June/July 2006 Challenge: Mini Quilts for Alzheimer's Research! (Page 1)

Quilt 1

Quilt 2

Quilt 3

Quilt 4

Barb Vlack
Nick's Butterfly Garden

Barb Vlack
Bernadette's Star

Barb Vlack
Nana's Fans

Andrea Poulimenos
I love you grandpa
(12" x 9")

I have a friend who just completed his Boy Scout Eagle project, which was to plant a garden to attract butterflies for a local nursing home with an Alzheimer's unit. I was deeply touched by his thoughtfulness.

St. Charles, Illinois USA

Designed originally for my first book for the Electric Quilt Company, "Too Much Fun!" (1997). The block name honors my mother, Bernadette Hanson.

St. Charles, Illinois USA

Designed originally for my first book for the Electric Quilt Company, "Too Much Fun!" (1997).

My original block, Bernadette's Star, was rotated in this quilt layout to get the fans. "Nana is what my mother's grandchildren call her.

St. Charles, Illinois USA

My grandfather was born in Greece on Christmas Eve 1901. I was his first grandchild, but I didn't come along until he was already 76 years old. He got Alzheimer's early in my life. I remember being able to talk to him in English when I was 5 or 6. Not really in depth conversations, but more "how's the weather" chats. But by the time I was 8 or 9 he only remembered Greek. It made it difficult for my mom, brother and me to talk to him. All I knew how to say was "I love you." When he was in the nursing home he didn't remember his wife of 65 years... that was a hard day for his kids to accept. The nice part was he was still as kind and smiling as he had been throughout his life. He always knew what a smile was.

This quilt says "I love you grandpa" in Greek. We would always buy him double presents at Christmas, because of his Christmas Eve birthday. We'd take him shopping for clothes on the 23rd and by the 24th/25th he'd have forgotten about the trip entirely. He always wondered how we got the shoes to fit so well (he was a shoemaker in Boston). We'd put the Santa hat on him and give him the presents.

He died just short of his 90th birthday.

Quilt 5

Quilt 6

Quilt 7

Quilt 8

Andrea Poulimenos
Murder She Wrote Marathons

Barbara Conn
I Love Purple

Barbara Conn
Circle of Fans

Barbara Gilstad
For Celeste's Mother

My grandmother loves Murder She Wrote, Columbo and Perry Mason. Back when she would still come to visit us for a month, my aunt would never send her without 2 video tapes. They were both 8 hours each of Murder She Wrote Marathons. I know them by heart. It always happened in a mansion with a candlestick or gun, someone was murdered and *bam* the butler did it.

I liked keeping her company and winding the balls of yarn for her to crochet while she watched the shows. "I think the butler did it, Giagia." "You do??? How do you know that?" "I'm just that good."

We'd watch the same video day after day after day, and she couldn't remember seeing it the day before.

I knew something was wrong when I was younger and playing solitaire. She came over and asked me how to play the game and who taught me. I didn't know how to tell her she taught me, because she always got frustrated with herself for forgetting.

Later she started to forget how to crochet. We'd have to leave her notes about how many loops to do in a row. She'd forget to read the note. Her blankets started out as a lap size, but at the other end it was too big for a king bed. The last blanket she made was for my cousin. It took 8 people to lift it for a picture and somehow they all had a corner. My cousin won't trade that blanket for the world.

She's in a nursing home in Massachusetts now near my aunt. She will be 95 in December.

I just started looking for an applique that would look nice in a plain block, along with the standard 4-patch. The heart wreath might be a little hard to do, being as the quilt is so small.
The hearts equal love, & I do love purple.

I thought the hot days of summer needed some fans. I had fun deciding how to display them.

Original applique and quilting design by Barbara Gilstad

Quilt 9

Quilt 10

Quilt 11

Quilt 12

Barbara Gilstad
Life Goes On

Sheila Williams
Signitures by
Sheila Williams

Sheila Williams
Happy Memories by Sheila Williams

Sharon Lewis
HIS BLAZING STAR

Designed especially for my friend Celeste in memory of her mother

This is a great block for signatures and pictures ut us a Kansas City Star Block.

I love the secondary pattern this block created.

Nothing special just a block from Block Base call "Happy Memories". It is just a road map of how we store memories.

My father was a firefighter who died of Alzheimer's. He was the Blazing Star in my life. The block that forms the center of the quilt is BlockBase #2669 and is called "Blazing Star".

Quilt 13

Quilt 14

Quilt 15

Quilt 16

Sharon Archer
As Time Goes By the Attic Empties

Sharon Archer
Fading Away

Ruth Rocker
Crystal Star

Ruth Rocker
Desert Echoes

Ridgefield, NJ

Ridgefield, NJ

This is a block from the EQ library in an on-point setting. It reminds me of the scene at the end of the kaleidoscope.

This is a block from the EQ library in an on-point setting. It reminds me of the desert southwest.

Quilt 17

Quilt 18

Quilt 19

Quilt 20

Rory K.
Even Flowers Wilt In Love's Garden

Rhonda Dayton
Labyrinth in a rose garden.

Mary E. Osmialowski
Lace Work Light

Mary E. Osmialowski
Lace Work Dark

In this custom layout the flowers lean in, in the sunsine to care for those that start to shed their petals and fade. The block called 'Single Flower' was chosen and then modified by selecting petals and leaves separately, then moving and rotating them, using the Ctl-Left Click command. The stems of the fresh flowers were clipped at the border, using the clip-to-border tool and the wilting flowers were allowed to drift out of across the border. The wreath of hearts intertwine the two flower colours to suggest a sharing and loving family.

This design was done with a Fujitsu P1500 LIfebook computer, which has a 7 1/2" X 4 1/2" screen!

I have been working on this labyrinth design for a while. This labyrinth's always remind me of a brain and with Alzheimer's being a disease of the brain; they seem to go together, at least in my mind.

As I was playing with this months' quilt challenge, I noticed that I was getting a lacy affect when I colored part of the block the same color as the background.

The quilts reminded me of the paper snowflakes I used to make as a little girl.

I was having so much fun playing with different blocks and borders, to see what I could come up with...that I ended up with over 100 different quilts...but alas...I could only submit 2. :)

I got a totally different looking quilt when I substituted the light background for a dark fabric.

The lace affect really shows up if you check out the quilt in "print preview" with all the lines turned off!

Amazing!

Quilt 21

Quilt 22

Quilt 23

Quilt 24

Nancy Anderson
Butterfly with flowers (10x13)

Monique Roth
Safe Harbor

M. Endres
1950's Style 2

M. Endres
1950's Style I

I used one of the flowers from the contemporary applique and a butterfly from the classical applique library. I thought it would work wll for a small quilt.

The lighthouse and the boat are modified paper piecing blocks and the moon and stars are motifs, all from the EQ5 library.

Keeping in mind the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, I thought of the disorientation and "lostness" of people with this terrible disease and of the lighthouse as a beacon of hope.

Quilt 25

Quilt 26

Quilt 27

Quilt 28

Mary Markworth
Where's the Frog

Linda Remley
Day at the Lake

Lorraine Dickinson
Kites in the Wind

Laurie Hopman
Butterfly Out My Window

Inspired by a picture in the newspaper. I love ponds.

I actually made a quilt similar to this one for a challenge. It reminds me of the Finger LAkes in upstate New York.

Designing a landscape quilt in EQ is a challenge but fun to do. Just like applique, you have to think of the order of the pieces.

Mystic, IA

Made for a local small challenge; stained glass technique.

Quilt 29

Quilt 30

Quilt 31

Quilt 32

Leigh Harris
Spring's in the Windows

Leigh Harris
Sunbeams

Leanne Davis
Grandma's Flower Garden

Karen Senn
Tango

A miniature applique quilt of scenes from spring.

Very imaginatively named after the block used. :-)

My grandmother loved gardening all her life - she always had a beautiful garden. She developed Alzheimer's later in her life, but her love of gardening continued to the end.

This small quilt has been designed in her memory, and maybe one day I'll make it up.

Toronto, Canada