A Quiltessential Gathering of Quilts

The end of each month is community quilting donation time. No matter how busy I am, I try to finish some quick comfort quilts and pack up the one's I've previously made and not yet donated, and head off for my local quilt guild's meeting.

This morning, I loaded up the car with all of my quilts, made a stop at a friend's house to grab some of her quilts to include in today's donations and to admire all of the others she had in progress, and then headed off to my group meeting. Turning in 16 quilts at once was such a good feeling...so what if some of them were tiny little Angel Wraps and Preemie Blankets. I loved having such a fun pile to donate :)

Our Mid-Valley Quilt Guild has some where between 325 and 350 members join during the year and every month dozens and dozens of us turn in completed comfort quilts and pillowcases that go to a variety of local charitable donations.

Each month we have a speaker, today we had the celebrated Nancy Lee Chong, known for her design, creation and hand quilting of intricate Hawaiian applique quilts.



Nancy is an amazing and humorous speaker and her quilts are so detailed and use beautiful hand dyed fabric that she also offers for sale.

I was sitting about 1/4 of the way back in our meeting room but when you are among 75-100 women (and one very talented manquilter) you end up holding your small emergency camera over your head (and no doubt in front of other's faces) and trying to take at least partial shots of quilts. These are the best photos I could manage once I cropped out all of the heads of ladies seated in front of me....this collage puts a new spin on the term 'quilt tops' !!!!

Nancy Lee Chong's quilts under her label Pacific Rim Quilts and you can view much better versions of her quilts at her website! So, do go back and click on my link and check them all out. Nancy offers a variety of patterns for sale ...both traditional and her some of her own more modern creations....and if you'd seen her quilts in person..you'd want to at least try a table runner, trust me. Her work is gorgeous!

Amid quilt guild, yard work, quilting, cats, chickens and kids...life gets busy and challenging. But being able to make and donate quilts for good causes and seeing the beauty of others quilts, not only lifts the spirits.... but add such color to life!

Links:
Nancy Lee Chong's website:Pacific Rim Quilts
'Quiltessential': Urban Speak: Quiltin' and Needl'n the Patchwork

LAST MINUTE MEMO:
If you haven't watched Stitched: The Film ..it is available for FREE viewing ..but that ends today. You may have to go back to the beginning of the link here:
http://www.ctpubblog.com/


If you're too late, you can still order the DVD. It is SO good, I just loved it..the absolute 'quiltessential' ending of my gathering of the quilts around me day!!!!

And of course...
don't forget that I quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) With Heart and Hands at www.with-heart-and-hands.com and always have a number of those quilts in progress :)

Join my friend-connect to receive my frequent updates on quilting, crafting,and updates for thousands and thousands of free patterns and tutorials and to see all of my latest fun!

Urban Speak: Quiltin' and Needl'n the Patchwork

From the newest version of the Urban Dictionary:

Needle: (noun) Aggression between two people or teams, particularly in sport.
There’s always needle when Manchester United play Leeds.

Patchwork: (verb) Getting drunk at a party without buying any alcohol by bumming shots from your friends.
Man, I thought that party was gonna be lame because I had no booze, but I got lucky and was able to patchwork the night.

Quilt: (adjective) Held together tightly, or having priorities in order.
A person wearing fresh clothes, driving a dope whip, and who also has a bomb girl is said to be quilt.

Quilt: (noun) A term used to describe a woman who has had a lot of plastic surgery; she has been pieced together with new and improved parts to look like a younger, better looking woman, but comes out looking like a quilt.
Joan Rivers is a quilt!

Quiltin’: (adjective) Being authentic; original. To be fun and colorful.
The way that girl moves, man she is Quiltin’.

Quilt Feet: (verb) When one tucks one’s quilt under one’s feet in the sleeping environment. Mmm. My feet are all comfy and quilt-footed.

Quiltessential: (adjective) An event, gathering, or social setting in which a blanket comprised of patches of fabric sewn together (a quilt) is required in order to enter/participate/engage. Eleanor: Good morning Gwendolyn, we missed you at bingo last night.
Gwendolyn: Very kind of you to notice my absence Eleanor but it was a quiltessential gathering and ever since Bob Barker stopped hosting The Price is Right I just can’t seem to get any sewing done.

Quilty: (adjective) A state of depression in which you turn to blankets for comfort.
Following her break-up, Danielle became quilty and stayed in bed the rest of the week.

Quilty: (verb) To spill a powder-like substance, usually in the process of opening the container.
Mike, be careful opening the mac and cheese. You don’t want to quilty it.

Quilty: (adjective) Useless or generally annoying person who also has a bad dress sense.
Mavis is often quilty with her wardrobe.

Quilt: (noun) Term used occasionally as an insult to a complete idiot. (Liverpool, England)
E’s an absolute quilt.

Quilt: (adjective) Up to popular standards, socially acceptable. Synonyms– cool, awesome, spectacular, fabulous, stoopid, sick, epic, killer.
That’s quilt snippy.

Sew: (adjective) When you don’t care about something stupid.
“Your pants are unzipped!” she said. “SEW!! Not a big deal.”

Thread: (adjective) Top-notch; high quality.
That game was thread, kid.

shown above:
SPLAT !

Michele Bilyeu quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) With Heart and Hands at www.with-heart-and-hands.com Join my friend-connect to receive my frequent updates on quilting, crafting,and updates for thousands and thousands of free patterns and tutorials.

AAQI Wall of Remembrance

Today, Sept. 21st, is World Alzheimer’s Day.

I think about the statistics that 5.4 million people have this disease. I wonder if I will be among those who face it any where from their late forties into their fifties and beyond. I think of what it will be like for our families to care for us, cry over us, wonder why it had to be this way ....and worry that I will be next.

If you have, or have had a family member or someone special in your own life who has suffered from Alzheimer's, please do the same. If you are on Facebook, please change your FB photo status and profile photo to theirs and include this statement in your status update:
 

I support the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative
at www.AlzQuilts.org

If you make a $5 donation to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative before midnight tonight, post the invoice number generated by your donation to the AAQI FaceBook page at: http://www.facebook.com/AAQI.News *


AAQI will capture the image of your loved one from your profile picture and add it to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative 2011 Virtual Wall of Remembrance where it will remain for one year. Names will not accompany photographs.

If you are not on FaceBook, or wish to make multiple donations to honor more than one person, email one photograph of each of your loved ones and the invoice number generated by your donation ($5 for each photo) to Diane at diane456@gmail.com. Pictures may be cropped and sized to fit the wall.

Alzheimer's has changed my own life forever. It has changed the life of my mother, my father, my four brothers and all of our families. It filled my father with the deepest sadness I have ever witnessed in another's eyes as he watched my mom change, and forget, and then begin to slip away. Before he died in August of 2010, he asked me to promise him that I would love and care for her for the rest of my life... because he knew that he would no longer be able to.

My brothers, my sister-in-laws, and I continue to care for her ...completely in her home on my childhood home on Douglas Island, Alaska. Right now, one brother and his wife live with her full-time and the rest of us come in and out..of the house, of the state of Alaska, of her life and our being able to help her. It is the hardest thing any of us has ever done. But because we love her, we do what we have to do until we find another way of getting outside help for her or until she passes from this disease and what it has done to both her brain, and her body.

Because I suffer from severe, long term chronic sleep deprivation and average less than 4 hours of sleep per night with an inability to almost never take naps...I live in a state very, very similar to the confusion, forgetfulness, and inability to remember what day it is, season it is, or what and how I need to do the things I want to. There are days when I am so exhausted I can't even remember the simplest of things, get lost driving down town, or forget the process of working the links, and passwords for all of my blogs and databases. How I may seem on the outside is very different from what I face on the inside.

I do not have Alzheimer's Disease, but I can guess at what it must feel like. And it is more than confusing, it is often terrifying to even consider.

If you don't have a family member with this disease, you are so blessed. Could you please go to the AAQI web page and donate even just $5 in honor of my mother? My family? Even me?
We need dollars to create funding for research. We need quilts to create sales and auctions for dollars to create funding. But most of all, we need people who care, care enough to donate $5 today and create those quilts, and even more so...the purchase of our little AAQI quilts... so that some day.... I will never have to write about this again.

Please help me to stop writing about Alzheimer's and AAQI ....and let that be because no one needs to write about it, anymore ...because a cure or a preventive treatment has been found.... and not because I have forgotten how.

Please make a $5 donation at the AAQI webpage. All it takes is a credit card, and a few moments of your time.

$5 Donation
$10 Donation

$15 Donation

And other news...
"Heartbreak to Hope" Exhibit Is Now In Laconia, NH



"Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope" is an exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer's sponsored by the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). Fifty-four small format art quilts (9" x 12") illustrate the disease from a variety of perspectives. They hang among 182 "Name Quilts," each 6 inches wide and 7 feet tall, which carry the names of more than 10,000 individuals who have/had Alzheimer's or a related dementia. The names of loved ones, written on fabric patches by family members and friends, honor the 5.4 million Americans in the United States struggling with Alzheimer's disease.


I am blessed to have two quilts traveling with this exhibit. Please come and check it out if it comes to an area near you.

Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands: Alzheimer's Illustrated:From Heartbreak to Hope

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/p/alzheimers-illustrated-my-own.html

Michele Bilyeu of With Heart and Hands quilts for AAQI and runs the AAQI Liberated Challenge..won't you join in all of our fun...donate or buy a quilt, today!To see all of our quilts to date, check out our AAQI webpage at http://www.alzquilts.org/liqublliqume.htmlMichele Bilyeu of With Heart and Hands quilts for AAQI and runs the AAQI Liberated Challenge..won't you join in all of our fun...donate or buy a quilt, today!To see all of our quilts to date, check out our AAQI webpage at http://www.alzquilts.org/liqublliqume.html
Michele Bilyeu quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) With Heart and Hands at www.with-heart-and-hands.com Join my friend-connect to receive my frequent updates on quilting, crafting,and updates for thousands and thousands of free patterns and tutorials.

Wildcrafting

Wildcrafting is the art of using the gifts of nature in the creation of herbal medicines or other goods, but can also be applied to any crafting where you use, but do not harm, nature's bounty in the making of other items. And I figure if a couple of wild women went crazy in less than two days time, making all of these...then they were definitely wildcrafting in one way or another!

So, today as other challenges and worries over friends surround me, I think of good things and good times to lift my spirits and remind me that life is always about choosing joy over the magnitude of other feelings that might make us all worry, or be sad.

Some days, that is easier said that done, I know...but we all need to keep ourselves, our energy, and our spirit in a good place to be of service to others when they need us most. And having fun and feeling the joys of creating... whether it is quilting, or crafting is a huge part of putting joy-filled faith into action!

And what could have been more fun than our flurry of crafting last week when my sister-in-law from Alaska and I made two twig chairs......a rustic, tiny one and a big leafy, goddess one....and then crafted paper from recycled scraps,flower petals, lichen. And then in between DH and I picked fresh vegetables from the garden for dinner and wild blackberries and blueberries for cobblers. And then...we fit in some leaf molding using leaves from all over my yard and garden, some sand and yes, some purchased concrete (sorry, but I don't have any limestone cliffs in my yard!)

While I was cooking and baking on the third day of the visit, my family went on an eight mile hike in 95º weather. My kitchen got pretty hot making potato salad and two cobblers without air conditioning, but I wasn't nearly as hot or tired as the rest of them were;) Yep, when I said flurry of activities....I wasn't kidding!

For the whole five day visit, we just went from one thing to another and it was fast and furious fun! Now, this was the fourth time I've made paper and I still haven't shown my photo tutorial for that, so maybe I'll do that later on..but for now, here is a little collage above, of all of my projects. And a few closeups of some of the projects, below. It's amazing any photos at all were taken with so much going on!


My great big, leafy, Green Goddess chair! And yes, all those lovely leaves will wilt and drop off but the beautiful wood will still arch into some heart shapes!



My itty, bitty chair.....it ended up a bit rustic and more than a little wobbly but I still love it! Sophie, Penelope and Matilda (the chickens) and Willow and Kermit, (the cats)...all think it is for them.....and yes, they have all hopped up on it!



Paper crafting outside in the sun. You blend up any old fibers you can find from the leftover pieces of emails to laundry lint and add flowers, herbs, and mosses for fun. My fourth time this year with the wonderful fun of paper making and I will continue to make more and more!



Leaf molding from sand, water, and concrete...plus real leaves for the molding...to make yard art for my whole family! You mix them up, shape the sand, spray leaves with Pam and press them ontop of saran wrapped mounds. When you peel everything off 24 plus hours later...lovely outdoor art to nestle among the fern fronds and flowers or hide secretly in shady spots for the elves and fairies to come sip dew out of ...oh wait, that was Willow, Kermit, Sophie, Penelope, and Matilda...silly pets!

Now say a quick prayer for all of my dear friends and family members who are going through hard times and let your wishes fly on the wings of joy...they get there faster, and do so much more good that way!

Such great, great fun in the last of the summer sun!



blog note:
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I am having to double post each and every time in order to get your link lists to update my blog.Please become my blog friend in my friend connect box for instant updates and photos that avoids this problem.

Sunshine and Shadows

In a week filled with visiting family, my own children coming home to roost for a bit, my cats, my chickens, and all of the last of the summer fun, I am filled with gratitude for good people, and good times.

In a week filled with added challenges, and the sacrifices of others, I am filled with gratitude for the help of others, and their positive and encouraging energies. I am grateful that it is, as it is for it might have been, and was not worse.

It was lovely to have one of my four brothers and his wife, my dear sister-in-law who keeps me hopping with her energy and amazing creativity, come to stay for five days. Wonderful to have my children come home to greet them and join in hiking, and barbeques, and other good times. For even with the energies needed and expended, even with the challenges of weather or time, or finances...it is still all good in the end.

I am grateful I still found time to sew in a virtual quilting bee, to pass on my love of quilting to my youngest daughter and to encourage my oldest daughter through challenges, and to enjoy my son, my sweet daughter-in-law and of course my Alaskan brother and sister-in-law.

The very first day of my brother and his wife's arrival, we cut down trees and made two twig chairs, we made pulp and created paper, and we mixed up concrete and sand, and made leaf molds out of all of the leaves we could find in my yard, my garden, and the gardens of friends.

We cut, we drilled, we nailed, we mixed, we patted, we molded, we flattened and impressed... and oh, it was great fun. Some of the crafts I had tried before, others were brand new and wonderful to learn. I remember thinking...if we did all of this the first day..what will we do the other four? HA! I think we did all of that... and much more!

But with sunshine and fun, also comes all of the shadows. Some shadows are refreshing and cooling, others are worrisome or hurting. But again, I am grateful.

My oldest daughter had a freak accident with a Japanese serrated sickle and severed a tendon in her hand, clean through it...100% severed. It makes me cringe to even type those words. Not her wrist leading to her hand, thank goodness.....a tendon in her hand, leading to her index finger.

But oh, after my broken wrist I have learned how everything is so intricately connected and how challenging it can be to regain proper use once again. When you move or can't move one thing...suddenly everything that is connected no longer can work. It is the paradigm for our entire lives...if we can't or don't work together...we end up not working at all.

It took until 6th day to get doctors and insurance to work together to get her into surgery. The surgeon stitched, he cast, and she did all she could to help him and his skill. She works three hard, physical jobs and all involve the full time use of her hands. Now, in the busiest of her work seasons, she like so many of us, is out of work, and trying to make do...just as we are, the very best we can.

I am reminded once again, that is not about how we live, or how much we make, or even how much we each have. We have enough, we are happy, and we love and are loved, and that is all that really matters. But when physical, or emotional, or financial challenges face us, life is a bit more challenging, and the shadows do press a bit more deeply into our psyche.

We all must simply pull in the positive energies of belief and manifestation...of faith and hope and charity and love. It's that simple..and that complicated.

Sunshine and shadows may be the name of a quilted pattern but it is also the pattern of all of our lives. And what may seem dark is always paired with all that is also filled with light.

shown above:
The gourds we grew in our garden, the heart I made with my hands and the places we created for quiet contemplation. Kermit on the fence, Willow in the shade, Sophie, Penelope, and Matilda peering in. And me, of course...watching, learning, and grateful for them all.

note:
I am having to double post each and every time in order to get your link lists to update my blog.Please become my blog friend in my friend connect box for instant updates and photos that avoids this problem.With Heart and Hands: http://www.with-heart-and-hands.com

Sweet Land of Liberty

One of the hardest things I have learned about life's challenges is that is simply not enough to remember others....we also need to honor and treasure their roles in our lives by re-membering the parts of them that meant the most to us.

We must take those qualities, those parts we treasure, and make them a part of ourselves, and our lives. And in that re-membering, in that calling in of all of our painful, lost, and missing parts....we truly become one with them, and make them always a part of our own hearts, and our own lives.

So, today, I remember all of those who lost their lives ten years ago. That fateful day changed America, and perhaps many parts of the world, forever. It changed how we viewed patriotism, heroism, and the living of good lives that held meaning, and remembrance for others.....and often in simple and not necessarily obviously heroic ways.

Filled up with the deepest sense of hallowed land and treasured country, I started this simplest of little folk applique' pillow way back then, those ten years ago. I was riding in our car and had small bits of fabric, a pair of scissors, needle and thread, and just put bits and pieces of fabric in a sewing basket and needed to pull those emotions into something tangible, Something to serve as a reminder of that time, and that place. We were all flying flags back then, all filled up with love and country and unity and selflessness. And I loved that energy and wished we could carry it, forever. So, I made one little block and had it all of this time just sitting out in my little sewing nook.

I finally turned it into this little pillow last week......keeping the simple pieces as they originally were and creating a personal symbol of the 10th anniversary of this fate filled day of September 11th. A day that was truly a call out to 911 in all ways....for us, and for our country. And a reminder to never forget the sacrifices and loss of so many,. in so many different ways, throughout time.

My little pillow shows my patchwork version of those fated hearts rising up forever, and becoming one with the stars that shine above. But it also shows an eagle, symbol of our nation, still flying strong and proud, steadfast, and freely above us all.

No matter what our differences, our contentions, and dissensions, we are all still one, still united, and unified. But it is up to each of us to recognize that, and bring it into our lives and live it.... not just preach it, or resist it by word, or by deed.

If we truly believe we are all connected, all one, all our brother's keeper, all with inalienable rights and freedoms alike....then we must live that belief... and not fight and argue and dissent. If we make our differences stronger, and preach or act out against those that are different, then we are not walking our talk, not believing that we are all equal, and have an equal right to live our own lives freely.

For me, and my life, as challenging as it may be at times, I want and need to re-member this. I want and need to manifest those beliefs into my living consciousness.

And this little memento will seek to remind me of this personal mission. For no life lost has ever been in vain. Even the seemingly worst of times, and worst of deeds of others, still has a lesson for our own personal journey.... as well as our bigger and unified national one.



In the summer my little pillow of remembrance will sit out on my deck.....next to my other little patriotic pillows and their respect for our "Sweet Land of Liberty" and in the rainier months, they will come inside, and within my house, my heart, sing their sweet song privately and continuously with love and pride in all who have sacrificed for us so that we might still be free.

Quilt Album Discount Code AEX-F7

If you didn't win a Quilt Album ...I am so, so sorry. But please do remember you are always a winner and you can buy your own quilt album!

Enter Code AEX-F7 for a $5 discount bringing a downloadable program to $24.96 and a disc that includes both PC and Mac to $34.95. Use that discount code at checkout before you hit 'purchase'!

***And if you do buy one..please write me and I shall feature you and your purchase on my blog. Send photos of things you make or you write me and say you bought a copy. I'd love to feature you and give links to your blog. Then you can be a winner in other fun ways!


Making a purchase with my "Quilt Album Ambassador Discount Code": AEX-F7


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Michele Bilyeu blogs at With Heart and Hands ...www.with-heart-and-hands.com