More containers!

I'm hooked on this repurposing of containers. The short one was full of cashews and is covered (using Scor tape) with a commercial print I had in my scrap drawer. The taller one was bread crumbs and covered with a fabric I made by distorting a picture of pansies in Paint Shop Pro and then printed on fabric. The bread crumb container was just lined cardboard so I used gel medium to attach the fabric and it worked very well.

Birthday gift for my 8 year old niece

It's a little pink hard covered journal that I picked up at Blick and altered. The Always Believe bit is printed on deli paper and embossed. I xyroned it and almost didn't get it off the backing in one piece and of course it went down slightly crooked so I bordered it with some fabric. The mushrooms and fairy are chipboard I painted (from http://www.alphastamps.com/).


Inside I pasted this dedication:

February 2, 2016

Dear Faith,

Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen! Keep your eyes open for it because the "something wonderful" may not be large or obvious. It may be tiny and hard to see. Sometimes it's just as simple as a hug or a  kiss from someone you love. Sometimes it's noticing a leaf that looks like a crown or a hummingbird! Sometimes it's meeting a new friend or sharing something fun with a friend you already love. You have to be alert and really look for wonderful things and appreciate them when you notice them.

I'm giving you this book so you can write down the wonderful things that happen to you. That way it's easy to remember them and you can remember them if you ever get sad. And look forward to the next wonderful thing that is just around the corner.

This isn't a secret book because wonderful things are supposed to be shared! Maybe someone like your Mom or Grace can even help you notice something wonderful? Enjoy your book and enjoy being on the lookout for your next lovely surprise!

I love you dearly!

Finished inside front cover and first page, added one page

Inside front cover - love the fairy from Alpha Stamps. I used gold stickles on her skin, colored her hair with a chalk pencil and her clothes with a gel pen.

This is the first page that I'm not very happy with but I'm not going to belabor it. It's gone about as 'fer as it can go!

This one I'm happy with even though it's simple. The phrase from the AAQI Shipshewana Retreat was perfect for the gold background I made using leftover paint. I printed it on glossy photo paper and then edge cut it to add interest. Then I used Barb from Joggles "page frame" idea. Really like it.

Two more pages

I don't think I'm alone in the idea that an art journal page can be a work in progress for quite some time! This next one is a fabric collage inspired by Stencil Girl Thank You For Your Order postcard (have I mentioned I'm addicted to stencils these days?) that came with my recent order. This one was easy since I had all my scrap fabrics still out from the closet door project. Instead of gel medium though I used score tape - a marvelous double-sided tape that comes in lots of widths.

This next is actually my first finished page - I just wasn't sure it was finished until now.

It has a painted background using stencils. The quote is computer generated and the sun? in the upper left is Perfect Pearls (imperfectly applied).

Closet doors . . . done!

They're sliding doors (originals from the 40's) and were really quite boring in plain white. The project took quite a few hours over 7-10 days (way more than it would have taken to paint them!) and most of a 32 oz jar of gel medium. It was VERY fun and I can't help looking around the house for something else to collage because I didn't use up but a tiny percentage of my fabric scraps . . . but I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

New Year and another new project

First, progress on the closet doors. One is finished and back up. The second is in the works and I'm doing it on site because I couldn't take it off without emptying the closet and climbing inside and I just didn't feel like doing that.

First, the finished first one:

Then the finished one hanging and the second one in progress . . . about 40% done.

I'll get a better picture tomorrow - hopefully after a little more work on it is done.
















My new project will be the art journal I've been telling myself to get started for over a year now. I am using a Canson Mixed Media spiral bound book. I painted the cover with black tempera paint and used a leaf stencil with green acrylic. I tried to hand letter with a white paint pen and failed miserably so did it on the computer . . . and it looks way better than my chicken scratch/paint blobs.

I have two pages in progress.

New project - closet doors!

I haven't posted in quite some time - not because I haven't been working on anything, just because I forget to post! Today I remembered I had a blog and decided to make 2016 my year for blogging. After all, I have a lot of finished projects to report on!

The other day I decided my front all closet doors needed painting. How boring . . . and I'm not one of those people who enjoys having a paint brush or a roller in my hands. So I decided to collage them with fabric instead. I started Saturday night - took the door off and laid it on my work tabel. Using gel medium and hauling out my ever full boxes and bags of scraps I started out at the top, Here's what I got done Saturday night.

Today I started out again and worked a couple of hours this afternoon. Here's where the project was at before dinner.

The pink fan was in Beth's scrap bag, which she let me plunder. It's awesome! I started again after dinner and quit about an hour ago.

There's about 1.5 feet of the bottom of the door still to do. Maybe tomorrow night?  Will have to see what tomorrow brings.

Cheaper Than Therapy

This is the first quilt I've started and completed since before my breast cancer diagnosis. Appropriately, it was made as a donation to a friend's fundraiser for LIVESTRONG. It felt good to make it!

I wish you Joy!

Legend has it that when you see a sandpiper (I'm hoping a picture of one will do the trick since very few of us live on the beach!) that means you have the gift of joy.

I wish everyone a very special holiday joy!

All Gave Some . . . Some Gave All

Another journal page - appropriate for today.

FLOW - Art Journaling

I've been away from blogging for awhile and away from creativity. I figured I'll start in with something new and what seems relatively simple ... art journaling. This one is called FLOW.

I plan to make my art journal using quotations and general knowledge depicted artistically. More in a day or two . . .

AAQI Awards Three Research Grants in One Month!

If you're a supporter of the AAQI or just curious about what we do with all that money, check out the links below!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

(Burton, Michigan) -- February 12, 2013: Last month the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) awarded three research grants, the most awarded in a single month since the AAQI became a nonprofit in 2008.

$40,894 was awarded to Texas A & M Health Science Center to explore the connection between type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. The research will be conducted by Ian V.J. Murray, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics; and Carmen Ramirez, M.D., M.Sc., Assistant Professor, Texas A & M Health Science Center.

$35,000 was awarded to The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston to understand why some individuals remain cognitively intact despite the presence of abundant plaques and tangles (the hallmark signs of Alzheimer's) in their brains. The research will be conducted by Nicole L. Bjorklund, Ph.D., National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Postdoctoral Trainee.

$38,354 was awarded to Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, to identify and target molecular mechanisms of cell death in the Alzheimer’s brain. The research will be conducted by Lucian Soane, M.D., Research Associate.

The AAQI has funded 14 research studies to date. These grants are made possible, in large part, by the money raised from the sale of donated quilts.

For more in depth explanation of the funded research see www.alzquilts.org/researchawards.html.

Purchase quilts online at www.alzquilts.org/quiltsforsale.html

The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative is a national charity whose mission is to raise awareness and fund research. The AAQI has raised more than $894,000 for Alzheimer’s research since January 2006. Ami Simms of Flint, Michigan is the founder and executive director of the AAQI, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Her mother had Alzheimer’s. This is the last year the AAQI will be fundraising.

For more information about the AAQI or to make a donation, contact Ami Simms at 810-637-5586 (9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Eastern), ami@alzquilts.org or www.alzquilts.org.

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New Ownerfor "Nelumbo"

Beth just sent me a picture from Houston - the first of my quilts to get sold.

Width: 10.75" Length: 7.5"
Materials/Techniques: The background fabric had too wide a repeat, so I sliced it up and put it back together on a piece of Lutradur. On a whim, I glued the seams with some iridescent glue. The flower was stitched first and then painted with acrylics. I finished with some Pearl Ex for shimmer and a deeper color. The binding is painted background fabric.
Artist Statement: Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy flowers resembling water lilies, commonly known as lotus. The north American lotus is native to North America and the Caribbean. I had this Asian-feel background, so searched the internet for a flower I could paint on it - and found the lotus.

AAQI in Houston!

We will have a DIZZYING number of quilts for sale in Houston. Join the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative in Row S, (hard right as soon as you enter the exhibit area from the front of the George R Brown) October 31 to November 4th. Watch the video and you'll understand what I mean about dizzy! AAQI quilts headed for Houston!

CELEBRITY INVITATIONAL QUILT AUCTION STARTS NOVEMBER 1ST

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AlzQuilts.org) offers an online auction during the first 10 days of every month. Each November, in honor of National Alzheimer's Awareness Month, the AAQI offers 12 very special quilts. This year the auction quilts have been made by world renowned quilters Alex Anderson, Hollis Chatelain, Caryl Bryer Fallert, John Flynn, Diane Gaudynski, Becky Goldsmith, Pat Holly, Libby Lehman, Marsha McCloskey, Sue Nickels, Mary Sorensen, and Ricky Tims. The quilts are about 16" x 16" and the auction is open to the public. Last year the 12 quilts offered in the November auction raised more than $14,000 for the AAQI, an all-volunteer effort to raise awareness and fund research through art. Visit http://www.alzquilts.org/ciqa.html to preview the quilts. On November 1st you can bid on the quilts here: http://www.benefitbidding.com/listings/categories/index.cfm?category=965774286 To watch the video: http://youtu.be/V8nCbK7Ej88 (Click the SHARE button and then select embed for the code to put the video on your blog.) The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative® (www.AlzQuilts.org) is a national, grassroots charity whose mission is to raise awareness and fund research. The AAQI auctions and sells donated quilts, and sponsors a nationally touring exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer's. The AAQI has raised more than $773,000 since January 2006. Ami Simms of Flint, Michigan is the founder and executive director of the AAQI, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit operated entirely by volunteers. She is a quilter. Her mother had Alzheimer's.

Do they celebrate birthdays in Heaven?

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday, actually August 11, 1927 was his birthday. He died on December 14, 2010. Last year and again on this year, my siblings and my Mom celebrated our memories and the legacy of values that Dad left us.

His last years were not happy ones - for him or for us. He began to suffer the effects of dementia in the early 2000's and by 2005 was well on the way to being unable to live a normal life. My family has always been tightly knit, but we closed in more in support of Mom and Dad and we managed for a couple of years until in late in 2006 we had to place him in a nursing home. We lucked out in many ways - he ended up in a wonderful place right in Lodi so Mom was 10 minutes away. He had fantastic care but the disease is relentless and took more and more of him every week.

He watched his mother's decline into dementia and it was very hard for him to cope with it happening to him. He fought it for a long time - the fear and frustration must have been horrifying. I did my best to help by learning all I could about dementia and learning how to make things easier for him. It breaks my heart even now to think of how afraid he had to be.

I made this quilt for the first AAQI show: Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece. I wanted to depict that battle, from the first realization that it might be happening to him to the point where he couldn't fight any more, when the disease won. I won't say he lost, because it wasn't a fair fight. The quilt is named "The Crooked Path", with my own sub-title "Daddy Let Me Hold Your Hand".

I have pledged to do everything I can to help stop this disease. I am on the Board of Directors of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative a grassroots all-volunteer organization. I work every day to make it possible for us to raise money to fund Alzheimer's research. I volunteer at a local nursing home in their special care unit, trying to spread moments of joy to others living through the hell of this disease. This year, I am walking the Alzheimer's Association's Walk to End Alzheimer's. My fundraising page is here.

Row 1: Alex Anderson, Hollis Chatelain, Caryl Bryer Fallert, John Flynn.
Row 2: Diane Gaudynski, Becky Goldsmith, Pat Holly, Libby Lehman.
Row 3: Marsha McCloskey, Sue Nickels, Mary Sorensen, and Ricky Tims.

This is the fourth year an elite group of quilters has donated quilts to the AAQI for an online auction in November, National Alzheimer's Awareness Month. Last year's auction raised more than $14,000 for the national charity that sells donated quilts to fund Alzheimer's research. The auction is open to the public.

Read more!

How Quickly Time Flies!

I can't believe it's July and the "heat is on". Maybe if I'm trapped in the house because it's too hot out, I'll get more done? Doubtful~ Anyway, I was just watching Tom Russell on The Quilt Show and now have lots MORE ideas floating around in my head that I may never have time to play with, but it was a very interesting show! But then I went into the Free Shows tab and re-watched Ami Simm's show about the AAQI. I was actually in the Boulder, CO studio that day and have since watched the show on TQS, but this time I paid closer attention to the After Show slideshow. I found three shots of quilts I gathered names on and quilted. I quilted the words faith, hope and love. AND (most precious) a picture of me and my Dad which I had forgotten was in that show.

Efflorescence

Sometimes it's really hard to come up with a title for your Priority Quilts that hasn't been used 100 times before. After all, we've received over 9,600 quilts at the AAQIand it's a good thing they're assigned numbers as part of the title or we'd have many, many duplicates. So I've turned to the dictionary. I looked up "flower" and when I saw "efflorescence" in that definition, I looked it up. Efflorescence means: the state or a period of flowering, or an example or result of growth and development. Both chimed with me as the Angelina glows (effervescence) and I made the flower to decorate a Christmas package. After the gift was opened, I rescued the flower and made this quilt with it (recycling is a development, right?). The flower pedals are made with Angelina, as mentioned above and the center is a brad. Background fabric is some sort of upholstery fabric - I liked the texture contrast with the smooth and shiny Angelina. Stem, leaf and grass are made with the backside of a commercial cotton - again I was looking for contrast. I quilted the background in a wispy weedy pattern and added French knots for even more texture. Satin stitch binding.

Inspiration

I pretty much can't draw without something in front of me to copy from. I think I have pretty good design sense, but I always need something to get me started. Dover books are great for that! I use a lot of their coloring books and silhouette books. Dover

There is also a tab on that page called Free Samples where you can sign up for a weekly email that gives you a link to free samples from their books. Royalty free images galore!