AAQI: INCREDIBLE NEWS!!

(Burton, Michigan) September 26, 2012: The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) has received its 12,000th donated quilt. Made by multi-award winning quilter and teacher Charlotte Warr Andersen of Salt Lake City, Utah, this 9" x 12" quilt represents another milestone for the all-volunteer charity dedicated to raising awareness and funding research through art. "Outside Juneau, AK 2012" is based on a photograph Charlotte took on a trip to Alaska. Charlotte's quilt will be part of the AAQI's October online auction at http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html Charlotte is most recognized for her realistic applique portraits. She has purchased four Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts made by supporters of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. They hang in her sewing room. The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (www.alzquilts.org) is a national, grassroots organization whose mission is to raise awareness and fund research through art. It auctions and sells donated quilts through the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt project and sponsors a touring exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer's called "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope." The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative has raised more than $763,000 since January 2006. Ami Simms of Flint, Michigan is the founder and executive director of the AAQI, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation operated entirely by volunteers. She is a quilter. Her mother had Alzheimer's. For more information on the AAQI or to make a donation, contact Ami Simms at 810-637-5586 (9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Eastern), ami@alzquilts.org or www.alzquilts.org.
Contact: Ami Simms
Founder and Executive Director
Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative
1200 Creekwood Trail
Burton, MI 48509
(810) 637-5586
www.alzquilts.org CLICK the image to see it larger.
RIGHT CLICK the image and select "save target/link as" to download it to your computer. Please credit photo: "Alzheimer's Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Quilt title: "Outside Juneau, AK 2012"
Quilt maker: Charlotte Warr Andersen (Salt Lake City, UT)

AAQI Quilt Auction Starts Tomorrow!

The May Online Quilt Auction
Starts Tuesday!
Please bid generously.
All profits fund Alzheimer's research.

10,000 DONATED QUILTS FOR AAQI!!

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is about to receive its 10,000th donated quilt!! The Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt project, these awesome little quilts you bid on or buy outright, began on January 1, 2006. We are about to receive a milestone quilt in just a few days. Check out our home page for the countdown. (We're currently at 9,954 registered quilts!) Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

Why is this such a big deal? Because the profits the AAQI earns from the sales of these little quilts funds Alzheimer's research. We are trying to find a cure for this vile disease. The more quilts, the more research. To date we've raised more than $713,000 for research. Show Me The Money

And what have we done with the money? The AAQI pays for scientific research. We have just funded our 11th research grant. We just awarded $60,000 to Temple University! AAQI Awards 11th Research Grant

I've nominated Ami for a segment of "Making A Difference" on the NBC Evening News with Brian Williams. Comments would be greatly appreciated. The nomination is the last one on page 4 when you click here: Beth Hartford on Newsvine. There is a tiny "reply" button in the lower right hand corner of the post. Perhaps the 10,000th quilt will get their attention. Fingers crossed. Your comments will help.



AND the April online quilt auction is in full bloom this morning! You can see the 27 quilts we are offering this month here: AAQI April Auction Quilts and they are a gorgeous group! You can see them all in a video here:

Thank you for sharing any or all of this news in an upcoming blog, on your website, on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or anywhere else.

I so appreciate you helping the AAQI get the message out to quilters everywhere.

This One is the Right Size for AAQI!

I have been making (and buying) little quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative for quite a few years. Lately, I've been using vintage embroideries that can be had for very little money. This is the other half of the dresser scarf that I used for a quilt in my last post. This end was badly stained with spots that looked like rust, but I wanted to save it. In the center along the edge of the dresser scarf, there were two more little embroideries that I cut out and appliqued on either side of the big flower tree, thus covering the ugly stain. Now, it might not necessarily make "sense" pictorally, but at least I saved the vintage embroidery.

I couldn't add any borders to this one to keep it under the limit for a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt, so I added the little yellow piping and a floral binding to give it a little "zing". I'm calling this one "Spring Revisited", it's such happy colors and has been saved from obscurity. It's #9670, my 18th little quilt for AAQI.

There are many quilts currently for sale on the AAQI Quilts for Sale page. You can even search for a particular quilt artist if you like their work - how cool is that? The prices are extremely reasonable, from as low as $16 on up. Since AAQI is an all volunteer organization, all profits go to fund Alzheimer's research.

This Was Almost A Priority Quilt . . .

But it got just a little too big and I didn't have the heart to chop off the borders. It measures 13" x 11 inches, and the absolute maximum size for a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is 12" x 9". Since it's my mother-in-laws birthday tomorrow, I'm just going to finish this up and send it off to Arkansas where spring is already underway. I hope she likes it!

I should tell you that the embroidered center of this quilt was a vintage dresser scarf that I purchased along the way for "peanuts" and have re-purposed here, and the teeny, tiny yellow piping is a piece of my hand dyed fabric. Wowza!

Guess I need to start another quilt for AAQI!

AAQI Sends 1500 Quilts to Houston!

We asked for 1,500 quilts and WE GOT THEM---thanks to all our wonderful quilter volunteers! Check it out! We will be selling your quilts at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX, Nov 2-6. You'll find us in the Exhibit Hall, Row T, up at the front of the room.

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is in a position to break all previous sales records in its history, thanks to your efforts.

Now all we have to do is SELL THOSE QUILTS! We need your help to do that. Share the video. Send it everywhere you can think of. For those of you who have quilts going to Houston here are ALL the quilts that will be offered for sale in Houston: http://www.alzquilts.org/houston.html Follow the AAQI FaceBook page for numbers of quilts sold and videos (maybe) from the show floor starting November 2. If you're going to be at Festival, please stop by and say hello!!

"Heartbreak to Hope" Exhibit Comes to Quilt Expo!

"Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope" continues its five-year journey across the United States with a stop at Quilt Expo, September 8-10. The exhibit will hang in Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

Show hours are 9am to 6pm daily.
For more information, please contact call 866-297-6545 or email wiquiltexpo@wpt.org.

"Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope" is an exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer's sponsored by the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). Fifty-four small format art quilts (9" x 12") illustrate the disease from a variety of perspectives. They hang among 182 "Name Quilts," each 6 inches wide and 7 feet tall, which carry the names of more than 10,000 individuals who have/had Alzheimer's or a related dementia. The names of loved ones, written on fabric patches by family members and friends, honor the 5.4 million Americans in the United States struggling with Alzheimer's disease.

Ami Simms, AAQI Founder and Executive Director will present "Quilting & Caring: The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative" at 8:30am on Friday, September 9th in the Waubesa WA room on the second floor. Tickets available here.

"Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope" is exhibited at Quilt Expo through the generous support of Wisconsin Public Television, Nancy Zieman Productions, and the Professional Art Quilt Alliance (PAQA).

AAQI MEGA AUCTION AUGUST 1 - 10!

August Online MEGA Auction!


From August 1-10 the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) will be offering 20 quilts that were part of the "Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece" exhibit in an online auction like no other.

Quilts made by Sue Nickels, Diane Gaudynski, Marsha McCloskey, Nancy Brenan Daniel, Melody Crust, Mary Stori, Elsie Campbell, Debbie Bowles and others will be auctioned. This is a rare opportunity to acquire quilts by nationally acclaimed quilters who rarely sell their work.

Own a quilt from the exhibit that has touched the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people nationwide.

Bidding begins August 1st. Preview all twenty quilts now. As always, all profits fund Alzheimer's research.

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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!

Doggie Diaries

As promised, here is a scan of my latest Priority Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. It's called Doggie Diaries and is made from a panel that was donated to us in Houston last year.


This is the one that I stipple quilted with the feather stitch setting on my machine (I didn't realize it at the time), and as I was stitching I thought it looked a bit odd, but chalked it up to the twisted thread. Can you tell I was tired after a "working" weekend with my sisters and mom?

Here is a close-up of the quilting - the thread really does make it difficult to see the stitching well.


Anyway, I'm happy with the way it turned out, and I am sure someone will love to become its new owner. This one is #6955 on the
Quilts Waiting For Assignment page.

Mom's Priority Quilt #6885 from the previous post is now up here: F-f-f-fish.

Mary's can be seen here: Off Kilter, here: Wag Your Tail and here: Mischief Maker. Not all of the pictures are up yet, but check back - they are adorable! Alright - here's a sneak preview of Mischief Maker . . .


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


Help me inch closer to reaching my $1000 promise!

The Christening . . .

Of the new studio, of course!

The girls (my mom, sister-in-law Mary, sister Diane & I) decided to have a Priority Quilt weekend to christen my new studio space. My husband & I worked feverishly to get it close to finished in time for the gathering, and I spent a lot of time organizing and cleaning too.


This is sort of a "before" picture - before we really got into the thick of creativity and craziness . . .


This is a quilt my mom started (and finished, too!) - she wanted to do a crazy quilt, so we pulled out some crazy fabric and some of my hand dyes and started figuring out exactly how to put it together. You can see this quilt on the Quilts Waiting for Assignment page , it's #6885, the picture will be up when Diane gets to that batch of quilts to post, but the story behind it is there now.


On Monday, Diane's friend Andee (on the right, Mom on the left) joined us for the day and worked on her own creation, using some hand dyed velvet as the centerpiece. You'll have to wait a bit to see hers, as she didn't quite get finished before it was time to go. You can see Mom's finished quilt on the ironing table if you look closely - it's darling!


Here is Mary, working on her third Priority Quilt, this one will be so cute!


And finally, on Tuesday, when everyone had figured out how the machines worked and where things were in the studio, I got to work on a Priority Quilt of my own. It's not registred yet, so I don't have a number, but I will post about it soon since it is finished except for a label.

Funny tidbit about this quilt - I did some machine applique using the feather stitch, then did some tiny stippling which seemed to be going oddly, but also seemed to fit the character of the quilt. When I got all done, I realized that I had done the whole thing in free motion with the machine still set to the feather stitch! I'll try to get a picture of the quilting for you.


So here's the "after" shot, not too much mess left, but I will have to go and straighten things out a bit and put a few spools of thread away. All in all, I'd say it was a smashing success, we got lots of parts and pieces of PQ's done, and several finished to the label. Well done girls!!

Studio - Design Wall & Ironing Station

So last week I finished the ironing station with some help from my sister-in-law, and today I put the bins inside the cubes. I think it will work out very well - it's the perfect height to work at standing, or the chairs I ordered can be raised to work sitting as well - nice if there are lots of parts and pieces to be ironed. The table is 5' long so even two people could easily use it at the same time. It's covered with duck cloth and a layer of batting so it's a nice firm, sturdy surface, and best of all, it's on wheels so I can move it wherever I want as long as there's an outlet nearby!



The bins and cubes are from ArtBin, they have many sizes and configurations of bins. I chose all these to be the same size as I have another bank of these in my cutting room that hold smaller items. Some of these bins have an insert that will accomodate thread cones so that they can be stored easily and dust free, plus I'll be able to see what I have at a glance.


The design wall got finished this weekend. It is made of homosote, which is essentially a pressed fiber product that you can pin into, and it's heat and fire resistant so that you can put an iron on it without issue, unlike many insulation products that many people use that are highly flammable. I covered it with white flannel because the homosote is gray and not very attractive.






I purchased this at Menard's, many home improvement stores carry it. It comes in a 4' x 8' sheet and is 1/2" thick (the picture shows two pieces together). I used the full 4' width, and had to trim each piece to 74" high because my ceilings are low in my studio. Now I have a couple of left over pieces that I could cover and use if I need a smaller surface. The beam made the perfect place to hide the light fixture that shines directly on the wall.

My wonderful husband is working on some trim as I write this, so the progress continues!

My Longarm Experience

I had the opportunity recently to take a beginning longarm quilting class at The Quilting Connection in Elkhorn, Wisconsin with Sue Schmieden. It was a really fun day and we created two quilts that will be donated to a local homeless shelter and I learned a lot about longarm quilting, using Sue's amazingly clever Quick Zip System which allows the renter to get going on the machine without all the time to pin the quilt to the frame - you just zip your quilt on and go! Sue rents time on her machines so of course, I immediately rented time for the following week to finish a quilt top that had been hanging around here for at least 10 years.


It's a churn dash block, done in batiks on black. I really like this quilt, and I like it even better now that it's quilted. It took me about 4 hours to quilt this full size quilt - I can't imagine how long it would have taken on my Bernina, but I know that it would have been MUCH more difficult and MUCH more stressful!! I really enjoyed the whole experience and I am certainly going to do it again!


You can kind of see the pattern I chose, it's called "Paint Splat" (or something like that) and it was really fun to do and looks nice with all the straight lines in the quilt. I chose a bright pink thread to show off the quilting (how brave!) and it really works. The binding is a fun stripey batik - I'll post a picture when I finish hand sewing it to the back of the quilt. I think I'm going to hang this down in my new studio - it really needs some quilts on the walls!!

My Latest Priority Quilt

Finally finished another PQ for The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative! This one was made up of things that were laying around on my cutting table and in my sewing room. I just walked around and grabbed what caught my eye and this is the result.


I took a piece of my hand dyed fabric and used that as the foundation, the stripes are from one fabric, and the leaves from another. I really liked the one strong red leaf - it reminded me of the "stand-out" in a crowd. Since losing my Dad to Alzheimer's related issues in December, red things catch my eye as his favorite color was red. He even had a red and white bathroom in one of their houses! This quilt is dedicated to Dad - he was always a bright spot in a crowd. This quilt was a challenge to myself to do something totally creative. It was “born” from bits and pieces of that were lying around my sewing area just begging to be used! I may have to do more things like this - it is a good way to use up odds and ends and be creative at the same time. Even the thread I used was the first spool that I touched when I went looking for thread to quilt it - I auditioned others, but this one was the ONE!

Reprise

Well, once I got going on these Priority Quilts, I can't seem to stop! This one was SO easy that I feel a little guilty. Someone unknown long ago did the embroidery on a table scarf that I recently purchased at a garage sale for $1.00. I took one end and trimmed it down, quilted around the flower and bound it in a beautiful batik frame. Now it can live its "new" life as something fresh and beautiful.

Priority Quilt Revisited

I started talking about this quilt nearly a year ago, on August 6, 2009. I brought it back out to see if it could be saved the other day and ended up cutting off the borders and just keeping the center. Then I attached new borders and put some batting in between that and a new backing. It's not really crooked IRL, that's my bad photography. I will quilt the borders, probably folloing the hearts in the fabric, but it needs something else. I'm thinking of maybe putting a pink piping on before I bind it. What do you think? All suggestions are welcome! I don't have much time, need to get this one done.

Alzheimer's Name Quilt #2

I finished the second Alzheimer's Quilt (see the last post for details) and will send them both off to be bound by another generous person. I am proud to have been one little cog in this huge wheel that has raised not only money, but awareness of Alzheimer's.


This one is hearts - it took me a while to figure out how to make them continuous, but once the idea hit me, it went very quickly. For me, the quilts signify all the love that has gone into this project and the love that we have for those who have been stricken by this horrible disease. I pray that a cure will be found soon!

What I've Done This Week

Among a multitude of other mundane tasks, I have just finished quilting this rather unusual quilt. This is a section from the first of two 6" wide by 7' long name quilts (you read it right, six inches by seven feet) I'm quilting for the AAQI new exhibit Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope. The two I'm doing will hang with 180 others, each bearing the names of 55 people who currently have Alzheimer's Disease or have died with Alzheimer's or a related dementia. There will be over 10,000 names represented in this exhibit and that's not even a fraction of those who have been stricken. Many hands have touched each of these quilts, those that donated the fabric, collected the names, assembled the tops, those that organized them and sent them to quilters all over the U.S. (maybe farther!), those that quilted them and then to the hands that bind them, finally to those who will hang them for display. It's quite an amazing feat, all spearheaded by the tireless Ami Simms of Flint, Michigan.


I chose to do a leaf pattern, symbolizing hope in the new research that's being done to thwart this horrible disease. I'm not sure how I'll do the second one yet, I'm still thinking that one over.

Quilt Top #2 Complete!

The second quilt top is complete, I've pieced the backings and the batting so they're all ready to go. I've had a crazy couple of days, so I need to carve out some time to get these sandwiched and the quilting started!


Here's a view of the whole quilt - this one really does look better in real life. There were 31 students in this class, so I had to arrange the blocks in the bottom row differently.


Here's a close-up of the center of the quilt so you can see the detail in the fabric.

First School Quilt

Top is finished, here's a picture! I've gotten half the blocks done for the second one, I hope to have that one put together by the end of the weekend, and then start quilting both of them. I think it really needed that black inner border to kind of break up the craziness of the background fabric. Thanks, Di, for the idea!