Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Island Batik Donates $25,000 to AAQI

Island Batik Donates $25,000 to AAQI


Moira and Adam Dewar
Hold onto your hats!
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!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Bah Humbug!



Michele Bilyeu
Salem, OR USA
Width: 12" Length: 9"
Materials/Techniques: Cotton fabrics with some hand painting, embroidery floss details and free motion quilting.
Artist Statement: Everyone has those "bah humbug" moments, when everything that can go wrong, does! We can choose how we handle life's challenges, but someone with Alzheimer's cannot. It's up to us to make the best of whatever life has to offer us and help those who cannot help themselves. This quilt is filled with the good will that says "Bah Humbug!" to ALL challenges and "yes" to making the best of things...day by day!
Michele Bilyeu
Dedication: For all of those who face life's challenges and in the spirit of unruly determination to keep going no matter what!
Bah Humbug is now on the "For Sale" page and available for purchase! All profits from the sale of AAQI quilts go to fund Alzheimer's research. Please consider the purchase of this quilt ...for yourself, as a gift, or for anyone having a 'Bah Humbug!' kind of day!

When I made this quilt, I had joined Tonya Ricucci's Bah Humbug liberated letters quilt challenge...and of course Tonya had just had knee surgery. So, I couldn't help myself...vision of band-aids, crutches and bah humbug moments flew threw my head! I just had to make a Bah Humbug! art quilt for donation to AAQI.

We all have Bah Humbug! moments....but having someone acknowledge it and cheer you up with good humor and maybe a little art quilt...just might help and it certainly reminds all of us that someone out there truly cares!

It's been listed by Ami as for sale for $75. Won't you consider a donation towards funding Alzheimer's research by buying this quilt for someone you love, today?


7148 – Bah Humbug!
$75.00

For Sale Here

PS:
This quilt fulfills the requirement for the purchase of a quilt for the Quilt A Month club for June and it's just as wonderful to buy a quilt as it is to make one each month ;)

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Tree of Life: Sold!


Paula Bell Dennee
Loveland, CO USA
Artist Statement:
This piece of needlework was originally done by my Aunt back in the resurgence of crewel work in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Even though the linen is disintegrating, it was never thrown away but moved from her sewing room into mine until it found new life in this Alzheimer�s Priority Quilt. Alzheimer�s disease causes gaps and holes in our memories and minds, eating away at the very fabric of our lives, not unlike the ravages of time upon this piece of linen.

Paula Denee's quilt Tree of Life just sold for $65 at the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative! Congratulations Paula and quilt buyer!

Paula has had friends from her work place develop Alzheimer's and she knows how it changes people and changes lives as well as relationships. Paula had the opportunity to be on the quilt show with the AAQI taping and met Ami Simms and saw so many of our quilts in person and she has been a long time quilting blog friend of mine that I have been so happy to know!

Paula dedicated this quilt to my mother, which just absolutely touched my heart!!! Thank you, Paula!


Michele Bilyeu of With Heart and Hands runs the AAQI Liberated Challenge..won't you join in all of our fun...and donate or buy a quilt, today!

Monday, June 13, 2011

AAQI Liberated Challenge Update


Our AAQI Liberated Challenge member, Rene' Martinez of Rene' Creates answered Ami Simm's questions "how many AAQI quilts have YOU purchased".

Rene' writes: "Not counting today (because I may go shopping...haha), I have purchased 16 Priority: Alzheimer's quilts...eight have been given as gifts, and eight are hanging in my "studio". The above picture shows the two most recent additions to my ever growing collection."

Rene' not only makes beautiful quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative but she buys them, as well...how cool is that?

It's a wonderful role model for all of us...do as she does, check out the AAQI
Quilts for Sale page as 300 more quilts have just been added in. As Rene' says "it's a do-good-feeling guilt-free shopping experience!"

And another Liberated Quilter, our friend Michele (Chele;) Lancaster, of Nostalgic Cafe', just shipped off EIGHT quilts to AAQI...four she made, three her friend Yumi, in Japan, made, and one a doll quilt a fellow swapper made.

I just love these gals. They only further inspire me with their talents for coming up with new ways to help AAQI!!

And I am delighted to report that my quilt #6761-Sparks of Heavenly Fire just earned $165 in our June Auction. Thanks so very much to quilter blogger, Jen Mullen (JenClair) from Bayou Quilts (& Dolls) for making my day as the winning bidder and purchaser of my quilt. Thank you, Jen and all quilt buyers..without you there would be no sales and no auctions!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

AAQI


$60,000 for the University of Michigan and Alzheimer's research.

That's just how much money AAQI was able to raise through the donation of our little art quilts and donate this year. If you remember, last year, Ami Simms and her dedicated band of volunteer assistants had made a previous grant of $30,000 to the same research facility with amazing results. AAQI was one of three grant donating organizations to fund UM researchers into a discovery which rocked the Alzheimer's research world.Now, we are doing it again..only with double the amount of funding!

As Ami said: " I've never been so happy to spend so much money."

And frankly, Ami..we've never been so grateful to be able donate our little art quilts so that this was possible!


As Ami says: And if you're keeping track, the acutal amount was $60, 160.00 It was made out to the University of Michigan for Dr. Mi Hee Lim and her team to continue work on small molecules that break up deposits of amyloid plaque in the brain. That's the substance that seems to cause cell death in Alzheimer's. In smaller chunks, the amyloid plaque can be removed from the brain. Maybe they can figure out how to keep it from clumping together in the first place.

AAQI volunteers hand delivered the check and, of course, brought along some quilts. Quilts from the first traveling show, name quilts created by quilters sewing together small purple patches that many of us wrote the names of loved ones on, and of course, some of our newer donations of Priority quilts.

This grant is by far the largest that the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative has been able to fund so far of the seven that have been distributed. And as Ami says..."Godspeed" to the researchers and the research. As someone who's own life has been forever changed by our own mother's Alzheimer's Disease, we know just how crucial research is..for us, for you, for the world with an aging population.

Thank you Ami, volunteers, quilt makers, and quilt buyers!

Now, ladies and gentlemen...start those machines. It's time to make some more quilts!!!!

Previous Links:
Quilters Finance New Alzheimer's Discovery

Unraveling Alzheimer’s: Simple small molecules could untangle complex disease
Liberated Quilting Challenge
Make and Donate a Priority Quilt to AAQI

Get the latest news about the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative on the AAQI BLOG!
For more frequent news follow the AAQI on FaceBook and Twitter

Not an art quilter? How about wearing art quilt earrings and still support AAQI? See Ami wearing a pair in top photo ;)

$15.00

And while you're there, check out the AAQI Quilt Auction!
BID NOW!

Michele Bilyeu Quilts With Heart and Hands for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Join in my Liberated Quilting Challenge...let's all liberate ourselves from this horrible disease!

Michele is on Facebook and posts about AAQI, regularly.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

AAQI


The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative June auction has begun and I am so delighted to have another one of my quilts in this month's group of selections. This one is representative of what I like to call "Healing Hearts" quilts....filled with the power and the testament of the spiritual energies of love in action....the very symbolism of my own heart and hands and all that means to me.

Please visit the
AAQI June Auction website and see all of the other lovely quilts available this month. Bids open at $40 and go up in small increments thereafter. Now, it is possible to state your highest offer and have an auto bid up to that point. And please, please, remember...you are not just buying a little art quilt donated by all of us..you are also making a charitable donation with all profits going to fund Alzheimer's research! And if you think that doesn't make a difference...read here about how one of our $30,000 grants last year made a huge impact in the research on this dreadful disease.


Bids are open today, June 1st and the auction runs until June 10th when it ends at 10:00 p.m Thank you for just checking out our auction, but an extra big thank you for considering a bid or purchase!
Salem OR USA
Width: 12" Length: 9"

Materials/Techniques: Cotton fabrics, inkjet printing, thread painting, and free motion quilting.

Artist Statement: Each of us must face many challenges in our lifetime. The ability to go through those challenges is often catalyzed by a deep inner strength we didn't realize we possessed. It is this 'spark of heavenly fire' that both lights the path ahead and empowers us to blaze forward with faith, perseverance, and fortitude.

Dedication: For anyone and everyone who has faced life's challenges and learned more about themselves and their inner strength in that process.


Links:
Make A PRIORITY: ALZHEIMER'S QUILT Donation
Why I Quilt for AAQI
Why I Started the AAQI: Liberated Quilting Challenge
See all of our Liberated Challenge Quilts to date on their own AAQI webpage
Art Quilters Finance New Alzheimer’s Discovery!
Traveling Exhibit Premiers (and I am so blessed to have two quilts in this exhibit!)
Youtube Exhibit Video

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI)

Make A PRIORITY: ALZHEIMER'S QUILT Donation
Why I Quilt for AAQI
Why I Started the AAQI: Liberated Quilting Challenge
See all of our Liberated Challenge Quilts to date
Art Quilters Finance New Alzheimer’s Discovery!
Traveling Exhibit Premiers
Youtube Exhibit Video



Get the latest news about the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative: AAQI BLOG!
For more frequent news follow the AAQI on FaceBook and Twitter.


Michele Bilyeu can be found at: www.with-heart-and-hands.com