By: Laura Gilkey

The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project is a national effort developed to draw public attention to the current maternal death rates, as well as to the gross under-reporting of maternal deaths in the United States, and to honor those women who have died of pregnancy-related causes since 1982.

The quilt is made up of individually designed squares; each one designed and dedicated to one mother’s memory, and may mention the date and place of death and the name of the woman. The Safe Motherhood Quilt is the voice for women who can no longer speak for themselves.

Continue reading »

Quilters all over the US are threading their needles for a cure. Almost 4,000 quilts have been donated to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI) since it began in 2006.

During the first 10 days of each month the AAQI has a “Slow & Silent” online auction. The June auction (featuring 7 signature quilts: Barbara Bush to NPR’s Carl Kassel, plus a quilt signed by 30+ national quilt teachers) is up for bids right now.

All profits are used to fund Alzheimer’s research, so head on over and bid like crazy.

Here are a couple of my favourites:

Later this month a one-time auction of vintage quilts will be offered (June 15 to 25).

The AAQI could use your help. Donations of quilts are accepted throughout the year. Founder and Executive Director, Ami Simms hopes to take 1,000 of these Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts (just 9″ x 12″ in size) to International Quilt Festival in Houston in October. Check out the rules and help this great cause.

The AAQI is a 501(c)3 nonprofit run totally by volunteers and Quilt Power.

By: Pat Sloan

It’s Fun, it’s fast, and sometimes a tad wicked…. it’s Death By Quilting (DBQ) and it’s on the internet now! I decided we ‘obsessed’ quilters need a fun place to play quilt games. Like Swaps, One on One trades and I developed my own ultimate EXTREME game of ‘Death By Quilting’. Kind of like ‘Death by Chocolate’ only better!

The games are played at my DBQ website and forum. The site has the games outlined, start dates and even a blog were I post game results, winners and general game info.

So what IS an extreme quilt game and how does it work? The short version is that it’s a game where everyone starts the same day and the ultimate goal is to ‘knock out’ your opponents. Each person makes a project. When you finished your project you mail it to your ‘Target’. When you target RECEIVES the project in the mail, your target is then ‘dead’ or ‘knocked out of the game’.

IF your target has not already mailed THEIR project, than it is sent to the person who ‘knocked them out of the game’ to finish it. This is the EXTREME part and it’s SUPER fun!

Because of the mailing time we are grouping games by Country so there is no delay of a package coming or going to another country.

Right now we have the “Cabana Boy” EXTREME Quilt Challenge in progress. So you can come and watch it to see how it works! This is a US based game.

I am collecting names for quilters who want to play in other countries. It would be awesome to have games going on all over the world! If you want to get your name on the list for a game in YOUR country… go to this site and enter your name in your country contact list. If your country is not there email me.

Here is where you can read more…

http://www.DeathByQuilting.com/

Each game has directions …. I hope to see you there!

The table runner is the Extreme Game Number 1 project made by Cindy in TN
The tea cup is from the Mad Hatter’s Tea party both blocks made by me

Note: Thank you to Kristin for giving me permission to publish her fabulous poem on the Quilting Gallery web site. Please do not copy it. You will need to contact Kristin directly for permission if you wish to use it.

By: Kim Lapacek

I am going to try to break down for everyone the steps I took in making my woven wonder quilt. Unfortunately, I did not take pictures during the process and I have no near plans to recreate this amazing quilt. This has also been an ongoing project for the past four years so my memory is a bit hazy at parts. The best thing to remember is that you can adjust lengths and amounts to fit the size quilt you want to do…just takes a little extra math!

The Story BEHIND the MAGIC

I HATE matching my corners when piecing a quilt. I absolutely HATE it. So, one day I had this brilliant idea (or so I thought at the time)…I would WEAVE a quilt…that way, I didn’t have to worry about my corners matching. I should add here that I had this brilliant idea in the beginning of 2005.

Continue reading »

Fiberart For A Cause, fundraising for the American Cancer Society, will wrap up with two big events in 2009.

First up will be The Invitational Reverse Auction of Fabulous Fiberarts on March 24 – 26. The invited artists who have donated fiber artwork are:

Natalya Aikens, Gerrie Congdon, Marjorie DeQuincy, Rayna Gillman, Carol Larson, Linda Teddlie Minton, Susie Monday, Judy Coates Perez, Leandra Spangler, Roxane Stoner

The Preview, with all the details about the artists, the artworks, and the minimum donations for each day opens March 19. More information about how the Reverse Auction works.

The big finale event for FFAC will be Collage Mania on May 5-7. Hundreds of fiber artworks, all finished or mounted to 8×10, donated by generous artists will be offered for a minimum $80 donation on the first day, with the minimum donation dropping to $40 on the next two days.

Our goal is to raise $20,000 in three days.

It’s not too late to participate as a donating artist. The deadline to submit jpegs is April 1st. The Call For Artists and more information.

100% of the proceeds from both these events is donated directly to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause. Donors receive an immediate electronic receipt from the American Cancer Society.

Please contact Virginia(at)VirginiaSpiegel.com with any questions.

Fiberart For A Cause has donated over $165,000 to the American Cancer Society.