American Patchwork and Quilting

I'm published! Or rather one of my Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative quilts has been published. And that is so very much better. I could not be prouder to be a part of this amazing organization!

You could have knocked me over with a feather and blown me away in the wind! A friend from my quilt guild emailed me yesterday and said:

"Hi Michele,
After being at guild this morning my August 2011 issue {American Patchwork & Quilting} was in the mailbox and there on page 1 was an article about the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative and a picture of your art quilt. What fun to see your name and quilt in the magazine. Congratulations on your personal effort and all those involved.
Karen

What? I didn't know a thing about it and my subscription ended when I was in Alaska ..and of course the August 2011 issue isn't even on the newstands yet!

I rushed all over town in my cozy lounging pants and my egg gathering from the back yard shoes, with only a pencil holding my waist long hair up in a huge messy bun....hoping no one would recognize me in public..now that I'm famous and all ;) and of course, I realized...August 2011? It's still May so its a subscriber's only earlybird issue so July/August, perhaps? 

And there is no way, I'd find one. Emailed her back and asked her to photo the page and send the pic to me and bless her heart, she did!

But I have to say, there's isn't anything better in the whole world to be 'published for' than one of my AAQI art quilts! They mean the world to me because they represent "the depth and breadth my heart can take" when it comes to the gigantic heartstrings connection I carry at all times between my mother and myself and the incredibly devastating knowledge of my 15 family member lineage of my Alzheimer's Disease DNA!

And what means even more.. this quilt is not only part of the "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope traveling exhibit finding its way around the U.S. from 2011- 2015, but was made last year in between 4 care giving visits to Alaska with my mom, a severely broken wrist and the first surgery of my life, and my father's heart attacks, congestive heart failure and death. 

That was one heck of a year and somehow I made this quilt and 10 more for AAQI in 2010!

So, this bit of fun is a real hoot and a holler for me. Thanks Ami and photo selectors for including me with the other two amazing quilts!

Such fun! Now, someday maybe I'll have my own copy ;)

#5211 - Mama's Brain Got Tangles...but Mama's Still Inside

Michele M. Bilyeu
Salem, OR USA

Please share with me how and why I made this quilt as I did:
Mama's Brain Got Tangles....But Mama's Still Inside ...my original post on this quilt

American Patchwork & Quilting :August 2011 issue 111 page 1

Quilts by Mona Follis, Julie Parker, and Michele Bilyeu are featured in a full page article about the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative called "Quilting Changes Everything" on page 1 in the August 2011 edition of American Patchwork & Quilting. These small 9" x 12" quilts are part of the AAQI's traveling exhibit, "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope."

Links:
This blog: Coping With Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia |

 Alzheimer's Association

Alzheimer's Reading Room: What's the Difference Between Alzheimer's and Dementia?

In a nutshell, dementia is a symptom (once called senility) one of its causes is Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's Disease Fact Sheet | National Institute on Aging

Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope The links below have all expired as AAQI closed shop at the end of 2013.

Why I Quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative only add my number to 15
How to Make a Priority Quilt for AAQI
June Auction: I have another quilt up for bidding June 1-10
6761 - Sparks of Heavenly Fire

American Patchwork & Quilting...Allpeoplequilt.com

USA Arts Grantfinder: Michele Bilyeu

Michele Bilyeu quilts for AAQI..the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Won't you please join us? :)

Judy Laquidara: Joplin Missouri

Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times...near Joplin Missouri will accept $25 donations to the Red Cross at her address and put your name into a drawing for one of her quilts AND/OR mail her a quilt and she will hand deliver it to a Joplin Resident!

Help for Joplin Residents

www.patchworktimes.com

Judy writes: "Ever since realizing the degree of devastation, and hurt in Joplin, I’ve been trying to come up with a way to help and a way in which my blog readers can help if desired. I’ve come up with two ways....see her blog for the rest, click link above.

Baby Quilts: Strips and Strings!.

More 'noodle' quilts made from random strings have been in progress all week long. Such fun and so quick and easy whether for families with new babies in need of a quilt or for your local quilt guild's comfort quilt program. Just use any and all random strips and strings from your scrap bag and lay in rows and quickly piece together.



For a bit more liberated fun, I cut a wonky edge all around 'Howdy, Lil' Pardner' shown above in the strips front and 'cow-bear' backing.



For 'Vroom, Vroom' I used already pieced ahead of time flannel strips cut a bit wider for a quick finish quilt in soft flannels..front and back. I still need to add some labels and they're both ready to go!




And the last noodle quilt I made last month...Japanese Noodles....a quick baby quilt for a little girl using some Asian influenced fabrics combined with other scraps fabrics...easy and cute! For free motion on this one, I followed the patterns of the flowers and just swirled and curlicued all over in the other bands. Was super cute in real life and easy to quilt.

Want to do something more than just straight strips with your fabric noodles? Here's some other ideas I've saved:

• Cut rectangles and bars from the strips.

• Use fabric noodles to make scrappy quilt binding.

• Use them to make log cabin blocks and for foundation pieced blocks, which often require long strips of fabric.
• Noodles make excellent starting points for strip-pieced four patch and nine-patch blocks
  
• Cut 2-1/2" segments from them for your watercolor quilts

• Use fabric noodles for string-pieced blocks

• Make the Can't Stop Spinnin' Block in an 8-inch finished size to suit the narrower width of the noodles.
  
• Use the fabric noodles for the small rectangles and pieced squares in the Not Quite Bow Ties block.

• Cut or use bigger strippy scraps and strings and make bricks and boards: a variation we used similar to: Simply Strippy from http://quiltville.com/simplystrippy.shtml

What It Reallly Costs to Make a Quilt: Updated!

QUEEN SIZED, Machine Pieced, Hand Quilted

MATERIALS:

See chart at bottom for an updated 2023 pricing.

Fabric 12-16 yards @ $9per yd. $108 - $144
Batting $25 - $40
Thread $8 - $16

Total Money Invested $141 - $200

LABOR HOURS:

Piecing 20 to 60 hours
“Setting” (designing your quilt) 10 to 20 hours
Quilting 100 to 750 hours

Total hours invested 130 to 810 hours

TOTAL COST

Paying $1 per hour (Would you do this type of work for $1 an hour?!)

Materials $141 - $200
Labor $130 - $810
Total $271 - $1070

Paying minimum wage $7.25 (by law in 6/2009)

Materials $141 - $200
Labor (130-810hrs) $942.50 - $5872.25
Total $1083.50 - $6072.25

Paying skilled labor wage $20 per hour (Don’t you consider yourself trained and skilled in this craft?)

Materials $141 - $200
Labor (130-810hrs) $2600 - $16,200

Total $2741 - $16,400

Data based on Internet figures from 2009 not on any of the 5 quilts currently on my bed ;) And as a reader as mentioned....what about the costs of using your sewing machine? Maintenance, depreciation...oh my..so much else we could all be adding in!

Anyone want to comment with an estimate of how much you spend (not counting your labor) for various sizes of quilts you've made???

And of course, as time goes by, things cost more and more. So, even buying fabric on sale, on discount, or using sales coupons how does it increase?

Molly Sparkles recently blogged about it both on her own blog and on Sew Mama Sew.

Here are some paraphrasing of her thoughts:

Other considerations: The design concept fee...one time fee to cover the cost of figuring out fabric choices, amount needed, cutting and assembly it etc.
Costs of fabric in the US. is typically around $8-12 per yard, fabric in Australia is typically $18-24 / yard (metre). Worldwide average $15 per yard/metre

Do you order online and then pay shipping..for a quilt sent to various countries that might add in another $50!

How much are you worth an hour? Molly figures $30.00 / hour. She based this on the 2011 median wage (not mean/average) in Australia of $57,400 / year. That equates to $29.05 / hour. Based on inflation, and to make calculations a bit easier,she rounded up to $30.00 / hour.

Long-arm services, and times for sewing the binding ?

Molly added in a 20% profit margin, because otherwise a quilter is  just breaking even.
And well, you add it all up (less quilting and binding), and her 72″ square quilt top is valued at $1616.34 (formula calculation error!) $1,421.34 AUD.

Here is a graphic chart courtesy of google search to show how this was calculated:

Total reality cost of her 72" square quilt?  $1,421.34 !!!!

And now? How much more in 2023?

Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands sharing an imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon and back again. 

Creating,designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting from my heart and with my hands.

Bah Humbug! Friday the 13th

 When I woke up this morning and realized it was Friday the 13th, I very carefully removed all of the covers from around my feet before climbing out of bed. I made sure no cat was underfoot, no books or magazines or herbal teas cups littering the floor or nightstand... where I could trip over them, or knock them over.

And no, I don't suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia, rhe fear of Friday the 13th. I've just learned to be extra careful when I get out of the bed in the morning, walk and talk at the same time, or have hungry cats underfoot.

But for many, friggatriskaidekaphobiais is a genuine phobic fear and there are those who will literally stay home from work to avoid extra anxiety, the three Fridays a year that the 13th is likely to land on.

Frigga was the name of the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia a concatenation (I just love that word!) of the Greek words Paraskeví, meaning Friday and dekatreís meaning thirteen.

A theory by author Charles Panati, one of the leading authorities on the subject of "Origins" maintains that the superstition can be traced back to ancient myth:

When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil — a gathering of thirteen — and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as "Witches' Sabbath."

I mean all I wanted to do was get out of bed safely and not break my foot as my friend June did when she climbed out of bed and got tangled in the bedsheets, or not end up needing knee surgery as my friend, Tonya Riccuci did right before she started the Bah Humbug! challenge. Or break a leg as my nephew did when he played ice hockey and got tackled by one of his own team members, or get his brand new hip joint popped out of its socket, as my brother did on 4 separate occasions. Or have to be life flighted off a cruise ship as my SIL did, or a kazillion other terrible accidents in the past year and a half. (note and insert...add Mrs. Goodneedle and Clare Worthy to the list of those attacked by accidentalitis this week..one in a ace bandage wrap and one in a lovely blue cast)

Well, let's face it, I went out to get my dad his morning newspaper last January and slipped on the worst black ice in Juneau's history and broke and dislocated my wrist so badly even the doctor said "this is bad, Michele...really bad." Boy, did that make me feel a lot better!

Uh, ok. So, we all need to be more careful even if it's not Friday the 13th, don't own black cats (as I always have) don't have ladders propped up all around your house (my husband is a home builder).

So, I come online to post about today...and of course...Blogger is out of commission and I can't post for hours and hours. So, I have to go out anyway, almost under a ladder, past several black cats, on Friday the 13th, and I survived....well for a couple of hours, anyway!

Phew! Maybe I can stop setting the timer on 11:11 and blowing on dandelion seeds and wishing on falling stars and saying Bless You! to myself every time I sneeze....well, no I still like that one.

So, for today...

An AAQI quilt..."Bah Humbug!" just registered for my May Quilt of the Month contribution and a potholder mailed before I went to Alaska for Tonya Riccuci...both for"getting well soon" after her surgery and saying Bah Humbug! to all of life's unruly challenges and all of our own fears.

Bah Humbug, Friday the 13th, knock on wood, cancel cancel, blow on the dandelion, 11:11 and of course....bless me and you!



Tonya Ricucci's Bah Humbug! Challenge

Michele Bilyeu quilts for AAQI..the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Won't you please join us? :)

I Want To Go Home

6598 – I Want to Go Home
 Michele Bilyeu
Salem Oregon/Douglas Alaska

My favorite quilt this year for Amy's Creative Side Quilt Festival. Made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, it sold for $75 with monies going to Alzheimer's research.

Width: 12" Length: 9"

Materials/Techniques: Original design with free cut and fused cottons, raw edge appliqué, thread painting and beadwork.

Artist Statement: My mother would wake up every morning and go to sleep every night in our Alaskan childhood home that she had lived in for almost 60 years. She would always say the same thing: "I want to go home." When we told her "This is your home!” She would always say "It sure doesn't look like my home! Everything is all crazy and mixed up!" She is still being cared for at home and it is still crazy and mixed up. Once the chaos of Alzheimer's enters your home, nothing is ever the same again.

Dedication: In memory of the 14 members of my family who have already passed with Alzheimer's and related dementias, and in honor of my mother who still does her best...each and every day, in her crazy and mixed up world..
This quilt has Fast Finish Triangles.

This quilt earned $75 for AAQI.

Note from Michele:
This little story quilt depicts my childhood island home in Alaska... with its mountains, birds, valleys, and our lovely Sandy Beach where we actually play in the sand, and find starfish and seashells. When our Taku winds blow, our houses sway, our rooftops can even fly off. It gives others the chance to know what our home feels like inside and out..... without or without any wind.

Alzheimer's disease tears apart the fabric of so many lives and stretches and bends us all to our limits of sanity. Our respite come from contact with nature and the quiet places within that give us deep solace. We learn to bend with the winds of time and change and learn that we are all part of a greater cycle.

I am 'home' with my mother no matter where I am, she is, or where she 'thinks' she is. And it's always so very good to truly be home.

Amy's Creative Side Quilt Festival

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

I Love Me My Little Mama

It's Mother's Day weekend and I'm missing my sweet little mama.

I know that I was just with her in Alaska just a short time ago but with how things are, how quickly they can change and plunge downhill that only makes me miss her all the more!

I am so grateful that one of my brother's, his wife, and children were able to bridge the gap of transition in one huge step and begin spending the nights and virtually moving in with her next door to their own home.

I do what I've always done. I phone her and love how she perks up and laughs with me even when she might not be totally sure what either of us is laughing at. I'm so grateful we've always had the gift of our silly laughter and corny jokes that only the two of us have ever found funny. Now, those are bridges and transfer paths for connection between us and a way to keep her one with me emotionally, energetically,and spiritually.

And in my other world of sewing here in Oregon, well. I make her more quilted bibs. Adult bibs are used all day, every day and they get so shabby in a hurry from the constant washing. So, now two more.

Making an Adult Bib

I loved discovering fabric I received from donation has two cowgirls with my mother's names, Nell and Grace, under their sweet faces. Growing up as a little French girl in Louisiana, Nell was most likely the french nickname for Antoinette, but my mom has always been Nellie or Nell and Grace as her middle name has been so appropriate and so perfect for this time of needing the blessings of true and pure grace.

So, two more adult bibs for my own little Nellie Grace the survivor of stage 3B inflammatory breast cancer (8 years cancer free now) and now of course, advanced Alzheimer's and in her sixth year of its challenges.

My sister-in-law said the most interesting thing to me on this last care giving visit to Alaska. She said 'it's easier on you, Michele, because you just accept it all. You accept how she is and what needs to be done for her.'

I'd never thought of that, but she's right. I never got upset, threw a fit, felt angry or that life is unfair because she'd already 'beat' cancer. I didn't fret and rage over how it changed my own life or took away from my free time. Heck, I sewed some of these bibs at her house and did it with one good arm and one broken one. And while that was incredibly hard, it was also strangely empowering and fun ;)

Now, I see how fear and denial that most family members feel is what makes it so hard for themselves. They have to fight themselves, the changing parent, and the disease all at once. It causes absolute havoc in the family and each person's own personal life.

You thought you were done parenting? Forget that! Now you parent your own parent. You thought you were done feeding someone, lifting and carrying them, changing their diapers, wiping their face and hands and giving them baths, nope, they are just as precious - only bigger to take care of. But still someone so loved who needs care.

As the only daughter who not only saw what needed to be done earlier, but saw the disease itself, sooner, I got a 7 year head start on care giving from my other family members but now, they have to do it day in and day out when I'm not there. So, it all evens out, you see. Knowing I gave my best and lived with them for 3 out of the past 8 years (months added all together), I only have gratitude for what I could give and all that I've learned.

And now I sew bibs, and make photo cards that others can read out loud to her and remind her how much I love her and that there is still happiness to be had and a good chuckle to share.

Love you my sweet little mama. And I'm thinking of you today, and every day with lots and lots of love!

Today, my 95 year old mother-in-law is brought out to breakfast by her three sons one of who is toting my gift bag of new blouses and blank greeting cards. My own little brood of three will arrive later on bringing their own beloved and significant others along with them. They will cook for me, and give me my own mother's day! Some days it's nice to be the sandwich in the sandwich generation! Especially, when hubby and I are the only baby boomers in this house at least no one has moved in to take care of us (yet;)

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who mother in any and all ways!
And of course, if you know me I also quilt for AAQI ;) so I'm off to do a little quilting before my kids arrive!

Why I Quilt for AAQI what having Alzheimer's in my family means for me.

Notes and Links:
Alzheimer's Association Educational links and forums and what you can do to keep track of bills as they go to Congress:

Who will be mothering you..... when YOU are in diapers and bibs once again?
"Generation Alzheimer's: The Defining Disease of the Baby Boomers," sheds light on a crisis that is no longer emerging – but already here.

Read all about what this means for ALL of us

Candlelight Tribute Rally
Sunday, May 15, 7:30-8:30 p.m. 

Join the group at the reflecting pool on the west side of the Capitol

Light a virtual candle if you are unable to come to D.C.

Honor a loved one during our Virtual Rally 

All of my 'Coping With Alzheimer's' Posts
Why I Quilt for AAQI: The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative
AAQI: Liberated Quilting Challenge
Liberated Challenge Webpage at AAQI

Michele Bilyeu quilts for AAQI the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

Won't you please join us? :) 

Ties That Bind...

For me quilting is the common thread between two worlds and multiple lives. Right now I am tied by my bonds of love and connection...from my family in Oregon to my family in Alaska, and back, again. Two homes, two lives, two families, and a lot of ties of all kinds.

Now these ties are all tied up and in place....shown above are the 'Necktie Sisters'. They are just so great and so much fun to catch sight of....anywhere, anytime. But if you catch them at a quilt show in the Pacific Northwest....it makes everything instantly interesting and way more fun.

What I love is watching them looking at quilts and seeing the unbelievable nonchalance of quilt goers trying not to look at them! I'm sorry if you are dressed like this, you like showing off your handiwork and don't mind being stared at or photographed. I've asked them to give me a photo op on several occasions and I think they are super nice and a real hoot! I love that they've now added coordinating jackets and hats to their ensembles of skirts and bags over the years.


Here's some of the fun quilts at the actual Mid-Valley Quilt Guild ( the one I belong to in Salem, Oregon) quilt show whose photos actually came out. (And yes....I'm suddenly back in Oregon, again as I am publishing this.... like a lot of my scheduled and published posts on the fly.)
 
The one in the middle, above,named 'Americana'  won 'Best of Show' (the quilt, not the sister). It was made by Margie Bergan who lives in McMinnville, Oregon.and is a talented quilter in our own MVQG. Margie choose block ideas from "A Celebration of American Life" with some alterations and additions to create this beauty. You have to see this quilt in real life to know just why and how it won. It's quite amazingly lovely and really stands out.

Quild members say it often easier when someone from out of state wins as it makes it easier on guild friends who might all be competing in the same category....haha..but we still love it when our own members win..can't help it! I'm not including any other names of quilts or their makers. It is all I can do to take the photos and get them online, folks!

But thanks to dear quilt friend Mary Lu who is helping me with my corrections...somebody needs to. Heck, I could use an entire office for editing my posts ;) Here's more of our lovely, lovely quilts:

The show ran around our Easter season, so this first quilt bridged the gap between sacred and the well, the Easter bunny! Lovely!




Oregon has lots of rain, a border on the ocean, and lots of lakes, rivers, and streams..so of course..fish are great fun as are good friends you manage to get into your photos! Hi Pat..you can run but you can't always hide!


And where there is water, there are also bears,


and chickens...well, at least at my house they like water...


..there's ducks...

But as quilters, of course, we all do frog quilting ....whether we like it or not...so, frogs....



And when fish and frogs aren't enough...well, cats rule and dogs....

are among the 'Best Friends' category of course!








And if they're not drinking water... or in it..they're on it.... like these Clipper ships:


or dragonflies...


And I LOVED these chevrons, below. The quilter used a Kaffe Fasset pattern to piece her own stripes....Kafe rhymes with safe, Fassett like in a diamond not the water dispenser hanging over your sink... so I'm changing categories here. (I'm always surprised when long time quilters mispronounce his name, so like to include it every chance I get.)

The chevrons were gorgeous and the quilt hand quilted by our Classique quilters who meet every week and help one another out with big quilting projects.


And french braids that are more than for your hair...



Some of the quilting is just as fun as the quilts. Check out the southwest fun:


And if geckos didn't send me twirling and swirling, this fun quilt sure sent me spinning:


And Christmas quilts so stunning, I'd keep this one out year round I think!


And more trees...these are 3 D and might be a Karla Alexander pattern, I think:


and always, there are beautiful flowers!

and more flowers and then there were cute birdhouses:


And some terrific curved piecing ala Jean Wells:

a little one:


and a bigger one, Jean Wells-style with a quilt upon a facing upon a quilt back. Jean uses the itty bitty strips like this one has at the bottom, too. Love it!


Awesome job to everyone!!!

Links of interest:
Mid-Valley Quilt Guild, Salem Oregon
my posts on the guild's previous shows, lectures or classes
and of course:
Jean Wells Quilts
My Color and Design Class with Jean Wells