Category Archives: Alzheimer’s quilts

quilts brighten the lives of alzheimer’s patients

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Quilters have long known that a quilt is a loving tribute that bonds quilters with recipients across generations and across vast distances. The warmth of a quilt is enhanced by the often bright patterns and colorful images which frequently suggest a simpler time.

Under a unique donation program organized by Jeffree Itrich of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) and the University of California San Diego, quilts are brightening the lives of Alzheimer’s patients around the nation.

The Alzheimer’s Study Quilt Program began in late January 2010. As a quilter herself, Jeffree knows how positively people react when given a quilt and how quilters are amazingly generous people. Her plea for quilts to give participants in the NGF (Nerve Growth Factor) Study was picked up by numerous quilting newsletters. Good Samaritans circulated the request for quilts and they began arriving from communities all over the U.S. The program has received nearly enough quilts for all the NGF Study participants and are now looking for quilts for their IgIV and ADNI studies. (They’ll need at least 1,760 quilts!)

Those study participants who have received quilts so far realize that the quilts were made with love, sincerity, and gratitude (to the volunteers for participating in the study and helping future generations). Many of the quilters who donated quilts had family members with Alzheimer’s (AD). One woman who lost her mother to AD made and donated 12 quilts and another whose grandfather had AD provided 11 quilts. A woman in Pennsylvania made five flannel quilts in one week!

One study coordinator (the person who works directly with the study participants) had a woman come to her appointment angry and in a terrible mood (Alzheimer’s frequently causes behavioral changes). She was ready to chew out the study coordinator. But before she could say anything the study coordinator gave her one of the quilts. The woman calmed down immediately and forgot all about her anger.

Another study coordinator gave a quilt to a participant who was undergoing an MRI (an imaging test). It was very cold in the room so the study coordinator gave her a quilt to keep her warm. The woman was both touched and grateful and her daughter’s eyes filled with tears. These quilts are doing wonders for the patients!

If you would like to donate a lap-sized quilt to the Alzheimer’s Quilt Study Project, please contact Jeffree Itrich. To learn more about the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study visit their website at www.adcs.org. You may create a quilt with a pattern of your choice or try your hand at making an Alzheimer’s Fidget Quilt (click here for a tutorial).

Please spread the word in your guilds, sewing circles, blogs, Facebook and Twitter networks. Together we can make a difference in the lives of Alzheimer’s patients and their families and caregivers. Thanks! :-)

quilting 4 alzheimer’s part 3

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The results are in! Check out Diane Did It Fiber Art to see the complete collection of the 2008 Alzheimer’s Quilt Initiative Stay at Home Challenge. Some of these miniature art quilts will be auctioned at the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative site (a new batch each month!) and others will be sold at quilt shows around the country, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Alzheimer’s research.

As a thank you for participating in the challenge I received these two lovely pieces of fabric:

Rust-dyed fabric from Lois Jarvis of Rust-Tex
and hand-dyed silk/rayon velvet from Beth Hartford of Quilters Stitch Together.
I’m still deciding exactly how I want to put these treasures to good use …

quilting 4 alzheimer’s part 2

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This is a Fidget Quilt that I made with a kit from my guild, Citrus Belt Quilters. Fidget Quilts have a variety of different textured fabrics such as chenille, corduroy, fleece, faux fur, knits, lace, tapestry, terry cloth, silk, velvet, wool and more. Their bright colors and varied textures offer sensory stimulation that relieves anxiety for Alzheimer’s patients.
Fidget Quilts are easy to make. Why not make them as a guild project and create kits, or even make a day of it and hold a workshop where everyone brings a prewashed remnant or two of fabric and their sewing machines, exchanges the fabric, and assembles the quilts together.

To make a fidget quilt:

1). Collect a variety of fabrics in different colors and textures. Check out the remnants at your local fabric store for all kinds of possibilities. If you’re an art quilter you probably have many interesting fabrics in your stash already. Iron a fusible interfacing to the back of any stretchy or sheer fabrics, then wash all the fabrics to pre-shrink, remove excess dyes, and test for durability. Do not use any fabrics which don’t survive the wash. Fidget Quilts receive a lot of use and will need to be sturdy.

2). Cut 36 7-1/2″ squares of fabric in different colors and textures for each Fidget Quilt. Lay the squares out in 6 rows of 6 square each. To make things easy on yourself and your sewing machine, avoid placing two thick fabrics such as faux fur next to each other. Sew the blocks together into rows with a 1/2″ seam allowance and then sew the rows together. A sturdy sewing machine (not your lightweight travel machine) and walking foot is highly recommended.

3). Layer the quilt top and a 40″ square of fleece right sides together. Sew around all 4 outside edges with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving a 12″ opening. Turn the quilt right side out and sew the opening shut by hand or machine.

4). Using a machine bar tack or needle and embroidery floss/yarn, tie the quilt together in the center of each block and at all block intersections.

Your local nursing homes and Alzheimer’s care centers can advise you about any special needs their patients might have.

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quilting 4 alzheimer’s part 1

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Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts are mini art quilts 9″ x 12″ or less (fits inside a USPS Priority Mailer) created and sold to help make finding a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease a priority. This year 39 of my Quilt Art internet friends and I participated in a Stay-At-Home Challenge for quilters who weren’t going to Houston but didn’t want to simply sit at home and feel sorry for ourselves, so we took this opportunity to create Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts.

Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts are part of The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative, founded by quilter Ami Simms to make a difference one quilt at a time. Here is my first Priority Quilt, On a good day. Artist Statement: I imagine snippets of memories floating by on a breeze. On a good day you can almost reach out and touch them.
This quilt is made from cotton and lamé fabric, with fusible machine appliqué, machine quilting and hot-fix Swarovski crystals. Fusing tissue lamé for machine appliqué is not as hard as one might expect. Just follow these simple steps:

1). Iron WonderUnder to reverse side of tissue lamé (the right side is whichever side you like best, if you can tell a difference between the two) using a medium-hot iron and a dry press cloth (I like to use a piece of cotton jersey cut out from an old T-shirt or a scrap of muslin as a press cloth for this).

2). Cut out your appliqué shapes, remove the paper backing, and iron shapes to the background fabric with your medium-hot iron and dry press cloth. Don’t hold the iron in place for longer than the recommended fusing time, instead check to see how well it is fused and then give it another 10 seconds or so if necessary, repeat ironing and checking until all the edges are securely fused. It is better to check and repeat a few times than to iron too long in one go and melt the lamé.

3).Machine appliqué around the edges with a zig zag stitch. Use a sharp new needle and sew carefully because it’s better not to rip stitches out of the fused tissue lamé if at all possible.

This is a terrific technique for art quilts and wall hangings that will not see a lot of rough handling or excessive washing. I have never tested it on a bed quilt or wearable art garment.

Here are the Swarovski crystals I used on my Priority Quilt. These are different than the usual bling bling hot fix crystals that we all know and love. It is an opaque turquoise and is perfect for those times when your quilt calls for a little embellishment, but not the sparkle. You can find them at Kandi Corp.
Stay tuned for part 2 for directions on how to make an Alzheimer’s Fidget Quilt.

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