“A stitch in time” takes on new meaning for the collaborative quilt made and auctioned annually for the Colorado chapter of the Alz heimer’s Organization.
The centerpiece in each of the quilt’s nine patches features a watercolor painting by a Colorado patient with Alzheimer’s disease or another progressive brain disorder that causes memory loss. They create the paintings in a program called Memories In The Making.
Since 1994, about 65 Colorado assisted-living complexes, nursing homes and community centers have offered Memories in the Making classes. Patients and families find that while words can be elusive, it’s easier to express thoughts or recapture memories by painting.
“At a time in their life when there’s a lot of bad news, they can take pride when their work is chosen to be displayed in the auction,” said Joanne Fisher, who organizes Colorado events for Memories In the Making.
Some of the patients’ art is arresting. One painting of colorful trees suggests a spartan, elegant Scandinavian-influenced design.
Another, “Among the Hills,” by patient Mildred Doyle, anchors one of the nine patches in the 2010 quilt. The vibrant colors and soft lines in the painting look almost like artful odds and ends of fabric laid out to suggest a ridge line.
Each painting is digitally copied onto fabric. Volunteer quilters surround the painting with crazy-quilt frames made of donated fabric, including hand-painted ties from the 1950s. Then other volunteers embellish the quilt squares with thread and decorations, including buttons smaller than apple seeds.
This year’s quilt contains embroidered pine needles, pine cones, yucca plants and other references to the mountains that anchor each square.
Each square takes from 40 to 60 hours to complete, from quilting and embellishing to framing, and bears the artist’s name and the embellisher’s initials.
At the Memories In the Making annual art auction — June 10 this year at Invesco Field — the quilt is displayed along with the patients’ best art and paintings donated by professional artists. One year, a quilt sold for $4,500.
“What this art program does for the families and the artists is so powerful,” Fisher said.
“It means so much when they see their work displayed. In five minutes, they might forget that it’s theirs, but they are so proud when they see it.” — Claire Martin
