Easter Happenings

Happy Easter to all who celebrate this glorious time of rebirth, and renewal. May your baskets be full, your sewing machines taking a day of rest, and may you all be blessed with family, friends, and a sense of tradition and community!

After a hard and busy last few weeks, it felt so good to go into the sewing room and work on some easy pillowcase gifts, and quilting fabrics and trims for my ongoing charitable giving of quilts. I have had three small art quilts, three baby quilts, and three pillowcases all in progress at once! During times of challenge, loss, or stress...it is good to keep the heart and the hands busy and in service to those people, and those causes, we care most deeply about.

For those of you in our Jewish community, may you share, and celebrate
a blessed holiday of Passover, as well.

Many of us in our online blogging community mourn the passing of our dear friend, ROSALYN MANESSE.

I have been deeply saddened by our mutual loss of this dear,dear woman and pray for her three children, grandchildren, and her husband. I shall always cherish our emails back and forth, and the friendship that we shared over the past five years.

Roz faced so many family challenges, and her own illness, with so much strength, and amazing, and lovely grace. May her family be strengthened by her love, and their own sense of family and faith-filled community.

3588 - Tribute to Modigliani
by Rosalyn Manesse

6290 - Dove

by Rosalyn Manesse

Roz was also a member of my Liberated Quilting Challenge and made several donations to (AAQI). What treasures those quilts are now! Truly made by the gift of pure spirit of Roz's heart, and with her own loving hands. I am so proud to have known her and to have featured this quilts as part of our ongoing, online group challenge. Bless you, Roz! Roz blogged at Roz-Counterpane and at Rosalyn's Kitchen Hints and published a cooking book. Rosalyn Manesse:Easy Kosher Cooking

And as always, I cannot help but to urge you to consider making, or purchasing a quilt in her memory. Roz made, and donated her two quilts to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) as she not only coped with her husband's Lewy Body Dementia, but her own series of strokes. Blessing to all who loved her, may you know that we will never forget her!

L'Chaim to Life! wall hanging, also by Roz

And of course, life and loving continue to go on.....as we all celebrate these Judeo-Christian holi-days, and still cope with our own stresses, and life challenges. May sewing and quilting and all of the lovely acts of creation of beauty in our lives continue to strength, and give all of our live continued purpose and joy.

Thank you for all of your continuing support of my own projects..... and of my blog.... which has amazingly gone over the 3 million visitors bar this past week!!! I meant to do a drawing and have a giveaway ..but one will be coming soon, I promise.

Know that I treasure each and every one of you, and I am so sorry that I have not been able to keep up with all of your emails, personal requests for information, links, or quilts for donation.

And before I forget (literally) !!!!! There are three full days left to big on my current Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative auction quilt! Remember, your purchase is really a donation to Alzheimer's research funding.

Auction Bidding Until 10pm on April 10th

9125 - Change and Transition

by Michele Bilyeu

And more wonderful news! AAQI just reached a wonderful milestone.....its 10,000th quilt was donated. Congratulations to Kristin from our Liberated Quilting Challenge ......Quilt #10,000 was made by Kristin Shields from Bend, Oregon.

Read more: http://www.alzquilts.org/#ixzz1rSvmmCXz

for creating the 10,000th quilt to be donated and to all of you who have made, donated money, or purchased a quilt since 2006. All of us who volunteer for AAQI love you!

Happy Easter!

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 her Liberated Quilting Challenge for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) Help us change the world, one little quilt at a time!