And out of that remaining 20 small format art quilts that are still available for purchase....18 are going to the Houston International Quilt Festival where they can be found on display in the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) booth and be available for purchase. A profits from the sale of all of our quilts go towards Alzheimer's Research funding.
And 2 that have been part of the Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope Traveling Exhibit, will be part of the AAQI December Auction...our very last month for selling these very, very special small format art quilts.
I am so very proud to have been a part of this amazing group of quilters, to have started my own Liberated Quilting Challenge to members of our online quilters (and this larger group of mine has created 640 quilts for donation and most of those have sold!) and to have spent the past 6 plus years making and donating quilts to this organization. As I wrote in my $1,000 Promise Statement for Ami Simms, the founder of AAQI:
" As a member of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, I was asked by Ami Simms to send a 2" x 6" strip of purple fabric with the name of someone I loved on the back. The name of someone who has, or has had, Alzheimer's Disease, or a related dementia. As I began to write their names on the back, it was like I could hear an honorary roll call being read out loud with each and every name. At first I had a lump in my throat, and then a pain in my heart and suddenly I began to feel tears as they streamed down my face.
Nine names, nine purple strips, nine lives touched and destroyed by the hurricane force of this horrible disease. Nine people in my family alone, in my memory, in my own relating generation, in my DNA, in my own heart. Since that day, six more names have been added to that fate-filled list, including my own mother who now has advanced Alzheimer's, and my father who just passed away with his own early dementia. Now, there are not nine, but 15 members of my immediate family whose purple ribbons are waving in the ribbons of love in my heart.. and out of that 15....only my mother is still alive, and still facing the challenges of a changed, and ravaged life.
And just as these purple banners wave across the hearts of all of those who view the "Alzheimer's Forgetting Piece by Piece" quilts, and will wave again in the "From Heartbreak to Hope" traveling exhibit in 2011, they wave, too, in all of our lives. My life and the life of my family has been forever changed, and I am so grateful to have this wonderful organization supporting research into Alzheimer's. AAQI has given me the gift of knowing I can make a difference...in my life, and in the lives of all who face the challenges of Alzheimer's Disease.
Total raised so far: $3,552.25
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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!
