When Nancy Keuss Cable made the pledge to raise to join the $1,000 Promise, she had no idea that her commitment would place her in the position of donating the 9,000th quilt to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative.
How does a quilter find the courage to say, ‘YES, I’ll pledge to raise $1,000.00 for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative by creating little art quilts?’ According to Nancy, it was by giving herself permission to approach the task much as the legendary tortoise approached his race against the hare. “When I realized that I didn’t have to do it all immediately, but could enjoy the process, there was little pressure.”
Even without pressure, self-imposed or otherwise, Nancy has managed to raise $618.65 toward her thousand dollar goal. So far, 13 of her 20 donated quilts have sold. Check out the rest on Nancy’s $1,000 page or on the Quilts for Sale page (hint, hint).
The magic number 9,000 quilt is still in the Quilts Waiting for Assignment section until it is auctioned in the February online auction. Thirteen tiny pieced bright batik crosses are set against a black background and sport a bright red border and red piping, “Beautiful Batiks” is certain to be a crowd pleaser!
Nancy is a native of St Louis, but has lived many places while raising her three sons and one daughter. Even though she had tried quilting in the late 70’s, it was while her family was living in Chicago in the 90’s that the quilting bug really bit her. Nancy laughs when she remembers taking a class, “when the children were very young and I needed a night out and we badly needed quilts to keep us warm. One of the patterns that we made in class was a sailboat, and I decided to make my sons matching twin quilts using various bright colors to make each quilt different. Then I hand quilted them. It was a very long process, but I didn’t know about machine quilting.”
Fast forward to today and we find Nancy thoroughly hooked on using her imagination to create quilts for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. This is thanks in part to a speaker at her quilt guild who sparked her interest. Currently she is working on a series of 4 season quilts. She initially began with the idea for a “Spring” quilt when the Chapel Hill weather was unseasonably warm in December. Before she could finish putting eggs in the birds’ nest, she was already picturing what would happen in a Summer quilt. Then her mind was racing ahead to the other two seasons.
With that kind of inspiration and enthusiasm, AAQI can look forward to many more creative quilts and many more dollars being raised for research. Meanwhile, Nancy enjoys time spent with five friends every other week. They comprise a group of people with varied creative interests, where each person encourages the efforts of, and takes inspiration from the others. She credits her husband with being very supportive of her passion for making Alzheimer’s Priority Quilts.
Amid the active life that is part of having teenagers in the house, Nancy manages to find time to raise lovely flowers to add beauty to their home and further inspiration to her quilts.
Written by Sherry Whitford
Toano, VA
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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 $690,000 since January 2006.
Award-winning quilter and teacher Sue Nickels is a huge supporter of the AAQI. She has participated in our celebrity quilt auctions for three years running, created a quilt for our first traveling exhibit (and then donated it to the AAQI), and stitched a Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts too. Her efforts have raised almost $5,000 for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative.
