AAQI Awards $60,000 to Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Dr. Michelle E. Ehrlich and
quilter Paula Nadelstern.

The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) has awarded a $60,000 grant to Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City for a study directed by Dr. Michelle E. Ehrlich, Professor of Pediatrics, Neurology, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences.

Dr. Ehrlich explains:  “We have identified a drug compound that is potentially useful  in the treatment  of Alzheimer’s disease.

Part of the problem in Alzheimer’s disease is that a sticky substance called amyloid disrupts communication between nerve cells. Ultimately, these nerve cells become sick and eventually die. The drug that we are testing in mouse models of AD has two functions which could potentially prove beneficial. First, it affects the pathway via which amyloid is made, and may help to decrease the amount of amyloid and thereby improve communication between nerve cells. Second, it increases the “birth” of new nerve cells, something which normally occurs only at a very low rate in the aged brain. We plan to administer this compound to mice that have been engineered to overproduce amyloid and that we have shown develop memory problems in tests specifically developed for mice. We hope to show that by decreasing the level of amyloid and simultaneously increasing the birth of new nerve cells, that this compound will improve the condition in the mice. This drug is being tested in humans for other conditions, so we hope that if there is a promising result in mice, that it can then be tested in AD patients.”

In addition to the monetary award, Dr. Ehrlich was given a quilt made by AAQI Board Member, Kathy Kennedy-Dennis of Houston, TX The quilt is called “Vital Work For a Cure.” It was presented to Dr. Ehrlich by quilt artist Paula Nadelstern.

Paula’s fabric was used on the back of the quilt.

This grant is the AAQI’s 15th research award, and the 4th given in 2013.

The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (www.alzquilts.org) is a national, grassroots organization whose mission is to raise awareness and fund research through art. It auctions and sells donated quilts through the Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilt project and sponsors a touring exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer’s called “Alzheimer’s Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope.” The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative has raised more than $916,000 since January 2006.

Ami Simms
Founder & Executive Director
Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative
Burton, MI

Remembering Mother

The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative is offering a special Mother’s Day Auction starting today and ending at 10 p.m. central time on Sunday night. During this special Mother’s Day weekend, we are offering one extraordinary quilt, shown above. “Remembering Mother” was made by Rhonda Dort of Houston, Texas. It is a tribute to Arline, Rhonda’s mother-in-law who passed in September of last year due to complications from Alzheimer’s.

Bid here:
http://www.benefitbidding.com/auctions/listings/details.cfm?item_id=6753 All profits fund Alzheimer’s research.

Rhonda shares her thoughts about “Remembering Mother.” (Click on each image to see it larger.)

I’ve always had a passion for old linens. Whether crochet, embroidery, beads or buttons, they hold a special place in my heart. The tattered ones are just as wonderful as the perfect ones because each represents a work of productive hands.

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“Remembering Mother” is a blending of the old with the new. It represents Arline as she aged and her family in their many stages of life. She was 89 when she passed, her youngest great grandchild was five. The hundreds of beads across the quilt represent years and years of her love and dedication to her family.

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As I cleaned out Arline’s linen closet, I saved many handkerchiefs, hand towels and tablecloths that I’ve incorporated into several quilts, including this one. I think she’d be happy with the results!

The beautiful purple handkerchief, though worn and aged, stands out as the dominate part of this little quilt. It orchestrated each of the additional pieces, determining what other colors and shapes could be introduced.

Her cross-stitched “Mother” bookmark easily welcomed the hand beading embellishment. The bottom right corner features a beautiful yellow crocheted pillow case edging.

What I’ve tried to accomplish with each little quilt is to mesh old with new— old crochet mixed with new machine embroidered lace, old mother-of-pearl buttons with new ribbons, old hand embroidery with new beads.

The darker ivory (top left) is new machine embroidery hand embellished with beads. The center white heart is also a new piece of beautiful work. I’ve embellished it with beads, ribbon work and gold and white crystal bead balls.

The upper left corner is decorated with the corner of a vintage linen tablecloth. It has a hand-crocheted ivory edging.

You’ll find many vintage mother-of-pearl buttons scattered across the quilt. Each as been “dressed up” with many different colors and shades of beads. Additional accents include ivory pearls, very tiny yellow sequins with pearl white bead centers, delicate ivory ribbon work and Wing/Hem Needle stitching.

I have many friends who have given me so many wonderful pieces of lace, crochet, buttons, ribbon and linen that have become part of my quilts.

I had no experience with silk ribbon embroidery until a few months ago, needless to say I’m smitten with this technique.

I tend to use tiny size 15 beads, occasionally 11′s and love to find metal charms to add interest. Early on I used clear mono-poly thread to attach the beads, but later transitioned to a wonderful Nymo off-white beading thread.

Each little quilt comes together through trial and error. I begin each project on a blank 9″ x 12″ piece of fabric. I audition 5-6 “anchor” pieces in several layouts, photographing each setting. I walk away from the project for a time, later look at the photos and determine the final layout. After these 5-6 pieces are tacked to the background fabric I begin to choose additional smaller pieces to fill in the negative spaces. Heirloom machine stitching with a wing/hem needle adds additional interest and gives a uniform grid for additional beading. Needless to say, the ladies at the bead shop know me by name, I go in for one or two colors and leave with six!

A question that always comes up is “how long do these take?” Well, if no laundry, cooking or housework gets done, a single quilt can be finished in 3-4 days. Others ask “how do you know when you’re finished with a quilt?” I don’t really know how to answer except to just say they’re done when I can’t think of anything else to add. You will probably see that I love to embellish the buttons as they take on a whole new persona when decorated with beads and ribbons. Is it hard to cut up vintage pieces? I tend to cut up only tattered pieces that have had a useful but hard earlier life. I love the fact that they are becoming an important part of a new project.

Besides learning new techniques, I’ve experienced the joy of creating something that comes directly from the heart. Are they hard to give to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative? Well, yes but no. Are they important in generating funds for the cure for a terrible disease; one that has already claimed my mother-in-law and has my dad in its grips, absolutely!

I hope you will find great joy owning this little piece of my heart.

Thank you Rhonda! Please share this blog post with your friends and encourage them to bid in our special Mother’s Day Auction! All profits fund research.

Ami Simms
Founder & Executive Director
Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative

DISCLOSURES

May Auction Ends Friday

Don’t miss the May 2013 online auction! The AAQI is offering 27 incredible quilts for you to to bid on. As always, all profits fund Alzheimer’s research.

Bid now: http://www.benefitbidding.com/auctions/listings/index.cfm?auction=83&resetcategory=1

#13,142 Cup of Love

#13,144 Mapquest

#13,178- Flight

13,240 – Welcome Spring!

#13,242 – Pappa and the Kids

#13,255 Pretty Pear

#13,300 – Marion’s Flower Garden

#13,315 – Round-Up

#13,322 – Quitler’s Spirit

#13,350 – In The Garden

#13,375 – Lilac Time

#13,377 – Rose Garden

#13,400 – Kansas Summer

#13,435 – Falling Leaves

#13,443 – Put A Bird On It

#13,444 – Metamorphosis

#13,520 – God Hangs the Earth on Nothing

#13,536 – Angels Within

#13,648 – LAR_KEN

#13,662 – Ross’ Horse

#13,667 – Small Wisdom

#13,669 – Repose in the Thistles

#13,670 – The Mallorn Tree

#13,671 – Lady Dahlia

#13,674 – Where The Antelope Roam

#13,678 – I’ll Fly Away

#13,241 – The Beacon

Thank you for your support,
Ami Simms

PS: Here’s a little tease for something special coming up this weekend.

May Quilt-A-Month Club Challenge

Here are the May 2013 Quilt-A-Month Club challenges! Embrace them, or ignore them, it’s up to you.

Sign up information, complete explanation, and important dates are all on the Quilt-A-Month Club page.

Theme Challenge
Hot Air Balloons

Color/Fabric Challenge
Stripes

Design/Technique Challenge
Decorative Stitches

 

AAQI Spring Roundup

More than 150 new quilts have been added to the Quilts For Sale page within the last 72 hours. If you haven’t been shopping for a while, you’ve never had more to choose from. As with everything the AAQI does, all profits fund research.

We have more than 1,600 quilts in all price ranges. Each and every one of them helps move us closer to a cure.

Yes, we still need more quilts! The deadline to register Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts is August 1st. (Please don’t wait until the last minute.)  We would like to bring 2,500 quilts to International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX (October 30-November 3).  This will be our last “face-to-face” sale and it is our biggest sale of the year. Last year we sold $75,000 of your quilts.

Quilts that don’t sell in Houston will be on our web site until December 30, 2013.

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The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative Online AUCTION is underway with 30 of the Name Quilts from “Alzheimer’s Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope.” See all the Name Quilts here.

Bid here.

You can search the transcriptions of all 10,000 names and watch videos of all 182 Name Quilts.

The April auction runs until April 10th and includes Name Quilts stitched by award-winning quilters and celebrities Charlotte Warr Andersen, Alex Anderson, Karen Kay Buckley, John Flynn, Becky Goldsmith, Libby Lehman, Sue Nickels, Sharon Schamber, Patsy Thompson, Ricky Tims and others.

This will be the last auction of the Name Quilts from the exhibit. The remaining Name Quilts will be offered for sale some time during the fall when we pull the quilts going to Houston off the Quilts For Sale page.

The May auction will go back to the “regular” format, offering 27 Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts.

The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI)  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 $904,000 since January 2006. It is run entirely by volunteers. This year is the last year the AAQI will be fundraising.

Thank you for your support,
Ami Simms
AAQI Founder & Executive Director

Quilters Stitch Us Closer To A Cure

Dr. Mi Hee Lim
University of Michigan

The quilts you make and the quilts you purchase through the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative have again moved us forward in the fight against Alzheimer’s.

Research, funded in part by a $60,000 grant from the AAQI, has helped scientists at the University of Michigan understand more about Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Mi Hee Lim and an interdisciplinary team of scientists at the Life Sciences Institute and the Departments of Chemistry, and Biophysics have been working with a molecule found in green tea known as EGCG. They recreated the molecule in the lab and found that it prevented the mis-folding of proteins found in the Alzheimer’s disease brain, specifically metal-associated amyloid-beta. It also broke down existing amyloid plaques in the brain, the pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. This information could eventually lead to a potential therapy for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Results of the University of Michigan study were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (www.AlzQuilts.org) derives most of its revenue for research from the sale of donated quilts. To date, that’s more than $904,000. If you have threaded your needle or opened your wallet for the AAQI, you have made a difference. If you haven’t, it’s not too late to contribute by making a quilt, purchasing one, or making a monetary donation.

While 2013 is the AAQI’s last year to receive quilt donations (the deadline to donate a quilt is August 1st) and the last year to sell quilts, we are not winding down, we are gearing up! We are sprinting all the way to the end of 2013 when we hope to break the ONE MILLION DOLLAR mark in funds raised for research.

The AAQI has been invited back to International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX (October 30-November 3) . This single event is our only “in person” sale. In four and a half days we can sell almost as many quilts as we sell during the entire year online!  Last year we sold 2,185 quilts for a whopping $75,000. We don’t have that many quilts in stock for the 2013 sale…..YET!

Click here to help!

Ami Simms
DISCLOSURES

What Can You Make With…?

• an 8-foot table
• a heavy wooden desk
• duct tape
• 2 C-clamps
• a big board ironing board
• black polyester skirting
• silicone pressing sheet (Goo Grabber)
• 4 large clamps
• a length of flat aluminum stock
• 2 Janet Evonovich paperbacks
• an iPhone, tripod, and power cord
• 1 shelving unit leg
• 1 black wire file folder holder
• bubble packing material
• 1 sleeve
• 8 large bull dog clips
• one garden hose winder

What can you make?! (You mean you don’t know?)

You can make a rather odd, but efficient, tool to video 7-foot long Name Quilts from the AAQI’s traveling exhibit “Alzheimer’s Illustrated: From Heartbreak To Hope.”

I’m delighted to announce that all 182 Name Quilts which contain more than 10,000 names of individuals who have or had Alzheimer’s or a related dementia, have been video

ed, documented, and transcribed so that you can search for the name you wrote or submitted for this project:  www.TheNameQuilts.wordpress.com

Below is a video peek behind the scenes of how this amazing “machine” works.

Thirty of these name quilts are in the AAQI’s April online auction. Please bid generously as all profits fund Alzheimer’s research. Yes, you read that correctly. The April auction will be the last Name Quilt auction.  The remaining Name Quilts will be offered for sale in the Fall. We will go back to auctioning Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts with the May auction.

Here is the revised schedule for 2013:

April 1, 2013: A selection of 30 Name Quilts will be auctioned during April. The rest of the Name Quilts will be offered for sale during the Fall.

May, May, June, July, August, and September:  We will return to auctioning Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts.  The 54 Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts from the traveling exhibit will be auctioned during the first 10 days of October and December.

July 2013: Last month to participate in the Quilt-A-Month Club.

August 1, 2013: Last day to register Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts. Quilts delivered to scanners after August 20 will be refused.

October 1, 2013:  Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts #1-#27 from the traveling exhibit will be auctioned during the first 10 days of the month.

October 29 – November 3, 2013: International Quilt Festival. We hope to be invited back one last time to sell quilts in Houston, TX.

November 1-10, 2013: Celebrity Invitational Quilt Online Auction

December 1 2013:  Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts #28-#54 from the traveling exhibit will be auctioned during the first 10 days of the month.

December 30, 2013: Last day Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts can be purchased online.

December 31, 2013: Quilts For Sale and Donation pages will be removed from the AAQI website and all solicitations will cease.

2014-2015: The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative will monitor research grants awarded in 2013. The AQQI web page will be left intact for at least six months. Any funds not needed to sustain the AAQI’s final expenses will be donated to research. Remaining assets will be disposed of according to IRS regulations after which time the corporation will be dissolved.

Thank you,

Ami Simms
DISCLOSURES

April Quilt-A-Month Club Challenge

Here are the April 2013 Quilt-A-Month Club challenges! Embrace them, or ignore them, it’s up to you.

Sign up information, complete explanation, and important dates are all on the Quilt-A-Month Club page.

Theme Challenge
Chickens and/or Eggs

Color/Fabric Challenge
Yellow somewhere in the quilt

Design/Technique Challenge
Gees Bend

 

Quilt Presented to Researcher at Johns Hopkins

Didi Salvatierra from BelAir, Maryland, recently hand delivered a quilt made by AAQI Board Member Kathy Kennedy-Dennis to Dr. Soane and his colleagues. The researchers, from Johns Hopkins, were the recipient of the AAQI’s 14th research grant.

Didi shares her experience below:

Xinchen Teng, Ph.D, Lucian Soane, M.D., Cierra Sing, Ph.D. student, Feria Ladha, Ph.D. student, Heather Lamb, Ph.D., Pavlik, Philip , Ph.D. student, Polan Santos, M.D., Huska, Jason, Ph.D. student, and Kyle Metz, Ph.D. student.

“My husband (the official photographer) and I met Dr.Lucian Soane in the lobby of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He was very welcoming and ushered us to the 5th floor where we met Dr. J. Marie Hardwick, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. We were introduced and then proceeded to a conference room where a group of graduate student researchers had gathered. We were served tea and cookies (a nice touch, I thought).

After introductions and pleasantries, I told them about the AAQI.  They were quite amazed at the scope of the project and the success in fundraising in seven short years.

I was left with a distinct impression that they were touched by the “personal” nature of this disease for so many people across the country. It really seemed to validate the work they are doing.

The quilt was passed around the table so everyone could have a closer look. I also took in a Priority mailing envelope and 6 small quilts of the type that have been donated and purchased to further the AAQI mission. Needless to say, these scientists were very impressed! I emphasized the volunteer nature of the organization, and its scope of being nationwide.

I also shared the fact that previous grants have been given to other universities around the country. Dr. Hardwick found that especially interesting. At the end, we took photos.

There was much discussion about where the quilt will hang in the department and that it should be encased in something that will allow both sides of it to be seen. Dr. Soane then took us one floor below where we had a glimpse through side windows into the labs where the research is conducted (using lab mice).

Dr. Soane did his university studies in his native Romania before coming to John Hopkins in 2009. He is a research physician who occasionally teaches, but the research is his passion. This was very evident as he shared with us details of cell death and how it applies to neurological diseases, such as Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and other forms ofdementia.

In total we were there almost two hours. A very worthwhile visit to such an outstanding school. I was very honored to be AAQI’s ambassador to meet the recipients of one of our grants.”

March Quilt-A-Month Club Challenge

Here are the March 2013 Quilt-A-Month Club challenges! Embrace them, or ignore them, it’s up to you.

Sign up information, complete explanation, and important dates are all on the Quilt-A-Month Club page.

Theme Challenge
Rainbow Trout

Color/Fabric Challenge
Plaid

Design/Technique Challenge
Multiple Borders

Future club members, here’s that page again: Quilt-A-Month Club!