Tasting Table Tuesday - AAQI

Is it Tuesday again already?  How time flies!  Especially when you're having this much fun.  I spent a WONDERFUL week with my daughter and grand-daughter, although it wasn't entirely restful.  The yard sale was tons of work - as they always are - but we managed to get rid of a fair amount of "stuff".  The leftovers are all loaded in my car ready for donation and/or consignment.

Now I'm busy getting ready to quilt Haberdashery.  I finished basting it today - now I just have to clear off my table and get my Juki ready and I hope to finish quilting by the end of the week.  We'll see...

You may have noticed the "AAQI" in the title of this post.  If you haven't heard of it before, it stands for "Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative".  Created by Ami Simms, this organization sells and auctions small art quilts and uses the proceeds to fund Alzheimer's research.  It's a wonderful organization, and you can read more about it by clicking on this link.

I made and donated my first and only art quilt for them last year.  It's an 8" x 10" mini-quilt inspired by...

... this My Guy quilt that I made as a gift for my stepson,

and it was so easy/fast/fun that I vowed I would make several more.  So much for that promise...  As usual, my ideas for these small quilts always got put on the back burner because I was always busy doing something else.  Each time I finished a quilt I thought "hey - I could make a great mini-quilt for AAQI with the scraps!" but that's as far as I'd get - just a thought.  Somehow, I always find a way to finish the "must-do" projects that have deadlines attached, but the things I dream about doing always get postponed.  Am I alone here, or do you have this problem too???

Anyway, I decided to come up with a way to prioritize these important little quilts and I think I have a plan that will work.

As you probably know, I have an Etsy shop called "Cotton Cellar" and one of the categories in my shop is "Quilts".  My plan is to make and donate an art quilt to AAQI each time I sell a quilt on Etsy.  The mini art quilt will be a spin-off of the larger original quilt - either in design or fabric, whatever works at the time.  And each quilt is submitted to AAQI with a story, so the buyer of the original quilt will have the option of having me include a special sentiment in honor of a loved one if they choose.

By making this commitment public here and on my Etsy shop, I hope to have the push I need to make these little quilts a priority in my work schedule.  I'll post something here on my blog whenever I make one of these little quilts - hopefully soon - all I need now is for someone to purchase a quilt from my shop!

Here's a link to the AAQI listing for the Mini Black & Tan quilt that sold, if you're interested...

Cheers!