The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI)

I've been involved with a group of 12 quilters for the

last 10 years or so. We are so very fortunate to share

a love of quilting and the companionship of each other.

Years ago we started recognizing each other's birthdays

with a Fat Quarter of fabric........as we became better

acquainted the gifts kept getting bigger and bigger.

This year we decided to donate a gift to charity since none

of us really NEED more fabric (yes we still WANTED it! lol)

We celebrated Mary's birthday last night and Mary's wish

was for each of our group members to make a mini art

quilt to donate to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

What FUN I had designing this little quilt!

The idea for the quilt came from a single line from the

book "High Season" by Jon Loomis which I read several

months ago.....

"Now you see me, Now you don't."

I sat down a couple of nights ago with this

pad of paper, a pencil and a BIG eraser!

This was my initial design.

I wanted to portray a women who was fully present,

and then the same woman as *gone*.

I had lots of ideas, but was having trouble with the execution

of those ideas.........

and then I decided that I could just omit the eyes

and cover the mouth and achieve the feeling I wanted.

Here is what I came up with:

I've since added the words "Now you see me, Now you don't"

and still have to quilt and bind this.

Click on the above title to learn more about the AAQI

and the wonderful work that Ami Simms has done for

research for Alzheimer's.

I'll post the completed quilt in a few days.....with any luck that is!

A Fish out of Water

While in Juneau Alaska I went into a quilt shop

and saw this wallhanging made up and I really liked it.

So I bought the pattern and this is the result............

This is one of those patterns where you START with

your quilt sandwich and lay the pattern pieces

(which you have made from freezer paper)

onto the quilt sandwich and sew them down

with a STRAIGHT stitch leaving the edges raw.

I decided to just put it on the longarm and sew

the pieces using it instead of the DSM.

Now, you may remember in an earlier post

I mentioned that I DID NOT like that this salmon

was jumping out of the water and I intended to

re-arrange these fish and put him IN the water!

How silly!

Fish don't jump out of the water!

Well..........they do!

I just looked and looked at all of my Ketchiken pictures

and I can't find a single one of the fish fully jumping out

of the water............But that doesn't mean that they didn't

jump.........it just means that my photography was quite

good enough to catch them!

So on my wallhangings the salmon

jump out of the water as well!

This little quiltlet will be sent off soon for

the Good Ol' Summertime swap.

Design Wall Monday

Oh man! It's Monday already!

How did that sneak up on me?

This week on my design "table" I am working on

"A Fish out of Water" pattern that I bought when I was in

Juneau Alaska. This little quilt will be for my Summertime

swap. I REALLY need to get this done SOON so I can ship it off.

I'll post more pictures as this quilt comes along.

I think it is really going to turn out nice.

Well, I hope it is anyway!

Okay folks, I've gone and done it again!

I've entered the All People Quilt Journal contest with my friend Carla.

Please go and have a look at this link:
http://my.allpeoplequilt.com/photos/quilts-and-more-quarterly-challenge/challenge-3/1123500004/?photoId=1122800006&firstPhoto=true

The contest does not really start until next week when they announce
the 10 finalists, but the finalists are chosen by the "ratings" at each
contestant gets during this coming week.
You can "RATE" our journals by moving your cursor over the "Rate This"
and clicking on the amount of stars you think our covers deserve. (5, hint, hint)
Oh! and you can leave a comment as well!

Thanks so much for your kind support and I'll let you know if we make the finals!

I am still working on finishing up this halloween wall hanging.

Here I am auditioning borders.........I'm pretty sure that

this is what they will end up being.

My good friend Katrina wanted "butt blocks"

for her birthday, so this is what I came up with.....

I used one of the ladies in Barbara Lavalle's

"A toast to Issiac Newton" pattern that I also got in Alaska.

My creative daughter wanted to make a block for Katrina

as well. She always comes up with far-fetched designs that I

just KNOW won't work, but she keeps pushing and pushing

until she makes it work. (or gets me to make it work lol!)

Oh, and last, but not least........we celebrated my daughter's

24th birthday last night. I made a nice dinner and then we

played marbles. Such happy times. This marble board was made

by my dad and is a replica of the one that my Great-Grandmother's son had made for her. I played many a game of marbles with my great-grandma. I couldn't help but think that she was looking down on us

last night and smiling!