Making blankets with Brenda

This year I decided that I would help Brenda work on her Young Women goals so that she could get her Young Womanhood Recognition award before she turns 18. (I can't believe that my baby sister is 17 and will be 18 in just over 8 months!) As many of you that know her, you know that this is no small project, as Brenda has a severe cognitive disability (it's like dealing with a 6 yr old all the time). Every Saturday Brenda comes over to our house while Dad is sleeping and Mom and Nicole are at work and we work on her YW goals. So far I think that we have been able to finish about 12 goals, finished one 10 hr project and are in the process of working on another one. Most of her goals/projects we are adapting to her needs, so this can be a little difficult because I've had to be a little creative. Brenda and I have been reading scriptures together for most of her goals. I've been very impressed that she can read most of them by herself and that she will read them out loud to me. (I have never really been able to get her to read to me until now(she reads at about a 2nd or 3rd grade level)....I'm excited about this and very touched. Brenda has a sweet spirit and a strong simple testimony). One of the project ideas listed in the book was to make something for your future home. I realized that Brenda could still do this....we could make a blanket for her. Now I know your thinking, Sara sew and get Brenda to help...yeah right! Don't worry, this blanket required no sewing at all. We made a no sew fleece blanket, so all we would have to do is cut and tie the fabric and ta-da, a brand new warm blanket!

I talked to Judie (Curtis' Mom) to find out where the best place was to buy fleece. Judie had an ad for Hancock's fabric that had fleece fabric up to 50% off-so we went there to look at colors. I told Brenda that she could pick black & gold (for Kuna), blue & orange (BSU) or some other colors if the didn't have those colors. I was surprised that she picked black & gold because she is always wanting more BSU stuff...but since she is in High School, it's cool to have Kuna stuff. Because of the sale, we were able to buy enough fabric to make 2 blankets. Brenda decided that she wanted one of the blankets for herself and the other one for Nicole. The first blanket was definitely an adventure. There was more black fleece than gold (they varied in the width...which I didn't know until after we bought it. Now I know to check the labels to see what the width of the fabrics) So we cut it to be the same size, the best we could...(it was a little off, but oh well). Then we cut a 4 inch square out in each corner and marked where we needed to cut the strips. After cutting 1 inch strips all the way around the blanket, we started tying every other strip. When that was done, we flipped the blanket over and finished tying the rest (this was suppose to help the blanket not ball up...). Brenda had a hard time getting these strips tied, so I ended up tying the knot and she would pull them tight. The blanket ended up balling up in the corners, but still looked good. She was sooooo excited to take this one home and put it on her bed! She was also really excited to show her YW leaders what she had done. Here are some pictures:

Cutting the strips

working together to tie the blanket

The finished product!

The second blanket I had Judie help me cut evenly so that both the black & gold fleece was the same size. I also decided to cut the strips into 1/2 inch strips to see if it was any easier for Brenda to tie. This time Brenda was able to tie 98% of the strips on her own and the only thing I had to do was keep reminding her to pay attention to what she was doing. It took us 2 different Saturdays to tie this one, but it looked really good when we finished.

the 2nd blanket

Brenda holding both of them. I think they turned out really good!!!

All in all this was a fun project to work on with Brenda. She was so excited to work on it and kept saying over and over how much she couldn't wait till she could give Nicole her warm blanket and show everyone what she had made. It was pretty cute. I was also very impressed that she was able to concentrate for so long on a project. Next project with Brenda: I'm not sure yet, I'm still thinking about what she could realistically do. But one thing is for sure, it should be fun! I love you Brenda!!!