Finding purpose... while giving comfort, warmth

Farwell woman spreads love through handmade gifts

By Faith Anderson

Judy Oatman of Farwell often looks back on two remarkable women in her life who helped shape her creative spirit and gave her the courage to try new things. Their influence still lingers, and at 87 years old, Judy hasn’t slowed down -- her imagination keeps leading her into new adventures, learning fresh skills, finding joy in the process, and helping people along the way.

As a little girl, Judy loved spending long days with her Welsh grandmother, a gifted seamstress whose hands were never still. She can still recall the gentle comfort of sitting by her side, listening to the lilting rhythm of her native tongue while watching fabric come alive beneath her needle and scissors.

“God and my grandma taught me to sew,” said Judy, reflecting on those days.

Her aunt Alice was another person with whom Judy spent time.

“Aunt Alice would tell me that if I ate all my vegetables, I could sew,” Judy remembered. “And so, I did!”

Judy grew to love the art of sewing and eventually made most of her own clothes while she was in high school.

“My scissors just became part of me,” she added joyfully.

Judy’s creativity led her in many directions. When her son Hal gave her a camera, it ignited a passion that gradually blossomed into a business. At the time, she and her husband, Larry, were immersed in the world of horses. Larry, a skilled horse-farrier, dedicated his life to equine hoof care and soon began consulting and teaching clinics nationwide. Judy often traveled with him, seizing every opportunity to capture the beauty of horses through her lens.

In the 1980s, she took a job as a private interior design consultant in the Twin Cities area, and when she and Larry moved to central Minnesota, she consulted for Perry’s Furniture in Alexandria.

“I loved that job,” she said. Most of her clients through Perry’s were in the rural area. “It was such fun updating those old farmhouses and giving them new life with just a few special touches,” she remembered.

When she and Larry moved to a home near Farwell, Judy’s design skills were put to good use. She began the huge task of redecorating and redesigning it to be their home, sweet home.

“I just love this old place,” she said. “My life is here, and I’m so happy that I can still live here!”

In the early 2000s, after Judy’s father died, she sewed herself a pair of mittens and decorated them with a strip of fabric from one of her father’s neckties. Wearing those mittens somehow helped her through the grief and sadness.

In 2005, Judy started making mittens for her daughter, Holly, and the other girls in the family.  She used wool or wool blends for the shell of the mittens and lined them with soft polar fleece. The wool came from a variety of sources, including old sweaters, suits and scraps from sewing rooms here and there. She washed and dried the yardage (a process called felting) which tightened up the weave, cleaned the wool and made it easy to handle. Simple touches were added to the mittens, including buttons and other embellishments, making each pair unique. Not only was each one-of-a-kind, but the layers made them cozy and warm.

This was just the beginning of Judy’s ‘Smitten with Mittens’ project. Holly loved the mittens so much that she brought a few samples to a consignment shop near her home in Buffalo and the owner ended up stocking and selling them in her store. Judy continued cutting and stitching new mittens which found their way to craft shows, church bazaars and even to a boutique in Alexandria. Before long, hundreds of pairs were sold across Minnesota and beyond, warming hands and hearts. For Judy, making those mittens gave her a purpose.

“They brought in a little money when we needed it and encouraged me to be useful, using the talents that God has given me,” she said.

But life wasn’t always easy for Judy, and not all her careers were glamorous. She cleaned motels rooms, helped manage a body shop and cared for 18 head of horses. Judy and Larry were involved in an equine partnership that failed, forcing them to start over. When Larry became sick and was eventually diagnosed with Leukemia, Judy was devastated. When he died, she felt as if her life was over. Hard times have a way of stealing a person’s joy.

With the loss of her husband, Judy’s family and friends gently encouraged her to move, hoping she would be safer elsewhere. But the idea of leaving the home she and Larry had shared, filled with memories of their life together, was heartbreaking. She understood the worries, yet her heart was rooted in that place, so she began searching for ways to remain there -- safe but still surrounded by the comfort of home.

Slowly she began to see a path that brought her to where she is today.

“I’ve learned that relationships are really important, and that God places people on our path when we’ve lost our way,” she said.

Her plan was to stay in close touch with family and spend more time with friends. In addition, she contacted an organization that provides home health services, and eventually, she began to have a nurse visit each week.

“Kristie is one of those wonderful people God put in my life,” said Judy regarding her home health nurse. “She got me going with my next project... my new mission.”

That mission has become her new passion. She now creates small blankets and donates them to the hospital in Glenwood to help newborn babies and children who are sick, hurt or scared.

“God brought me the memory of the time my son was sick in the hospital. He was only two years old,” she recalled. Judy was forced to leave him in the care of the doctors and nurses because she had another child who needed her at home.

“It was the most hopeless feeling,” she said. “If only I had had something like this to give him for comfort when I left.”

The special blankets Judy makes are normally small enough for a child to gather in their arms and hold when comfort is needed. She uses all kinds of fleece cloth; some yardages are given to her and others she has purchased.

“My son, Hal, spent a hundred dollars on fleece fabric for me to use,” said Judy, “and friends have given me many fun patterns.”

The process of creating these no-sew blankets involves cutting two pieces of cloth the same size. With the two pinned together, right sides out, she makes two-inch slits around the four sides. Then she begins the process of tying the layers together, working around the blanket. Some of her two-sided blankets have different patterns on each side.

“I enjoy mixing and matching different patterns to create something fun that might appeal to a child,” said Judy. “Kids like lots of color and that makes it fun for me.”

As each blanket is completed, it is placed in a pile, awaiting the arrival of Judy’s home health nurse who delivers and distributes the little treasures to the hospital and the emergency room. Included with each blanket is a card with Judy’s story and a statement of her mission to provide comfort to children. She calls her creations ‘Nina Blankets.’ Nina is a combination of two Welsh words, both meaning ‘grandmother.’

Judy’s stockpile of unused fleece fabric guarantees that the Nina Blanket mission isn’t yet complete.

“I have no plans to quit,” Judy stated.

“I am so blessed in the life I have,” Judy stated, summing up her life. “Everything I’ve been able to do was a gift from God. I live under His direction and protection, knowing that He has a purpose for me. I do hope my life makes a difference.”

As a believer, Judy says that her life has been filled with experiences that defy earthly explanation.

“There’s really no other way to describe them,” Judy said with a smile of quiet contentment, “... I call them ‘God things.’”