Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope

As a volunteer for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, I am always thrilled to learn that our newest traveling exhibit is on its way to a new locale and opening to a new audience.

"Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope" continues its five-year journey across the United States with a stop at the Berkeley Square, A Colonial Community, in Hamilton, OH June 8-10, 2012.

The exhibit will hang at Berkeley Square, 100 Berkeley Drive, Hamilton, OH. Berkeley Square is off of NW Washington Boulevard, close to Hamilton Freshman School, near the intersection of Cleveland Avenue and NW Washington.

Show hours are 11 to 5 on Friday and Saturday; 11 to 2 on Sunday. Free parking. No admission.

"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.

These small quilts 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.

As a volunteer for AAQI, with 13 family member names among the "Name Quilts" and two of my own small format art quilts among the 54 art quilts, I feel so personally connected to both this cause and to this exhibit.

If you are anywhere near this or any future location, please check it out. And if you see my two art quilts, please take a photo of them on display and mail the photos to me ! I have had a number of blogging freinds attend the quilt shows and therefore also see the AAQI display and so far, none of them noticed my quilts or made the connection to my being part of the exhibit and thus...no photos for me, yet!

My quilts are:




#6399 - The Alzheimer's Prayer

Michele Bilyeu
Salem, OR USA

Artist Statement: I grieve for the loss of my father, and honor his strength, determination, and fortitude in helping my mother face the challenges of her Alzheimer's. He lovingly cared for her, helped her to retell those memories she still retained, and brought forth the bits and pieces of her fragmented life. With this quilt and my own prayers, I pray that other care givers will have the same love and devotion that he had and care for their patients and loved ones, as the people they truly are...and not just who they seem to have become.

Dedication: In honor and memory of my father, a loving care giver, and with the deepest love for my mother who is now in her fifth year of Alzheimer's. In spite of being blind, diabetic, and unable to walk, she still reaches out her heart to us with love.




#5211 - Mama's Brain Got Tangles...but Mama's Still Inside

Michele M. Bilyeu
Salem, OR USA

Artist's Statement: Like my mother's memory, this art quilt consists of many layers, tangles, and threads...with spots of clarity and light hidden amidst the colorful (but often chaotic) surface layer.

Dedication: For my mother who continually pushes through the advancing layers and tangles of Alzheimer's with infinite grace and humor.

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"Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope"
Click here to learn more about this extraordinary exhibit
and how you can bring it to your community.

Michele Bilyeu Quilts With Heart and Hands for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Join in my Liberated Quilting Challenge...and buy or donate a quilt, today!! We are changing the world...one little quilt at a time.