Priority Quilts No. 3 and 4

PQ #374 started out to be a sweet, comforting piece made with scrappy reproduction fabrics.  It changed, as is so often the case when Alzheimer's is involved, to a statement of frustration and division.

Machine pieced and machine quilted with hand applied alphabet beads spelling out the name of the quilt:  Memories Interrupted

PQ #431 happened quickly - machine pieced from a block pattern found at The Quilters Cache and machine quilted, all in one evening! 

The label featured this verse:

Star light, star bright

First star you see tonight.

I pray you may, I pray you might

Find some peace in all this strife.

When the quilt was offered in the monthly AAQI online auction, I was frustrated at the low bid so I entered a bid to buy back my own quilt.

A few days later, one of my co-workers mentioned that she had bid on one of my quilts but lost out at the last minute.  Turned out she and I had been bidding against each other! 

There was a happy ending:  she bought the quilt from me for the bid price she had offered (ironically, the same as mine).   That's Janet on the left and yours truly on the right.

January 2006

As posting here resumes, my quilting journey has reached the year 2006.

The early weeks of the year featured this table runner as a housewarming gift for Chris and two other small projects (small in physical size, not small in emotional or long-term impact).

This was my very first Priority Quilt (maximum 9" x 12" to fit inside a USPS Priority Mail envelope) for the newly-founded Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). Who could have known then that there would be dozens more to follow? Named Journey’s End, the artist statement for PQ No. 53 read as follows: “This small skein of geese, surrounded by the blazing colors of a glorious sunset, symbolizes the persistence of the human spirit. Even after Alzheimer’s has stripped away the color in their feathers and muted their cries, these six unique geese fly on towards the ends of their journeys.” It was dedicated (like almost all of those that would follow) to my mother (1916-2005).

A few weeks later, a second Priority Quilt was completed. Fragments & Scraps & Gaps (Oh, My!) was submitted with this artist’s statement: “I love the unrestrained freedom of scrappy quilts and this Priority Quilt features tiny pieces of fabrics from many of my past projects. I also incorporated the use of alphabet beads to spell out the name of the quilt (learned during my last class at the Folk School in NC). This Priority Quilt is dedicated to those who support or care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. May these random bits of color bring moments of grace and joy in the seeming endless sea of emotional upheaval.”