Quilt #45: The Christmas Star

As many of you know, I founded and now run a nonprofit quilt business called Quilt 2 End ALZ.

My Q2EA business goal for 2020 was to visit 20 quilt guilds throughout the year to share my story, educate others on the basics of Alzheimer’s disease, and build a community of friends to support my mission of quilting to mend the mind.

I was off to a great start in January with five presentations that went really well.

Then I took a short break to get my beloved #NuNee (I’m being sarcastic here…I know I will come to love my new knee…I’m just not there…yet).

And then a global pandemic hijacked our world.

Since I am no longer traveling the country presenting my program to groups and organizations, I am putting my quilt designs – which I’ve been using for myself for years – on paper, writing out instructions, illustrating the steps to follow, and creating patterns to share with the world.

This month and as part of a Christmas in July Quilting Blog Hop, I published my first official pattern: The Christmas Star

It is a fun design that uses a combination of t-shirts and traditional quilt blocks. It is first in my “Storytelling Tees” pattern line which I am quite excited to tell you all about in days to come. As part of our Quilt 2 End ALZ 2020 theme – Sofa Snugglers – it is the perfect size for snuggling on the sofa, reading a book, or watching a movie.

My sample quilt turned out even better than I had imagined:

I was blessed to see it put to perfect use when my sweet Angel Girl set it out to show our precious friend all the colorful stars and funny Grinch tees. Then she read aloud to Miss A.J. the book that inspired the project: How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Watching them laugh and giggle through a story I treasure, pointing out trees and puppies and silliness on every page, was a gift. And I know we can all agree: I could not have asked for more beautiful models to promote my product!!

Now the design bug has a hold of me – I truly love the idea of encouraging others with my patterns. On top of that, the more patterns I share, the more people know about Quilt 2 End ALZ. The feedback and comments have been incredibly kind, and the pattern has been downloaded over 100 times. That is very awesome as I work to build the Quilt 2 End ALZ community!

Our group is made up of quilters AND quilt admirers – which is both unique and very inspiring! And although I’m not able to travel to meet quilters and build relationships to quilt to end Alzheimer’s, I see our audience growing every single day.

If you’ve not yet joined our mailing list, I hope you will do so: CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE

I promise that I won’t overload your inbox. I would, however, enjoy telling you about current projects, showing off quilts that are for sale as fundraisers (and make gorgeous gifts), and keeping you in the loop of new Alzheimer’s information.

So, that’s the story of Quilt #45…only 455 to go in my quest to create 500 quilts…but who’s counting 😉