The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) "Name Quilts" are becoming available and the first 26 of them are up for bidding in the March auction.
The name quilts are part of "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope" a nationally touring exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer's sponsored by the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. They can be seen above, as they surround my own quilts on exhibit, as well as 53 other small format art quilts.
The exhibit began touring in 2011 and will travel until the end of September 2013 for a total of 14 showings. The exhibit features 236 quilts: 182 Name Quilts and 54 Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts selected for their Alzheimer's related theme.
The "Name Quilts" measure about 6 inches wide about 7 feet long. They have Velcro tabs instead sleeves. Each has about 55 purple patches, each marked with the name of a person who has/had Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia, written by a friend or family member.
The "wrong" side of the fabric patches are showing. The color intentionally faded. The bright side of the cloth, full of the color and pattern of life, has been turned to the inside of the quilt, never to be seen again.
These quilts honor the 5.4 million people in the United States who have Alzheimer's. Quilts will be folded and shipped to you in a legal size priority flat rate mailer for approximately $5.25.
If you win more than one auction between now and October we will only combine orders and ship your winning quilts together in one box if you tell us in the comment section of your order.
I submitted about two dozen names for this exhibit...half of them from my own families and the other half I collected from one of my community sewing groups. After collecting the names from my friends, I read through them before I packed them away. I was amazed to discover one of my friends..in the group and present that day..among the names submitted.
Here she was, this sweet, dear little lady and she had already been diagnosed with this horrible disease. I'm pretty sure it was her daughter, who was also present in the group that day, who wrote her name but it ripped through me as surely as writing my own family members names did when I wrote and read them, as well. All of those names are among these 'Name Quilts'.
For More info read here....http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html
The March Online Quilt Auction Has Begun!
Own a piece of history! Name Quilts #1-#26 from the AAQI's traveling
exhibit "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope" (see video
below) are on auction now through March 10. To see if your loved one's name is on one of the 26 auction quilts offered during March, search here.
Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join in the Liberated Quilting Challenge and make or donate small art quilts to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Help us change the world, one little quilt at a time!
