Sewing With Nancy

One of the great privileges of the Nancy's Corner segment is that I'm able to feature volunteer and charity sewing and quilting organizations. From emails and letters, you've told me that because of these features, many of you have volunteered your time and talents. I'd like to introduce you to another grassroots charity whose mission is to raise awareness and fund research for Alzheimer's. I'd like you to welcome Beth Hartford. Beth is from the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative and has a great story to tell us. Welcome, Beth. Thank you, nice to be here. You're very welcome. The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative's main function or goal is to raise money for research. You have some great ways that you raise the money. Absolutely. The curator and the founder of this organization began in 2006, Ami Simms. She began the organization because her mother was afflicted with Alzheimer's. She needed a way to help. She was feeling frustrated and helpless. So one day, she was standing in the shower and it came to her that she wasn't a doctor; she wasn't a researcher and she didn't know how to cure disease but she could make a quilt. She began the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. We've been flying ever since then. You have two types of quilts you're going to show us today. One is called the Priority Quilt. It got its name because it fits into a Priority envelope. Plus, this is a priority in our lives. This needs to be a priority in our lives. We need quilters. These have been donated by quilters all over the world. We've had over 1,900 quilters donate nearly 6,500 quilts. They are any type, any kind of thing that you want to do. They can be any subject. The only requirement we have is they fit the 9" by 12" or smaller, size requirement for the Priority Quilts. They're auctioned off every month. Every month, the first ten days of the month there is an auction. There are 26 quilts that are auctioned every month. You can bid on those. It's called a slow and silent auction. If you go to our website, you can get that information. You can see all the quilts and bid on them. Then you can also submit a quilt. Absolutely, we need quilts. We were just in Houston in the fall and we sold over 900 quilts in five days so that depletes our stores, as you can imagine. Sure. So we are in need of quilts at all times. The more the better. Every bit of money that we can squeeze out goes directly to research. What's encouraging to know is that some of your research dollars have already been used. Tell us. This gives me goose bumps. One of the research studies that we recently funded at the University of Michigan discovered a compound that actually dissolves the amyloid plaque which is one of the nasties in Alzheimer's. This is one of the things that causes all the problems. In humans-- not in rats, not in mice but in the human brain, it dissolved the plaque. We're really excited about that research. Then we have an example to show this long vertical quilt. Right, these vertical quilts are 6" wide by 7' long. They're called Heartbreak to Hope. This is the exhibit that's traveling the country right now. It's called Alzheimer's Heartbreak to Hope. Each one of these names is someone who's been affected by Alzheimer's. These are quilted by quilters all over the country well-known quilters, Laura Wasilowski, Frieda Anderson, Alex Anderson. Sure. Many people have quilted these quilts. They're beautifully done. They will all hang together in an exhibit. There are 182 of them with 55 names each. Over 10,000 names. To draw awareness to this disease and how people can contribute to that. Right. Thank you for being our guest. It's encouraging to know what we can do as quilters and sewers to help fund research. Any help would be appreciated, thank you. You can find more information about this organization by going online to NancyZieman.com where you'll find Sewing with Nancy and the Nancy's Corner information. Click on that and you can find information on Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. You'll also find programs that you can watch streaming video online. I hope that you go there. We'd like to thank Frieda Anderson and Laura Wasilowski as well as Beth for being our guests during this series "Art Quilts- Fusible Collage Workshop" series. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now.