OK quilters! This quilter is issuing a challenge!
The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) is a national charity that sells small donated quilts to fund Alzheimer's research. We’ve seen Alex, Ricky, Libby, Sue, Hollis, Caryl, John, and other fabulous quilters do it. We can do it too! Let’s jump in and do some serious damage. I mean quilting.
Make them, buy them, or both. Every quilt donation, every quilt sale counts. I think the TQS community could really shake things up! (In a good way!)
What are we making?
Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts are 9" x 12" in size or smaller. That’s a tiny bit bigger than a regular sheet of paper! Read the rules here: http://www.alzquilts.org/paq.html. This could be a scrappers paradise or a way to use those extra bits from a project you cut too many pieces for, or a way to try out a new technique you learned on TQS. You could easily create a series of little quilts. (Keep in mind they won't be sold as a series, but it sure is fun making them that way. I've got 12 in the works right now.) Make 1 or make 100, it is up to you.
What are we buying?
Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts, of course. Don't buy your own quilts back, silly. Buy somebody else's! Collect art! The AAQI sells quilts 24/7 on their website and the best of the best are auctioned online during the first day days of every month. Check it out: http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltsforsale.html and http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html
Who the heck am I?
I’m Clara Lawrence, the Sorting Queen from the Half-Square Triangle Exchange. (Hey, there's an idea: build your mini-quilts from half-square triangles and strips!)
Why am I interested in AAQI?
My family was affected by Alzheimer’s. Not just one family member, but two. I personally love Ami Simms' idea and it’s simplicity and want to help. This year I want to make quilts that make a difference. Don't you? Will you join me?
How to get involved?
1. Make a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt (http://www.alzquilts.org/paq.html)
a. Register the quilt yourself and send me (through TQS) the registration number the AAQI assigns to it.
OR
b. Ship me the quilt and I'll register it and ship it to AAQI for you. (Contact me first so I can have you fill out and sign a special form and give you my mailing address.)
2. Buy a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt or bid and win one during a monthly auction. Use TQS to send me the registration number of the quilt you purchased and the amount purchased for.
3. Share your quilts, the ones you make and the ones you buy! TQS has a Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilt Show and Tell section already on their site. Share your completed quilts there and on the forum.
How do we get to 1,000?
I'll submit the quilt numbers to the AAQI for quilts you make. They will publish them on our own special page: http://www.alzquilts.org/tqs.html
I'll also keep track of how much the TQS community raises by purchasing quilts. When you buy a quilt, give me the number and the amount you paid for it (less shipping and insurance).
Whether you buy or make a quilt. Send me the following through our TQS email. My screen name is ClaraLawrence. Click on my profile name and you will see where to send an email. I will need...
- Screen Name
- Real Name
- AAQI’s registration number
- Date of purchase or registration
- If bought, send me the final price of quilt purchased
I will track these monthly and yearly and posts these results around the 16th of each month. I will list screen names and number amounts for all TQS to see. Yearly totals will be updated from time to time.
Time to talk and share
Get on this forum and share your quilts, stories, new techniques you tried, OOOhs and AAAAhs over the quilts, please please have fun sharing and just being the quilters we are. Time for some more fun getting together on the forum.
Join me on the forum and let me know if you have any questions.
Clara Lawrence
Additional Important info.
TQS and I are doing the challenge for AAQI. This way whatever rules or surprises we do, we just do them. Ami has a lot of regulations she has to follow, so it is much easier for me to coordinate on my own (WITH TQS's WONDERFUL HELP OF COURSE!). If there are any questions, post on the forum or send me an email through TQS.
Come and join the fun.
Wow, thanks. Will do.
