Ami Simms and Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

Go do something and get something for FREE!

She has arranged with The Quilt Show for the episode on which she appeared in Aug 2010 can be viewed for free.  You know the Quilt Show is a paid for internet show about Alex Anderson and that guy I really don't like.  (I wish she would go back to Simply Quilts!)  

Here is what Ami sent out:

Watch the AAQI episode of The Qulit Show for FREE.

The Quilt Show is now running episode #712 featuring the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative for FREE. This was taped back in August of 2010, so some of the numbers are a little out of date, but everything else is the same.

    Updates:

    The AAQI has raised more that $722,000 for research since we started back in January 2006

    The AAQI has received more than 10,000 donated quilts so far.

    

Here's the link: http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/shows.php/episode/712

AND

Vote for the AAQI at http://www.attorneyandoni.com/Giving_Back.html

This blog post will go out at 1am eastern time on June 6th. Feel free to scoop me and send this information (word for word if you like) out right away. Daniel J. Andoni, a local attorney here in Flint, Michigan, pledges 3% of his net profits to a local charity each month. Instead of deciding which deserving nonprofit gets his donation, he uses crowd sourcing: visitors to his website cast their vote for one of five charities. The one with the most votes at the end of the month wins the donation.

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is one of the charities listed for the month of June! We are off to a fabulous start, but it's the charity with the most votes at the END of the month that counts. To pull this off, we need to keep growing the numbers. Every vote counts.

Vote here: http://www.attorneyandoni.com/Giving_Back.html

Go do something and get something FOR FREE!  LOL.

glen:  whose mother is in hospice with end stage Alzheimer's Disease

Ami Simms Workshop in Lafayette

It was just as wonderful as Charlene said it would be! 

http://geemaswonderings.blogspot.com/2011/08/ami-simms-workshop.html

I actually like that picture of me laughing at her!  It must be the first time I have ever liked a picture of myself.  I guess we are all like that.

Ann and I were not without our problems as we attempted to meet for 7 AM to head out to Lafayette.  We both ran late but ended up getting there in plenty of time to find the church and set up our stations.  We got the added benefit of hobnobbing with Ami Simms for some personal time!

Ami Simms is the brainchild behind Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative or AAQI.  Thousands of quilters make 9 x 12 quilts for auction and sale.  Proceeds go to Alzheimer Research.  She has raised more than a half million dollars from these sales.  For more information or to donate or buy one of these marvels go to:

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

Oh yes, the workshop! I taught everyone how to get focus on a scatterbrained dog, how to extinguish a bad behavior and......oh, you mean the Twisted Sister Workshop!  LOL.

Here is everyone!

                                                    And here are Ann, me, Ami Charlene and Dottie hamming it up for the camera while Mary stole my blocks............

Twisted Sister looks difficult, but is not.  And that makes the block totally worthwhile to make!  It does use a template....and partially pieced seams.......well, maybe it is a bit difficult, but it was so much fun!  When I decided on Halloween fabrics, I knew Mary would be lusting after my stuff.  What I didn't know was that she was going to be there.  I had to keep a close eye on my blocks because between Mary and Charlene they nearly walked off several times.

Ann and I had found a perfect fabric combination for her TS blocks.  Of course you never know how it will come out until you actually put it together.  It was obviously a winning combination!  Check out her first block.

There were so many different combinations of fabric and ideas that all were fabulously different.  Throughout the workshop Ami was teaching, she never stopped working with individuals and pointing ways of doing things out to the group as well. She had a "train" of people following her as she walked through the class. 

Charlene worked in teals and browns.  This will be a DG quilt and I think it works for a guy graduate!  I do!  Boy, do those lights pup with that teal in the center!  What a great eye-catching combination. H  Her pallet was laid out on the table and I was definitely drooling. 






Here are some other blocks.  Some I know who they belong to, some I don't.  But they are all gorgeously fabulous!





This one will be exciting!



I love the colors here





Dottie




This was a strip material, wow!




Mary




Karen





Linda



Biking in the heat, quilting in the cool

Whew!  Things have been so busy lately.  I feel like Charlene!  LOL.

Even though the weather has not been cooling off like Frank says it is, we have gotten back into the swing of biking again.    Last week we did 9.1 miles one day and this weekend and today we did about 4 miles a day.  Even though it looks cool in the photos, it is not.  However, it is much cooler riding in the tree forests than on the asphalt roads so we stick to the Forest Park or White Oak trails.  

It feels good to be riding even if we are sweating!  The last few days has pushed the mercury very very close to 100 degrees, and by our 10:30 PM dog walk it is still in the upper 90's.  This morning at 6:30 AM it was actually cool, we walked 1.5 miles with the dogs.  Then by the afternoon it was 101! 

Dutch has been walking 1/2 mile every morning and again at night.  He trots a bit when he forgets about his leg.  But I am glad he is even attempting to trot.  He took off after DiNozzo a few days ago, totally forgetting about his leg.  If it were a muscle pull, I would think he was getting better.  But I know it is just a matter of time before the cancer takes over.  He still is on rimadyl twice a day and I have upped the tumeric to 3 morning and night.  I know the turmeric won't help with this kind of cancer but I am hoping it helps as an anti-inflammatory and thus with some pain.  I still have moments when I sit and cry.

You probably can't see the perspective in this photo, but Dutch is about 108 lbs and that is a big dog bed.  He just barely fits.  But since I won't let him step up to the cooleroo bed he so dearly loves, he has taken over this one.  He looks so silly!

Wednesday I am going to meet Charlene in Lafayette and we head to Ami Simms Twisted Sister class.  Ami Simms is the brain of AAQI (Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative) http://www.alzquilts.org/

I have contributed several quilts over the years for auction, the proceeds go to research.  I have three of them there right now for sale.  Check them out #7145, 7146 and 7184 (http://www.alzquilts.org/15miplgrnyon.html)  Hey, bid on one! 

Over the weekend I brought cookies, chocolate bars and chips for my mom's stash.  Today I brought some drinks for her mini fridge we got her for her birthday.  She loves the chocolate Yahoo! drinks so I loaded her up with those.  Red drinks and blue drinks fascinate her as well.  and those little coke cans.   Hospice checked her in and approved the application based upon her Alzheimers diagnosis so she is getting another level of support from them.  Of course my brother has yet to even call me about her.  You would think he would be interested. 

I am teaching a class on an LSU tote bag in two weeks.  Ann and I spent two days gathering the fabrics.  I spent a day and a half doing all the cutting and making kits for everyone.  I included a pouch as an extra since I had some fabrics leftover.  It should be a good class, I will make up a sample this week.

All that, and I am writing an article I hope to have published soon, we shall see.  But that is for another day.

glen

AAQI quilts now up

http://www.alzquilts.org/7184.html          Aunt Millie

http://www.alzquilts.org/7146.html         Aunt Edith
http://www.alzquilts.org/7145.html          Mom

AAQI is an organization that accepts donations of small quilt hangings to auction or sell. The proceeds go toward alzheimers research.
http://www.alzquilts.org/index.html

You can see the three I have sent in recently. The pictures should be up soon so keep checking in to see their status.

You can also see the group I am with called 15 minutes play in the Groups area. We regularly create these little quilts and send them to AAQI.

I hope you can find something somewhere to spend your money on in the thousands of little quilt pieces that are sent in each year to this wonderful cause. Ami Simms is working hard to make a difference, and we each contribute piece by little quilt piece.

glen

Got this from Ami Simms at AAQI

I have three small quilts in the AAQI auction right now.  7145, 7145 and 7184.  They are individually dedicated to my mom, my Aunt Edith and Ann's Aunt Millie.  Three wonderfully old women who had Alzhimer's Disease.  My mom still is battling it, but losing ground each day. 

As you know, the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative auctions small quilts during the first 10 days of each month. Well, our August online quilt auction will be a "hum dinger." We're going to be auctioning off 20 quilts from the first traveling exhibit, "Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece." The selection includes quilts by Diane Gaudynski, Sue Nickels, Mary Stori, Marsha McCloskey, Nancy Brenan Daniel, Melody Crust, Mary Stori, Elsie Campbell, Debbie Bowles and others. Please see our home page for details: http://www.alzquilts.org/


This will take you to the page for the Quilt Auction:

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

This site is to the auction hosts to bid on August 1st:

http://www.benefitbidding.com/listings/categories/index.cfm?category=965774286

If you can think of any other way to promote this very special auction have at it: web page, FaceBook, guild newsletter, other online groups you belong to....it's all good.

Again, thank you for helping us make a difference, one quilt at a time.....or in this particular case, one blog at a time.

Ami : )
Founder & Executive Director, Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

More than $552,000 raised for Alzheimer's research since January 2006. Help us make a difference...one quilt at a time.