to join in also. I hope you can find a way to help her with this. I think this lady's friend did the cutting and she did the sewing. This might work for yall! You are so kind to be willing to help her. Good luck!

There is 1/8" wide fusible that comes on a roll. She can fuse it to the fabric then sew her 1/4" seam ... However this would make it so she can't press her seams open. For her binding, she could use the Creative Grids Quick Trim Ruler and do the perfect miter by bringing the fabric to the front and machine stitch it.

Has she tried using a physical seam guide on her sewing machine? I create one with moleskin to build up an edge. This makes sewing strips together with an accurate seam pretty easy. The strips can be slid together and (provided there is some space in front of the machine) held down with a hand.

She might want to start out with a "cheater" top. This is a fabric panel that is printed to look like a pieced top. You layer it for machine quilting. If she has a newer machine, it's really easy to machine quilt using a serpentine stitch (instead of stitch-in-the-ditch) and the results are very nice. Here is a link to a baby quilt kit that uses a "cheater" panel:
http://www.keepsakequilting.com/productdetail/3278.htm

If she wants to get fancy using free-motion machine embroidery on the quilt top, Ann Fahl has some good books and a video out on how to do that.

I know the Babylock machines have a built in 1/4 " seam allowance from the left side of the J foot. Therefore she can use her left hand to guide, it's all in what you are used to. After a stroke, you just are retraining the brain. This might help. I would think other brands would have this as well.

Don't assume that she can do it. However, for someone who cannot physically do something, there is always a way if they truly want to do something.

Yes, we usually use our right hand to hold fabrics together. Who says we have to do it with our right? Our left can reach over and do it for us, if we really want to do something!

So take a patience pill and help her start with something simple to help her get used to working with the sewing machine and fabric ... and to figure out some of the innovative ways to make it happen.

She CAN do it ... and we'll all look forward to seeing the results! :)

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You asked if there was any quilt she can do without pieceing. Whole cloth quilts are always an option ... either using yardage or cheater quilt fabric or a pre-printed panel.

I also use a tool to grasp the needle to pull through the fabric. It is a curved needle nose set of pliers with spring loaded handles. It was $2 at Harbor Freight and $5 at Tractor Supply. I can push the needle through the fabric and pull with these pliers so it takes very little hand strength.

For the piecing I would suggest pretty cheater panels, panel quilts or whole cloth pieces. Often my mother and I buy a really intricate piece of scenery fabric and quilt the entire thing, just adding a border. The border could be attached with hot glue or team sewed by a friend.

ah, the stapler..such a noble and handy household gadget! I have a friend who has no thumb...she staples her fabric together instead of pinning! works great! then she just used a staple puller to remove them. YES< it takes her longer, but as she says, everything takes her longer, and she is happy with doing it this way!

Would she be interested in quilting a whole cloth quilt?

Maybe a raw edge applique quilt would be the ticket.

She could always try something small, like a mug rug to see if a different technique would be her cup of tea.

I think there used to be a little gaget called a third hand. I think the often looked like birds with a clamp. That m ight help, but she could use office supply clamps, you know the black ones with the silver attachements I think they are called binder clips or butterfly clips. Whole cloth quilts don't require cutting etc. There is also the accuquilt cutting system. If anyone has access to local schools they often have die cutters that might make some of the shapes. John Flynn has lazer cut fabric for double wedding ring quilts and probably others as well.
I went through a time where I hurt too much to move my arms up. I thought I wouldn't be able to quilt. But I modified what I did, usually machine piecing to hand piecing and could still quilt. I have a little baby block quilt that I think of my victory quilt, because I didn't give up.
My son is a paraplegic and there are lots of modifications that can be made. The therapists have splints or gloves that can help hands that can't do things into shaped things that allow you to function.

I am afraid I don't have that site that I used on this computer. If she is having any therapy her best help would be to explain to her therapist what she wants to do and see if they have ideas. If she belongs to a local bee she might be lucky enough to enlist the help of some of those fine ladies to help her cut out her pieces.

My deceased now MIL suffered a brain aneurysm. Caught before it broke and they did surgery but...it broke on the table and in their haste to stop the bleeding they damaged her brain which left her partially paralyzed on her right side. She was a school teacher, taught piano for years and was very active plus loved to sew and crochet. After some intense therapy she was able to walk with a walker unassisted and had limited use of her right arm and hand. I don't think she every attempted sewing again but...she did try crocheting. The therapist said it would be great therapy. Well...she was doing pretty good and then my FIL decided to stop the therapy and started waiting on her. So everything she had been doing went down the drain pretty quick. They HAD the money to continue therapy but he was a cheapskate. So he ended up waiting on her hand and foot for almost 20 years before she passed away.

I was just at the Lancaster AQS show where I saw a woman demonstrate 3 remarkable sewing feet which fit on any machine which has a zig zag. They are called Creative Feet, and she designed them to help a blind woman sew--not the one who was recently on utube---these feet have been around for awhile, I think. I just never knew about them. They are made so you can easily feel if your fabric is in the guide correctly, then it sews perfectly by itself. Together the 3 feet can do about 80 different applications, she said. Really cool. Check it out.

Maybe she'd get as much Joy (Or more?) from hand quilting and not worrying about piecing .... doing the whole cloth quilts or panels that I suggested earlier?

I do have hand handicaps.

I use an Alto's QuiltCut2 for my cutting as it takes only 1 pressure point to keep it in place and is accurate. Yes, I use whichever hand hurts the least when cutting.

I use a 1/4 foot with a flange guide or an seam guide when sewing my seams.

I have the little 'birdie' type Third hand also. Nancy's Notions carries it as do other sources.

I also have another Third Hand from a Mr Quilt, though I don't think he is in business anymore. It is like a square Brooklyn revolver with a C type clamp positioned over the center of the revolving portion that I can screw down to hold my acryllic templates in place while rotating the fabric so it is easy to cut all sides of the template.

I have played around to find which ruler stabilizers I like: the sandpaper dots are second to the acryllic dots.

There are lots of aids out there. Keep looking and trying ... if that is what she wants to do, she can do it.

ali

What about elmers glue to hold the pieces together?