As many of you already know Clara Lawrence has been spear-heading the TQS/AAQI initiative.  She made a mission statement at the beginning of the thread on the forum where she hoped that we as a community could donate 1000 quilts.  Perhaps this didn't seem like an impossible task given that the TQS community is now over 102,000 and growing.  Sadly,  so far,  there have been only 50+ quilts either bought or donated to the AAQI.  If you don't know what it is about then here is a link that will bring you straight to the information you would need if you were considering making a quilt: 

http://www.alzquilts.org/paq.html

Clara had some very sad news recently and will be otherwise engaged for some time.  I know that if she were me the best way for people to show their kindness would be to help her towards this goal of 1000 quilts.  We are almost half-way through the year and if things keep going the way they are then we as a community will have contributed approximately 100 quilts.  

These quilts have to be no bigger than 9 x 12"  - in other words the size of a practice sandwich if you are trying to learn free-motion quilting.  How long will it take you to make something suitable?  anything from a couple of hours to a day depending on what you choose to do.  

Just a quick reminder that Altzheimers Disease is the 6th biggest killer in the USA today. 5.4million people suffer at the present time.  Someone is diagnosed with Altzheimers every 68 seconds.  One of the biggest problems in the next 30 years is going to be care for people with AD as the numbers are increasing so much that it is estimated that there will be somebody diagnosed with AD every 33 seconds by 2050.  

What Ami Simms is trying to do is to raise enough money to fund research into finding a cure. Surely we all want to benefit from that?

Have a good day,

Rita.