From August 1-10 the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) will be offering 20 quilts that were part of the "Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece" exhibit in an online auction like no other.
"Confusion" was created by Elsie Campbell of Dodge City, Kansas. Elsie is an award-winning quiltmaker, international teacher, writer, and editor. She is the author of Nine Patch and Snowball Quilts and /Winning Stithces. Her 75 plus awards include Best of Show—Quilt America! 2000, Mary Krickbaum Award for Best Hand Quilting—National Quilt Association, 2001, and Excellence in Hand Workmanship Award—American Quilters Society 2003.
Be sure to read the Artists Statement on Elsie's quilt!
Quilts made by Sue Nickels, Diane Gaudynski, Marsha McCloskey, Nancy Brenan Daniel, Melody Crust, Mary Stori, Elsie Campbell, Debbie Bowles and others will be auctioned. This is a rare opportunity to acquire quilts by nationally acclaimed quilters who rarely sell their work!
"A Day With Beebe" is another quilt on the auction block, this one created by Marsha McCloskey of Eugene, Oregon. Marsha is one of the quilting world’s best-known authors and teachers. She has written or co-authored more than 20 books on quilt making since 1981. Specializing in traditional designs, such as The Feathered Star, she has taught drafting, rotary cutting and machine piecing to quilters all over the United States and in eight foreign countries. She has her own small publishing company, Feathered Star Productions, and has designed lines of quilting fabric for In The Beginning-Fabrics and Clothesworks. Read more about this quilt here on the AAQI website.
"Research Now…There’s still Time", created by Nancy Brenan Daniel of Precott, Arizona. This little quilt is a combination of photo transfer, machine piecing and machine quilting.
Nancy is a traditional and a studio quilt maker, designer, and teacher. As the granddaughter of a quilter she has had a lifelong interest in the art. After the university she began her professional life as an art educator. Today, she is a skilled designer and teacher, as well as a prolific author of books and magazine articles – mostly about the art of the quilt. Read more about Nancy's quilt on the website.
Another of the quilts for auction is "Nevilyn", created by Linda J. Huff of Algonquin, IL.
Artist Statement: Nevilyn was born June 14, 1915, and she is my grandmother. She learned to sew because as a child she had rheumatic fever and was never allowed to do anything strenuous. In January of 1936 she married Jerry and they started their family. Mostly they worked and lived their lives, struggling through the tough times and rejoicing in the good times. When it was time to retire, Grandpa hooked up a travel trailer to his truck and told Grandma they were going to visit all of the places they had always wanted to see. If they did those things now, he insisted, when they got too old to travel at least they would have the memories of all that they had seen and done.
In 1999 Grandpa died. Then Grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The woman who sits in the nursing home today has no memories of friends or family or the special things that she and her husband did especially for this time in her life. Nevilyn was once lively and vibrant. In the end only a ghost of her former self remains.
There are 868 small squares in the border. They speak of so many things in my grandmother’s life: the fabric that she worked with to make clothes and quilts, her attention to small details, her desire that things be done the “right” way, and her love of color. They also symbolize all of her memories, funny stories, sad times, the trips she took, and the things she has done. All the little pieces of her life are now lost to her forever.
Please go visit the auction today. By viewing the quilts and reading the stories, you will raise your awareness of Alzheimer's Disease and its impact. And if you find a quilt you just can't live without, so much the better!
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