Quilts, Prayers, and Tears: For AAQI

In the AAQI Update blog, founder and director, Ami Simms wrote: Quilts, Prayers, and Tears

"It has been almost two years this Thanksgiving since my mother died, almost five years since I began the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. It started with tears, and an idea, and grew into a passion that has consumed me.

I think the first quilt auction had 5 quilts in it and I sewed parts of all of them. There is a quilter right now putting the binding on our 6,000th Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilt. She (or he) has thought about Alzheimer’s with every stitch. And if they have a family member with Alzheimer’s then there were probably as many prayers as stitches in that quilt.

When that 6,000th quilt is numbered and signed and slipped into the envelope to ship to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative it carries those prayers with it. When we open the package we can feel them. They are prayers for a cure.
Little quilts. Big hopes.
Don’t ever think that your quilt doesn’t matter. I just wrote a check for $30,000 to the University of California, San Diego. It is the fourth research grant the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative has awarded since becoming a nonprofit. Let me tell you, signing a check with that many zeros gives one pause.
I can’t help but think of all the quilts that were stitched with prayers to make that check possible. And I am so grateful. I think of my mother and how incredibly hard it was to lose her bit by bit and my heart aches for her again. I think of how many people have made my cause their own. Most of our checks have tear stains on them.
More checks need to be written before we find the cure. You can help right now:

1. Make a $5 donation to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative.
2. Buy a quilt.
3. Make a quilt.
4. Bid on a quilt
5. Learn more about who we are.
6. Share this with a friend.

More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. We need a cure. And we need it yesterday. Thank you for what you have already done, and thank you for your continued support."
Ami Simms
Founder & Executive Director
Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative
Shown above:
My current quilt at auction:
Currently being bid upon: now at $ 60.00
Time Left 2 days
Click on quilt image at top to view or to bid.
The October auctions ends at 10 pm on Oct. 10th

The Butterfly Upon the Sky
read about it in depth by clicking on hyperlink above. It was registered the very day my father ended up dying, mailed to Ami at AAQI on the same day that his ashes came home to rest.

My mother survives him, and even with her advanced Alzheimer's, we love and treasure her deeply. Please consider making a donation or bidding on a quilt to honor the love we all have for our fathers, our mothers, our sisters brothers, aunts and uncles who face this dreadful disease.

Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope

Michele Bilyeu quilts for AAQI..the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Won't you please join us? :)