Believe That "Love Is All There Is"

When I titled my sixth and final fabric art postcard in my Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative project Love Is All There Is... I was seeing the concept of love at its deepest and yet most intrinsically basic level of meaning and intent. Love is truly "all there is"in the deepest sense of the true, the creative, the essence and the unwavering root of all meaning in our lives. Without it...we are truly nothing, with it...we are practically everything. With the self-actualized belief and flow of the creative power and energy of love...we are enough, do enough and have enough. With love, we care, we share, we give and we treasure.

When one faces the challenges of Alzheimer's, be that in the self or the other, we know...because of love...that the self is the other. We are all connected, through our deepest energetic heartstrings of creation, to not only those we know for an absolute fact that we love, but to all that we feel for others, as we love.

Compassion is the art and the act of giving with and through great and deep emotion to others. And it takes endless love and endless compassion to face the trials and tribulations of any disease or disorder. All of them feel as if they are robbing us, or our loved ones, of all that we believe we know as 'who they are.'

With love, we can see with new eyes, the eyes of compassion, to know that who we love is still there, always was there and always will be there. Like all things of this world, the shape and form of things may appear to change, but the truest part, the deepest nature, their god-given and created essence...their spirit and their soul...is still the same.

In honor of my mother (who at age 82 is now facing those challenges) and in honor of my father (who is now 91 and her primary caretaker), I had created this...my sixth fabric art postcard or quiltlet in my series.

This is the first of my fabric art cards to go up for auction (this past week) on Ebay, under Ami Simm's recently re-organized "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts" through the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

I do not know who the person was who made the fifth and final bid. But I thank you and I bless you. I am grateful you were willing to spend the time, the money and the giving of the love you have shown by purchasing this small quiltlet.

I was moved to tears just having someone bid on, and purchase it and I am moved to tears still, by the very nature of this special project, by Ami Simm's commitment to it, and to the thousands of other volunteers, who like myself, have families that have been pushed into the cyclone's path of the journey of Alzheimer's.

I am especially happy that my first donation went for sale and sold...just in time for Valentine's Day. After all, I do believe and hope that you do, too...That Love Is All There Is." So, today and all days, I send out into the Universe my gratitude, my heart felt thoughts and my own little Valentine of Love created, expressed, and shared.

Check out my related posts:
How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

Love Is All There Is: For the AAQI

I've titled my sixth and final fabric art postcard in my Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative project to all there really is...love. Without it...we are truly nothing, with it...we are practically everything. With love, we are enough, do enough and have enough. With love, we care, we share, we give and we treasure.

When one faces the challenges of Alzheimer's, be that in the self or the other, we know...because of love...that the self is the other. We are all connected, through our deepest energetic heartstrings of creation, to not only those we know for an absolute fact that we love, but to all that we feel for others, as we love.

Compassion is the art and the act of giving with and through great and deep emotion to others. And it takes endless love and endless compassion to face the trials and tribulations of any disease or disorder. All of them feel as if they are robbing us, or our loved ones, of all that we believe we know as 'who they are.'

With love, we can see with new eyes, the eyes of compassion, to know that who we love is still there, always was there and always will be there. Like all things of this world, the shape and form of things may appear to change, but the truest part, the deepest nature, their god-given and created essence...their spirit and their soul...is still the same.

In honor of my mother, who at age 82 is now facing those challenges, and in honor of my father, age 90, who is her primary caretaker, and is helping her to face them, I offer this...my sixth fabric art postcard or quiltlet in my series.

Check out my related posts:
How To Make A Fabric Postcard
How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

Each and Every Day is a Gift: For the AAQI

There are days when each and every one of us wakes up....and thinks with great excitement, of all the wonderful things that we get to do that day. And then, there are other days when we wake up....and we hurt, or we are sad, or we are lonely, or maybe we just don't have hope or something to look forward to. On those days, it is all we can do to simply get out of bed, wish that things weren't as they are, or that we could relive the past and have everything be different. I have had all of those kinds of days...and I am sure that most of you, have had them, too.

But even on the hardest days...the days of severe loss or pain, the days of deepest sadness or even depression...there is still the ever flowing undercurrent of knowing that it may not always be this hard, this sad, or even this way. Things will get better. We hope that they do, we pray that they will, and we take that hope...that tiny thing with feathers...and we set it free to fly.

Like many of you, I have had my share of hard times. Like many of you, I have battled chronic illness, chronic pain and I am a lifelong insomniac. I have had devastating losses in my life and have had to face Finding My Center Amongst Life's Challenges over, and over, again.

I have lost all four grandparents, uncles and aunts, both to death and to Alzheimer's Disease...a loss of another kind...and am now facing the gradual loss (to Alzheimer's) of my own mother. But, I still have...at ages 90 and 82...both of my parents. And as one friend told me the other day: "You don't know how lucky you are. I lost my dad at 50." That really made me think and think deeply. I am lucky. I am lucky and I am blessed and I need to not only treasure this, but remember it, always.

You all know (because of my previous sharing) just how much I love and treasure my family. When my mother was diagnosed with almost incurable breast cancer, I moved her and my father, from Juneau, Alaska to Salem, Oregon to live with me. We battled that cancer together and forged a bond between the three of us that is so deep, it is almost impossible to describe. My mother is still alive, through almost impossible odds, 5 years later. And yes, I was so very lucky to be there, with her, and be able to wish her a Happy 82nd Birthday, Mom.

I may live 1,000 miles away and I may have spent entire decades without seeing them for more a handful of times, but I am lucky to live in a time now, when I am able to go up and be with them for weeks at a time. The nine intense months that we were able to share while they lived here in Oregon, more than made up, in many other ways, for the years and years we were not able to see each other. So, I know in my heart, that goodness and gifts can come out of hard times and pain.

I have learned through my own life's experiences, through pain, through loss, through battle, that each and every day...in the truest and deepest meaning of those words...really and truly is a gift.

So, today, I dedicate my sixth fabric art quiltlet (featuring a wrapped gift in the center) of my Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative project to all of our days ahead.

I have titled it "Each and Every Day is a Gift." As the saying goes:

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
That's why today is called the present.

Check out my related posts:
How To Make A Fabric Postcard
How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

How To Make A Fabric Post Card, Fabric Art Card, or Fabric Art Quiltlet

shown:

Row 1: supplies, fabric art or postcard cutting, optional quilting of fabric

Row 2: creating inchies, design options: using inchies, or quilted fabric

Row 3: art card or postcard, ideas for embellishment, serged edge postcard

Complete Tutorial here:

Making Art Fabric Postcards

Ever since quilters and fabric artists began to form internet support and idea groups, their has been an upswing in creative swaps. Recently, the whole idea of fabric art cards, fabric trading cards or fabric postcards has become extremely popular. With the addition of creative applique techniques, beading, inchies, photographic effects and so forth, there are now more and more ways to create, to share and to trade.

All of the various creations involve the same basic techniques as in quilting. It was only natural that quilters have taken the art paper trading cards...which were similar to the scrapbooking techniques of collage and embellishment.... and created miniature quilts, which I call quiltlet's, or fabric art cards or poscards, instead. These can be as small as one is capable of making them or as large as one chooses. If you plan on mailing them, they must, however, fit into a regular, legal, manilla or priority envelope for mailing.

All techniques involve a fabric sandwich wrapped around an interior surface, only instead of the interior bieng a soft batt, it is usually a very stiff, very thin interfacing such as Timtex or Peltex. Fabric art cards or postcards have a creatively embellished front, the stiff interior and then a fabric backing. All layers can be adhered with heat 'n bond, glue sticks, aerosol adhesives or simply pinned and stitched together.

Any fabric art or post card with thickness or dimensional trims such as my beads and embroidery, can still be postmarked and mailed...usually in a protective envelope. Simple, fairly flat art or postcards, within the legal 4"x6" sizing, can be mailed...with the additonal of a cardstock backing marked and labeled 'postcard', stamped (one or two stamps depending on the weight) and mailed.

You will need:

1. Sewing supplies:

Basic: needles, threads, scissors, rulers

Optional: rotary cutter, mat, rulers
2. Fabric:

Basic: fabrics for the front and back

Optional: card stock or Peltex for backing of a more traditonal art postcard

3. Interfacing or batting:

Peltex or Trimtex for a thin, extra stiff interior for a postcard effect

Batting of your choice for a more traditional quilted effect

4. Other:

Fusible interfacing, gluesticks, aersol adhesive for attaching front to middle, middle to back
Embellishments or trims of any kind...beads, buttons, sequins, yarns, ribbons etc.
Threads, embroidery floss, or perle cotton for hand sewing or quilting

Sewing machine and sergers if machine quilting, sewing or edge finishing

Directions:Step 1. Cut front and back fabrics (cutting them 1" bigger than desired finished size.

For a final 4"x6" postcard, cut two rectangles of fabric, 5" x 7"each.
Step 2. Cut trimtex or peltex to final desired size of entire project.

For a 4"x6" postcard, you cut it to that size...4" x 6"
Step 3. Place front section, right side up, over interfacing, and embellish.

Note: if you hand sew or embroider or add beading or trims, this creates the quilting
Step 4. Finish edges

Option A: Wrap edges under and behind..hand sew down to backing

Option B: Serge or zigzag all edges together with any style or width of stitch desired

Check out my related posts:
How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

You Don't Bring Me Flowers: For the AAQI

My fourth fabric art card, or quiltlet, in my series for Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts". Based on a piece of fabric, no doubt meant to celebrate weddings and bridal showers, I have used it, instead, as the basis for making my inchies.....as part of my own Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative project.

This series is meant as a reflection on the truest meanings of marriage: the commitment of love as one which at its deepest core is able to place the beloved, above one's own self, and how that love is tested, when a diagnosis of Alzheimer's is made, for one of the partners.

Continuing to use the inchies that I made here in Salem (before I left for Alaska) in my How To Make An Inchie post, I used three of the 'bouquets' to symbolize all that we give to the Alzheimer's patient, during the entire course of their illness.

One of the many blessings that I was given, when I was home in Douglas, Alaska for my mother's 82nd birthday, was the chance to witness just how much giving...in any form...truly meant to her. As we celebrated her birthday, she was truly a 'queen'. She put on my little tiara and earrings, wrapped herself in the love of my "Pink Ribbons' blanket and opened...with enormous delight, each and every birthday gift in true style.

She was the epitome of the loving, giving, nurturing, storyteller that endears her to her family.... and to all that meet her. I realized, truly realized, how much giving means to her. On this particular day, it was of course, the giving of gifts. But I saw throughout my three weeks there, how everything I did....whether it was creating a magical place where she and I could absolutely howl with laughter over the silliest things.....or how I could lightened my father's emotional load by telling him our truly proud I was of just how much he did, how much he gave, and how hard he worked.....truly meant to him.

What I received as I watched them, as far greater than what I received and trust me....I worked very hard while I was up there! I gave all that I had in me to give.... physcallly, emotionally, mentally, and definitely spiritually and energetically. But I was given back.... so much more... in return.

I learned how the three real bouquets of flowers she received that day, were an absolute delight to her. She admired them over and over and I even left the ones that were naturally drying in a vase when I left.....so she could continue to receive 'flower's each and every day.

I learned just how much the tiniest thing that she was given meant so much to her. Every reprinted photo from the past, each homemade gift card, each bathrobe or nightgown, or even a pair of socks. She was thrilled to receive...simply because she knew that each gift was given with love.

My 90 year old father, who must have been exhausted...even went out shopping to buy her a gift and the most lovingly, beautiful birthday card that I have ever had the pleasure to read out loud to anybody...but especially to my mother who is legally blind and cannot, even with thick glasses and a magnifying glass, always figure out.....even the very largest print....by herself.

I learned that gifts come in many forms. But above all else, we need to remember to give and give and give to them. Love is the truest and most purest of gifts...the deepest gift of, and from, the heart.

My mother received them that day, and hopefully will continue to receive them each and every day. Each and every single thing any of us does for her, is a gift. And each and every single day that she has with us...that too, is a gift...really and truly, the greatest gift of all.

Check out my related posts:
How To Make A Fabric Postcard
How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

What Dreams May Come: For the AAQI

Shown here:
My third fabric art card, or quiltlet, in my series for Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts". Based on a piece of fabric, no doubt meant to celebrate weddings and bridal showers, I have used it, instead, as the basis for making my inchies as part of my own Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. This series is meant as a reflection on the truest meanings of marriage: the commitment of love as one which at its deepest core is able to place the beloved, above one's own self.

When love and commitment includes a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, that love is truly tested. If the foundation is a good and strong one, then that love becomes not only the creative force within the reality of marriage, but bonds it to the act of commitment. It creates the space for sharing and caring for the beloved...beyond the fairy tale wedding, the magical ring, or any of the beautiful dresses.

As Marcel Proust has said: "Things don't change, but by and by, our wishes change."

Using the inchies that I made in my How To Make An Inchie post, I used three of the 'wedding dresses' to address to this concept. How the illusion of what we perceive as being real, so overwhelms us that it becomes all that we truly see. When the young bride is planning her wedding, or shopping for a bridal dress, there are no thoughts of what the commitment truly means. Love and loving have very different connotations from those first steps to the altar....to all of the steps and pathways of choices....which are to follow.

Check out my related posts:
How To Make A Fabric Postcard
How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's: For the AAQI

After my deeply meaningful, but exhausting, month in Alaska helping my 82 year old mom and 90 year old dad with household chores and my mother's increasing challenges with Alzheimer's Disease, I am back home in Salem, OR and have just finished my second 'quiltlet' or Art Fabric postcard for Ami Simm's Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts

Again, I am using the my fabric inches, showcased in How To Make An Inchie, and using two little blocks 'inchies', both showcasing hearts. I created this second little postcard sized quilt which is meant to symbolize the myriad of heart breaking emotions that families go through as they live with, help with, accept or deny the presences of, and then finally, deal with Alzheimer's disease in a loved one.

When a loved one is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, the effects on the family can be overwhelming. The reality that someone you love has such a devastating illness can trigger a range of emotions — including fear, sadness, confusion and anger. Conflicts are common as family members struggle to deal with the situation.

What I found in my time at home with my own mother, was while ideally, family should share responsibilities....it becomes obvious, almost immediately..... who the primary care givers will be. Some cannot cope with the every changing aspects of emotional connection or disconnection. Some cannot cope with the physical requirements of dressing, bathing, clean-up or giving of medications or injections. And others simply cannot cope with any of it, and' flight' becomes their instant emotion not 'fight' as behaviorists refer to our 'fight or flight' response to stress.

I have the misfortune of living 1,000 miles away. After my father, who takes full primary care for my mother, I am the logical 'next' caregiver. I am the only daughter, and even with 4 brothers and 3 sister-in-laws, I am the natural intuitive and the natural care giver and I have spent my life time helping others. However, living so far away, even with daily phone calls and bi- or even tri-annual visits, I am a far cry from being able to provide the quality or quantity of daily care that is needed, even at this early to mid-stage of Alzheimer's. That falls on my father, who at 90 years old is an amazing and loving man, but one who is already by facing so very much, as it is.

I did my best to set up their house for increased safety issues and to clean and organize it for an easier state of living for the two of them. I spend countless hours filling our home and them with my love and a positive belief in love and healing. I tried my best to motivate and integrate additional help from other family members.

But most of us work either in, or outside of our own homes, already. Few of us are able or willing to bring aging parents in to live with us. And even if a special few of us are, the reality of that gets checked almost immediately. Many of us still have children at home or in college. We have our own 'stresses', 'stressors' and 'stressees' to cope with.

With health care costs spiraling upwards of $4,500 per month per person in Alaska, nursing homes are a final option, not a beginning one. In home nursing care, goes against most of our own needs and desires for independence and privacy, and sadly enough in this modern world, problems with poor care and even theft by outside care givers.

In-home 'maintenance only care' becomes the first most reliable, more caring option and only affordable option...at least as long as families can cope with the ever increasing demands of care giving. But it is one that is sadly lacking in providing all that is truly needed in our busy lives and this even busier, world.

Working through these conflicts and the emotions they create, allows you to move on to more important things--caring for our loved one and enjoying our time together as much as possible. These emotions, aside from the disease itself, are of themselves, heart breaking. They can tear apart families, as well as primary care givers.

I am deeply grateful for the time I just had with my family in Alaska. I am grateful, now for the daily phone calls and for the moments of clarity...in both my mother, and in myself. I know then that the love is there beneath the heartbreak..... and that love can, indeed, mend the pain of those broken places..... even if it cannot always mend the break, itself.

shown above:
fabric art card or quiltlet which I have titled "The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's". It is meant to symbolize not only the love that is always there, but the heartbreak that cracks that love open. Here, it has not broken the halves apart, they stay connected, just cracked and forever changed by the devastating effects of the disease

Check out my related posts:
How To Make A Fabric Postcard
How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

For Better, For Worse For the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

When we marry, we believe we are doing it out of love. But how very little, we truly understand or realize. When we marry, we marry out of the desire to create something new, something shared between two people that they never would have had otherwise.

When we are married...for a week, or a year, for 25 years, or even for 50, we still don't truly understand the depth of relationship. We don't understand any of it, until that love is tested.

When love is tested, when we are given the gift of seeing the other side of that golden coin, then finally we are asked to choose...to choose between the self or the other.

And as we are tested, sometimes over and over and over, again, we finally understand the truest nature of love...loving the other more than the self, or perhaps, truly loving the mirror of the self as reflected, by and in, the other.

We cannot truly love unless we are grounded in understanding, acceptance and love of the self, but we cannot truly love another without releasing self-focus and self-absorption and offering it up on the altar of giving and self-sacrifice.

It has taken me my own lifetime to understand this and to see and to understand why some can give and some cannot. Why some can sacrifice and others cannot. And most of all, we some of us reach out beyond the self to help others, while some of us can only want and need and give to the self and the self, alone. While others find it easy to want to give and to share. Those who cannot give, or still not yet grounded in self enough to offer out into the world to others from that place of love.

I am blessed to have been raised by parents who were able to give. Perhaps, it was not always that way, perhaps they, too had to learn life's lessons through trials and tribulations. But now, over these past decades, I have watched as each has sacrificed for the good of the other and others.....just as parents, each of us sacrifices for the good of our children or our loved ones.

In honor of this kind of true love, in honor of the truest meaning of marriage, with its deepest trials and tribulations...as well as, my mother's on-going challenge of Alzheimer's Disease.... I have finished my first Alzheimer's Art Quilt Project block. I am calling this block 'For Better, For Worse' to symbolize marriage vows as they are challenged...whether by Alzheimer's or by disease of any kind...physical, mental or spiritual.

shown above:
My first Alzheimer's Art Quilt Iniatiative project 'quiltlet' or fabric art postcard.

Using my previously made inchies from my tutorial on How To Make An Inchie as part of my fabric art quiltlet, and using embroidery or quilting them on, and then adding beads etc. as a decorative effect. This was a fun hand working project I was able to relax with during my non-caretaking/working hours helping my parents, here in Douglas, Alaska.

Check out my related posts:
How To Make A Fabric Postcard
How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

How To Make An Inchie

1. Layer top fabric of choice over 1) a layer of thin soft batting for a mini quilt or 2) a stiff, thick interfacing (Trimtex or Peltex) for a fabric postcard. Add a backing fabric of choice , wrong sides together to Trimtex or batting.

2. Quilt all three layers together with meander or quilting stitches of any kind. The quilting can be utilitarian or decorative and any kind or color of threads can be used.

3. Cut into 1" sized squares for 'inchies', 1 and 1/2" sized squares for 'super inchies', or 2 " squares for 'mega sized' inchies.

4. Serge or embroider around edges to finish all raw edges of this three layer 'inchie'.

5. Use 'inchies' as either artistic trading squares, as a decorative element to add to fabric postcards, or on quilts, or to create.... as I am.... fabric postcard 'quiltlets'or mini blocks for my Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Project.

shown above:
Printed fabric that I used to quilt over thin fleece batting and a backing fabric. I then used meander stitching to quilt all three layers together. Using a rotary cutter and a mat, I then cut the quilted fabric into mega 'inches'. I used a fabric that just happened to come with a squared design on it, as an easy way to learn the process. Any kind of fabric can be used, in any print, in any style, even plain fabric can be used and decorated.

Check out my related posts:
How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

Ever since I first heard about Ami Simms and her "Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative", I have wanted to be an active participant. I have watched as many members of my extended family and many of my closest friends' families, have been affected by this invasive and relentless disorder. And I have witnessed the tremendous strain and stress that loving someone with Alzheimer's creates, and watching them battle and suffer so many kinds of different losses, over and over themselves.

I know that if we live long enough, the majority of us will face it or similar versions of memory affecting disorders. Whether we use the overall umbrella terminology of dementia or one of its outreaching lines such as Alzheimer's...the conclusion is the same. Each of us ages, each of suffers losses both physical and mental, and each of us must decide how we deal with these losses, whether they are our own..... or another's.

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is an opportunity for those of us who sew, quilt or do fabric postcards, to contribute our time, energy, and artistic creativity for a good cause. It allows us a creative outlet to do something positive towards raising money for research in an effort to slow the disease down, if not perhaps....someday.....totally eradicate it.

All forms of severe memory loss involves some kind of cellular level change within the brain itself. As cells break down or alter, as neuron pathways no longer line up, or tangled cellular growths are created that form jumbled up 'cloverleaf' intersections in the freeways of our communication highway, the effect is still one of not being able to make connections.

As we lose our processing skills, or skip through time and space with associations or lack of associations, there are times when each of us cannot think of a word, or remember a name or memory. And as we age, as this increases, there comes in a physical component that makes it seemingly impossible to connect with time, or space, or people or places.

All we can do is slow this process down...alternatively with a host of herbal remedies, vitamins or minerals, or a variety of energetic healing modalities such as Reiki, Healing or Therapeutic Touch, Chiropractic or Naturopathy, and medically with drugs such as Aricept and Numenda.

We can also, just as importantly, provide emotionally by providing support and social interactions or spiritually, by letting the loved know that no matter what, they are a part of us, of our hearts and our souls and we will do everything we possibly can for them, no matter how things might change or how challenging they might get.

So, today, I begin my own contribution. I am beginning a long process of not only helping my own mother battle this dreaded disease, but I will be making art 'quiltlets', fabric postcards and other creative projects to be sent to Ami Simm's project headquarters.

I will do what I can, in all the ways that I can to keep my mother, and all of your own mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles,cousins and friends from having to go through this alone.

Day by day, inch by inch...we can all make a difference. For additional information, check out Ami Simm's site: "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"

my other links:

AAQI: From the Heart of a Quilter

How To Make A Fabric Art or Postcard

How To Make An Inchie

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

The Heartbreak of Alzheimer's

For Better, For Worse

What Dreams May Come

You Dont Bring Me Flowers

Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"