Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Island Batik Donates $25,000 to AAQI!!

Hold onto your hats!

I know whose fabric I'll be looking for in the future!

Moira and Adam Dewar of Island Batik, Inc. have donated $25,386.00 to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative!


This is our largest donation to date. As in EVER!

Moira and Adam have been proud supporters of the AAQI through the Rose of Sharon project and have donated fabric for “Alzheimer’s Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope.” But this! OH MY GOODNESS!!!

Adam said, “We are very happy to give this money to the AAQI. We think they are doing fantastic work.”

We are ecstatic! Jump-up-and-down happy! Over the moon! THANK YOU!

There are an estimated 5.4 million Americans with Alzheimer’s. One in eight people age 65 has the disease. Right now. If you are a Baby Boomer, your age cohort is turning 65 at the rate of between 7,000 and 10,000 people a day. Chances are high that you will spend your retirement years either struggling with this vile disease yourself or taking care of someone who is.

Let Island Batik’s commitment to fighting Alzheimer’s be a challenge to every quilting industry leader to support the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. We fund research directly. 100% of the money that funds “our” research goes to budget, nothing to overhead. Our organization is run by volunteers and we spend zero money on fundraising. We are quilters doing what we love to do and making a difference. HELP US!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Priority Quilt: The Imperial Irish

As you may or may not know, I am the Quilt Registrar for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. What that means is that anyone who makes a quilt for AAQI has to fill out a form that is emailed to me. I then assign that quilt a number, format a reply to the maker, build a webpage for that quilt and send the registration back to the maker. Last month we had a record 316 quilts registered! It was crazy! Well, I thought it was a "one hit wonder" and figured once I was through that, things would slow down a little. WRONG! In the first 4 (yes FOUR!) days of June, I've already received over 100 NEW registrations. Could this be another record breaker? Sure seems like it!

Well, after sitting at my computer for what felt like (and actually was) hours on end yesterday, being hit by wave after wave of creativity from these quilt registrations, I thought if I didn't do something creative for myself I might just go a little bonkers! Mind you, I don't get to see the acutal quilts, I'm just reading the descriptions and dedications from the quiltmakers! The actual quilt gets sent to my sister and once she creates a picture, she puts it up on the website page. That process takes a couple of weeks at least.

So anyway, I decided a break was in order and went down to my beautiful new studio (see the studio posts). I looked around and picked up some things that were laying out with no intended purpose. The first thing I saw was this dog fabric that my sister-in-law had put fusible on and cut out, but not used. Wow. Great start!

Looking for a background, I saw some bits and pieces left over from another quilt that were then ends of rows not large enough to be used in that project. By re-sewing some and cutting down the block size, I was able to make 8 smaller blocks which I sewed together to make a background for the dog. I also had a panel of doggy sayings that were cut up, waiting to be used, and this one sure seemed to fit the look of that dog! And so, The Imperial Irish was born.



A quick border, a little machine applique, some stippling, binding and a label, and within 2 hours I had a Priority Quilt of my own to register. I still have to do the hand sewing on the binding, but I can turn it over to my sister tomorrow when I see her. A very small time investment that can raise funds to fight Alzheimer's Disease, which took my Dad away from us last December, and long before that.

Please consider making a contibution of your own. They don't have to be masterpieces, as you can see. This quilt was all made up from things that otherwise might have ended up in a scrap bin and never used.

Check it out here: Priority Quilt

One of my last Priority Quilts, Dare to be Different, #6438 is available for sale here on the Quilts for Sale page.

And I am happy to say that Doggie Diaries (see last post) sold and earned $50 for AAQI! Thank you so much to whoever bought it!