Quilting for a Cause: Alzheimer’s
Welcome to my new series: Quilting for a Cause. This series is going to explore how quilters open their hearts and talents to support a cause. It will also serve as a challenge for everyone out there to take up your needle and thread and help your community out.
I viewed the “Alzheimer’s: Forgetting Piece by Piece” exhibit in November 2006 at the Greater Chicago Quilt Exposition. The exhibit is part of the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative that Ami Simms started and she was there to speak about it. This is a cause that is very personal to her because her mother has Alzheimer’s. It is an emotional exhibit not to be taken lightly but Ami’s lecture is full of hope and energy. She is hoping to raise $500,000. As of her last posting on her web site the exhibit and the accompanying auction “Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts” project the initiative has raised almost $70,000.
Here’s the challenge and how you can help. You can make a small quilt to put in an auction. The quilts are small - they can be no larger than 9″ x 12″. For complete details on the rules and where to send please visit the website. You can also view the current quilts up for auction and their current bids. If you have a blog and make quilts for this cause and post them on your site I will place a link here.
If you know or have a cause supported by quilters please feel free to contact me. I don’t how often I will post this series. Right now I’m thinking of posting the cause one month and then doing a post the next month with something I’m working on for the cause.
quilting, Alzheimer’s, donations, quilt auction, Ami Simms, Alheimer’s Quilt Initiative, quilt exhibit
July 9th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
[...] One upside is that I have attended the spring show in Chicago since I live in the suburbs which has me allowed me to view some of the things that will be in Houston. I have seen the Make It University (here is the link to Chicago’s event) which is more than just exhibits. There are also workshops, demos and vendors that work in various mediums that complement quilting. I have also seen the Journal Quilt project and the Bernina Fashion Showcase although it may not be the newer one they will be showing in Houston. One exhibit they will be having that wasn’t in the IQA Chicago show but was shown at another quilt show near Chicago last fall is the Alzheimer’s Quilts curated by Ami Simms who has a personal mission she is trying to accomplish with the exhibit and of which I wrote about earlier here. [...]