Monday, August 29, 2011

Meet Our Resident Crafter!

Many of our residents here at CCV refuse to believe that being "retired" means sitting around and watching TV.  They keep busy all day, every day-and long into the night! 

Meet Laura!   Laura is one of our most active neighbors.  She is always at exercise and always at Bingo, and she makes a point to swing by other activities when she has time.  Laura opened her doors today to give us a glimpse at what she is always up to!

Have you ever heard of "Canning"?  It is the art of weaving strips of cane.  Laura has not one, but two of these amazing rockers that she did herself!  It's a shame that they are normally covered with a cushion.

Laura also crochets!  The blanket you see pictured below is the one she is currently working with. 

It is made from these small circles.  Each circle takes an hour or so to stitch, then each circle is sewn together to create a beautiful bed cover.
When the blanket is finished, it will look something like this.  This is the last one that Laura completed.
 
And because the stuff poodle makes an adorable excuse for a close up, this picture gives you better detail of the beauty of the work.

 Laura also quilted this beautiful wall hanging.  Every stitch of it was hand sewn.

One might say that Quilting is Laura's passion.  She took the time to show off some of her quilts.  The one pictured below is actually made from tiny scraps of fabric from her daughter's childhood dresses.   The beautiful trim was added last.

Here is a closer view to see the individual patches.


This is one of Laura's first quilts.  It is called a "4 Patch".  Each of the colored squares is sewn to three other squares to make a large square.  Then, each of the large squares is attached to create the quilt.  But then, the batting and backing must still be added.

This is another one of Laura's first quilts.  She says that as long as you take care of a quilt, they will last for decades.  She didn't even remember how old this one was!

 Laura also took a few minutes to show how a quilt is assembled.  The stitching is all done by hand.  Look at how tiny the stitches are!
 This is the newest quilt.  It is laid out on the bed until it is ready to be all sewn together. 

A quilt like this takes weeks. Once it is finished, it will be treasured for years to come.

Laura hopes to finish this quilt and donate it to a local school.  The school plans to raffle off the quilt and use the money to help their students.  We cannot possibly describe how proud we are that Laura is using her time, energy and talent to create something so beautiful and then donate it to such a great cause. 

We are looking forward to update you will pictures of the finished product!

Happy Monday!

No comments:

Post a Comment