I made Fading Memories last year as a donation quilt for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative, which is a non-profit group raising money for Alzheimer’s research (over $520,000 so far!).
My parents both suffered from Alzheimer’s. This quilt portrays them as young adults when they each served in the Navy in World War II. The fabric in the quilt is made from photos taken over the course of their lives — representing all the memories that faded as the Alzheimer’s progressed. Using family photos, I created a montage, and then printed the montage in five different values (light to dark) on fabric. With this fabric, I created the ‘cut out’ portraits of my parents from their Navy portraits.
The back of the quilt shows the photo montage along with a more recent photo of my parents.
Fading Memories – back
This quilt is my post for the Spring 2011 Blogger’s Quilt Festival.
Color On Cloth 
Wow! I’m amazed by this quilt! Such a loving tribute too!
Wonderful quilt and I love the way you interpreted the memories that are fading away.
What a beautiful memory quilt for a great cause. You’ve really completed a beautiful quilt.
Wow that is amazing!
Hi, what a great quilt filled with so many memories. It is truly a masterpiece 🙂
What a very touching tribute to your parents. It must have been emotionally difficult as well as cathartic to work on. This is an astounding art achievement as well. I am truly impressed with the execution of the different value printouts.
What a magnificent piece of art!!!
A beautiful tribute and so incredibly clever too.
Well done!!
Andi 🙂
Such a lovely quilt and
Such a lovely and emotionally moving quilt. I really like how you used photos of them for the background fabric too. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Wow. This is just amazing. I can’t believe it’s all photos. My grandma has Alzheimers as well. This is very touching.
this is by far the most touching story of a quilt I have ever seen. Not only is it a work of art but the thought and sentiment that went into it brings a tear to my eye. My mom is 85 and I am so blessed to have her with me healthy and alert! Thank you for sharing this with all of us.
Very moving statement. Thank you for sharing.
Beautiful Jean! This is a wonderful way of honoring your parents in memory and with your lovely artwork.
I used one of my AAQI quilts in Amy’s online Quilt Festival as well, so I am especially happy you did the same thing. It’s such a great way to showcase our quilts and still champion such a wonderful cause at the same time.
My own entry showing one of my own AAQI quilt donations can be seen in my post at:http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com/2011/05/6598-i-want-to-go-home-michele-bilyeu.html
I love your blog and all of your beautiful quilts are truly inspiring. But it is your work for AAQI that touches me so deeply and makes me feel a special kinship with you that only children of Alzheimer’s patients can know and understand. So, bless you for just how much you give and do for this cause!
A fantastic quilt and a wonderful tribute to your parents. Such a great contribution for Alzheimer’s research.
Hi Jean … Your quilt is fantastic! Such a wonderful tribute to your parents and an intense reminder to us all about this dreadful sickness that robs us of our loved ones. I love how you made the background fabric … so tearfully perfect for faded memories. Thank you for sharing it!
Wow! What an amazing quilt and lovely tribute! It must have been hard to let this one go!
so wonderful! I am so impressed with the concept & the execution, what a great quilt.
O my goodness; what a breathtaking quilt, particularly in light of your parents and their images in this.
very poignant and a wonderful piece of art. I blogged about my AAQI quilt at http://textisle.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/alzheimers-chance-to-do-your-part. It’s in the pending section right now, but yours has so much depth.
I’ll be following your blog Jean because I like your tutorials on fabric design.
This is beautiful work. Your quilt is wonderful. There is so much work involved in making this!