The Parkinson’s Quilt Project is the first global quilt project to focus the world’s attention on the nearly one million people in the US and more than 4.1 million people worldwide living with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The project aims to raise awareness of the impact that the disease has on people living with Parkinson’s along with their families, caregivers and friends and on our continued urgency to find a cure.

The Quilt gives people all over the world the chance to express their support of people living with PD and highlight their connection to the disease by adding their own personalized panel. You do not need to be a sewing expert to create a panel for the quilt. You can use paint, needlework, iron-on transfers, fabric markers or even spray paint. If you are a poet, you can write a poem on the panel or even write it on a piece of firm paper and sew that paper to the panel.

The Quilt will consist of panels made by individuals and groups affected by Parkinson’s, in honor of the cause, of their group or in honor of their loved ones affected by PD. Each panel will be two feet tall and two feet wide, and will be sewn together in eight foot sections. There will be the opportunity for groups to create both panels and sections.

The Parkinson’s Quilt will be displayed for the first time at the 2nd World Parkinson Congress in Glasgow, Scotland from September 28th through October 1st, 2010. After this initial showing, blocks of the Quilt will be available through 2011 for rent to display at PD events. Details of this opportunity will be available in 2010.

The sky is the limit with this project and it is open to anyone touched by Parkinson’s or wants to honor those with Parkinson’s. The more creative the piece the more exciting it will make the final Quilt!

Registration to make a panel opened December 1, 2009 and will end June 1, 2010.

• How to get involved
• Help raise awareness

I’m sure we’ve all seen photos of beautiful quilts and wallhangings that earn oft-coveted blue ribbons. I raise my needle to the innovative and industrious makers for their discipline, vision and expertise and for the serious eye candy and inspiration they provide for the “rest” of us, meaning the everyday, ordinary quilter.

Once while having a bit of a pity party trying to measure up, I thought about why I quilt. I quickly realized I quilt because I just plain enjoy doing so. When I quilt, I think not about recognition, rather about ordinary women who sat and sewed by lamplight to provide warmth for families out of necessity, or maybe those whose overburdened lives on dusty plains or in overcrowded tenements caused them to ache for something soothing, comforting and creative.

I like to think when they sat down for a brief moment to piece in silence free from daily drudgery, they felt the rhythm of the needle within the soul, as we all do, and it transported them to that place that nurtures all of us who find delight in this pastime. I hope they found sustenance for the will to continue day after day in spite of overwhelming responsibility.

I think about someone wrapping a crudely-constructed quilt around a sick child who could very well die, giving the only medicine available. I think about the shards of color it might provide in an otherwise drab and monochromatic existence. I think about how someone might have used quilts to say things that could not be verbally uttered, to record family history or calm nagging worries. I think about how one might have used a quilt as a shroud for a loved one, or perhaps about one whose life was mired in poverty and despair but guarded scraps like gold coins for the day when there were enough to construct a favorite pattern.

I think about how we all, their descendants, still use quilts and fabric and color as communication, icons of imperfect lives and the modern struggles we encounter and remarkably survive.

I’m not a purist; yes, if the Pilgrims had sewing machines I believe they would have used them. But whether quilts be used for utilitarian or artistic purposes, in the end I don’t think blue ribbons are the real measure of a quilter, even though I cheer for those who reach peaks of perfection. Plain or fancy, expert or beginner, I think quilts only count if they convey the soul of the quilter, speaking to those who might otherwise never hear, even if it’s only ourselves.

Isn’t this really why we all quilt?

About Me: I first began sewing at age 8 through the local 4-H program. Amish quilts drew me into quilting with their intricate quilted patterns on plain cloth. In 1979, I signed up for my first class to make a sampler. That quilt sustained me through many ups and downs and finally succumbed to constant use. Since then I’ve made countless quilts and smaller items, none of them blue-ribbon quality, but all of them lovingly made for countless occasions or for fun and every day use.

Through the years, my courage has been emboldened and my current projects are a double-wedding ring (my 2nd),

a full-size Amish quilt

and a full-size Hawaiian applique.

Please feel free to view my album on my personal blog, www.cityquilter.blogspot.com.

Want to be a guest blogger? Contact me. I’m booking for April and May now.

I’ve been watching the Olympics for the past week and a half. I knew they were coming, I knew I would want TV for the whole 17 days, I knew I would have to DO something while watching. I am very lucky to live in Canada, near the host city of Vancouver; we have 3 TV channels showing wall-to-wall coverage. My thumb is getting a workout on the remote control!

So, like a good little quilter, I planned, prepared and plotted. I would have hand work projects so I would have no guilt sitting around watching TV in the middle of the day! When I travel I find a hand work project to take with me. Should be no problem, right?

Well, the first project I planned was the redwork sampler to be made for the Quilt Cruise to Alaska I am doing in September. I will be teaching the class with Cathy Miller, the Singing Quilter and she will be working on her blocks on her upcoming tour of the United States and Canada. She will be singing and teaching in California, then across the southern states, up the East Coast, into Eastern Canada, back into the US and home at the end of June! Now that’s someone who has lots of hand work prepared.

I flitted back and forth to the computer to design my floral blocks, printed out the patterns, hunted for just the right white fabric in my stash and decided which colour of embroidery floss to use.

I began stitching just before the Games started, thinking it would take me at least a week to do the 3 blocks. Not so! I finished stitching by day 4. Here are the blocks, ready for sashing and borders. That will wait until after the Games.

PS – you can read about the Quilt Cruise here.

Since I needed another project to work on, I worked on the design for a new pattern. This is another in my Give & Take Appliqué series. I drew lots of trees in my sketchbook and found one I liked, made a quick trip to my local quilt shop to pick up some of their ‘on sale’ Christmas fabric and began tracing, fusing and cutting my test sample. It’s a good thing there are some ‘down times’ during the Olympics so I could sew the blocks and make the quilt top. Quilting will also wait until after the Games.

Next I decided that I would set up my laptop by my sewing machine and watch some of the coverage online. I am also working on a quilt for my new book. I have decided to add some of my machine decorative stitches to the quilt top. Not a lot of thought required for the first part – just stitching samples to see what the different stitches look like.

So I decided I would watch the Men’s Giant Slalom while I did my samples. I’m glad I gave it a try. I discovered I can’t watch TV and sew at the same time! It’s a very good thing I found this out before I moved my sewing machine to our family room where the TV is, or tried to move the TV to my sewing room.

So, it’s back to handwork for me. I think I’ll work on hand quilting a quilt I have had ‘on the go’ for far too long. My little bag with needles, threads, thimble, markers and scissors can sit right beside me. Who knows, I might get the quilt finished by the end of the Games!

Mishka’s note: Be sure to check out Daphne’s blog, she’s giving away a copy of latest issue Irish Quilting magazine.

After my daughter was born my Dutch mother in law Daphny came to Australia and had me instantly hooked into quilting. She taught me most of the techniques to patchwork and make quilts.

In a magazine she bought I saw that Prints Charming were printing their own fabrics, which inspired me to do the same. Having been a fashion designer for 10 years previously, I just loved printing my own designs onto fabrics and sewing them into quilts and snuggling under them or giving them away for presents.

Initially I hand-cut paper screens and printed them onto white fabrics. I then thought I might be able to make a business with the fabrics. So I took my 9 best designs and had them hand-printed in yardage in different colour ways; red, blue and pink with some designs in green as well. I took them to the Sydney Craft & Quilt show where I had a lot of happy customers. Selling out in one day of some fabric.

Now I have just released my 5th range and work with retailers around the world. My designs are more colourful now though still screen-printed. The handle is soft and of a really high quality.

I try to make a quilt design out of each of my fabric ranges to show people what they can do with the fabrics. My fabrics have a dreamy, whimsical feel and are inspired by my natural surroundings. I suppose they have a modern feel and it is my wish to encourage younger people to join in the love of quilting or even to sew, or make things. I get a lot of lovely emails from people encouraging me to continue.

This is a quilt I finished this week using al the fabrics I have designed.

Owl nesting quilt kit.

Follow me on Facebook. Read my tweets on Twitter. I write a blog adding a new post once or twice a week.

I thought I would share a few of my stories and cartoons:

Pet Free Studios are a good thing. A few years ago I was building a house, so I moved my quilting machine into my dining room temporarily during construction. One of my cats got into the house and after eyeballing the customer quilt, went instead for a huge box of quilting thread – treating it as cat litter, thus ruining a few hundred dollars worth of my beautiful new thread. Not all was lost, as it did inspire this cartoon:

Not all quilts with "Issues" can be quilted out. I still remember my very first wonky quilt that I received from a customer. Wavy borders, bias that stretched when you glanced at it, and of course, the dreaded "C" cup in the middle of several intersecting seams. I somehow survived that quilt, learned how to tame most quilts with "issues," and even got a cartoon out of the deal:

Note: when I drew this cartoon, I was sure I would get complaints from quilters who piece. Instead, they loved it and always believe it was drawn for someone else – a friend, guild member or acquaintance who couldn’t piece a straight line to save their life… I’m OK with that- so long as they don’t send me hate mail.

One day, I received a judge’s comment in the mail that contained a rather silly remark about one of my show quilts. I decided some payback was in order, time to poke fun at silly judge comments by drawing yet another cartoon:

After I posted it, I figured, this time, I would certainly ruffle feathers and receive hate mail from quilt show judges. Instead, I received many requests by professional judges to use the cartoon in their guild presentations. They actually thought it was funny! Whew… what a relief!

My funniest client story was NOT the accountant who intentionally wrote the check for half the amount of the quilting cost, then kept me talking so I wouldn’t notice until she had driven off with tires burning rubber. No, that honor goes to the quilter who came to my pet free, smoke free studio and asked me to bathe and put on brand new clean clothes and not touch my pets in the morning so that her panel quilt would not be mussed with pet cooties. This is a true story!

After I mumbled something politely about my schedule being full, I quickly sent her on her way! Wasting no time, I ran to the mirror to see if I looked like a slob; sniffed my armpits to see if I smelled; and looked around to see if my studio was a disaster or a mess. But no, all were in order, thank goodness! After a request like that, I had to wonder, you know. J

Moral of the Story: It is never a good idea to ask your machine quilter to bathe if you want her to quilt your quilt.

Here is a cartoon that I drew recently for Carol Olson, (creator of the Fine Line Ruler) which features her favorite quilting quote. This fits in nicely with the last story.

Fortunately for me, all the people I quilt for are wonderful, kind people, so they haven’t asked me to bathe at all. Here are a just a small sampling of quilts I have quilted:

Piecing by Barbara Kiehn

Piecing by Nancy Gwyn

Pieced and appliqué by Jayne Moore

Pieced by Barbara Kiehn

And here is a how-to design for all the machine quilters out there:

Thank you to Michele, for the opportunity to be a guest blogger. This is a fabulous site, and I wish I had thought of the concept first!! J

Carla Barrett
Blog: http://featheredfibers.wordpress.com/