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Opal's Cherry Tree

Ellen White - Saint Augustine, FL USA

Width: 8.5" Length: 10"

Designer: Original design

Materials/Techniques: Batik background with hand carded and dyed yarn that was couched into place. Hand embroidered. I used beads from a broken necklace of hers that my mother wore in the 1950's.

Artist Statement: I made this quilt to honor my mother, Opal Eiford.

Dedication: To Opal Eiford, my mother, who died from Alzheimer's disease.

It was #11,239 and raised $60 for the AAQI.

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Ellen White, a prolific Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt maker, donated Opal's Cherry Tree to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative® (www.AlzQuilts.org).  The AAQI is a national, grassroots charity whose mission is to raise awareness and fund research. The AAQI auctions and sells donated quilts, and sponsors a nationally touring exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer's disease. The AAQI has raised more than $973,000 since January 2006.  Their goal is to raise $1,000,000 prior to the end of 2013.

Ami Simms of Flint, Michigan is the founder and executive director of the AAQI, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit operated entirely by volunteers. She is a quilter. Her mother had Alzheimer's.

The AAQI currently sponsors two major programs:

Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope

The first is a nationwide traveling quilt exhibit called "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope." It features 182 "Name Quilts" six inches wide and seven feet tall, containing the names of more than 10,000 individuals who have or had Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. Hanging among the Name Quilts are 53 small format art quilts (9" x 12") that each interpret Alzheimer's in some way. The exhibit toured the United States until September 2013.

Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts

The second is the "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts" project, so named for the urgent need for research dollars and the hope that quilters across the country would make participation in this project a priority. These small quilts fit inside flat rate cardboard Priority Mailers from the USPS, which the group uses to ship quilts to winning bidders after monthly online auctions. (In fact, all of their quilts are mailed in USPS Priority Mailers).

Ellen's quilt was a Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt and it went up for sale at the International Quilt Festival in Houston in 2012.

Linda Ebaugh, the daughter-in-law of Pam and Harry Herrick of Orleans, MA, purchased Opal's Cherry Tree.  She says, "As far as choosing Opal's quilt, I was drawn to the cherry tree because I had them at my home outside of Pittsburgh growing up, and I always had a cherry pie instead of a birthday cake for my birthday.  It's my favorite food.  When my husband-to-be brought me to Cape Cod, seeing the giant cherry trees in Pam and Harry's yard was kind of a subtle reassurance that I'd fit in with my new family. While they hadn't been picking the cherries much in past years, when I set about getting out the ladder and picking, Harry was the one who least thought I was crazy and the only one to join in with me for the pitting.  Since that time, I've given him various cherry pitters for Christmas presents and, once, a fruit picking attachment for an extension pole (from Buffalo Hardware here in Houston), which didn't actually work that well."

She was hoping this quilt would provide Harry with some memories, as he has Alzheimer's.  Harry is the former headmaster of the Dedham Country Day School (DCD) in MA.

(Linda and Harry pitting cherries.)

Pam e-mailed a note to Ellen and told her how excited she was to get the quilt. Ellen forwarded this note to Kathy Kennedy-Dennis, who lives in Houston and works with Ami Simms.  Kathy then wrote to Pam and asked her if she might know Carolyn and Marion Kennedy (Kathy's sister and mother) as they also live in Orleans, MA.  It turns out that Pam knows Kathy's sister, Carolyn, the director of water quality testing in Orleans, as they both attend water quality meetings.

Not much later, Kathy and her mom, Marion, met up with Pam in MA.  They took a picture of the quilt with the cherry trees.

Kathy took a researcher quilt (a quilt that the AAQI gives to researchers that receive grant money) with her on the visit, as she wanted to add Harry and some other's names to the quilt.

(researcher quilt)

Sometime after this, Marge Farquharson, who has purchased a number of quilts from the AAQI, was contacted by Ami to drop off the researcher quilt to the Boston University Medical Center. 

Marge has her own perspective on Opal's Cherry Tree.  She first became involved with the AAQI in 2010 when she convinced her quilting group, The North River Appliquers, to make quilts to be sold by the AAQI. Their group made 34 quilts, and these were among those held and sold on-line and in Houston in 2010. Their quilts contributed $1500 plus to the AAQI. 

(The North River Appliquers with Marge on the left in the black t-shirt.)

Harry had retired when Marge joined the faculty, but she had met him and Pam many times at DCD events. There is a framed picture of Harry that hangs in the school library, right next to her circulation desk. His name is also inscribed on a quilt that she made with a group to hang in the school. DCD even has a building named after Harry, Herrick House.

(Harry reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas to his grandson with Linda.)

Marge headed to Boston to present the AAQI quilt to Dr. Ikezu and the story of Opal's Cherry Tree came full circle.

(Dr. Ikezu's quilt made by Kathy Kennedy-Dennis and presented by Marge.)

From Florida and Texas to Michigan and Massachusetts, Opal's Cherry Tree touched many lives, Ellen White the quilt maker, Pam & Harry, their daughter-in-law, who purchased the quilt, Carolyn and Marion Kennedy who were friends of Pam & Harry in Massachusetts, Kathy Kennedy-Dennis, the AAQI Quilt-a-Month coordinator, Marion's daughter, Carolyn's sister and Cape Cod visitor, Marge Farquharson, and of course, Ami Simms.

If you will be attending the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX, October 30 to November 3, please stop by the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative booth in the Exhibit Area and purchase a small quilt like Opal's Cherry Tree.  The AAQI will be bringing more than 2,500 quilts to sell and each one has a story.  Quilts are also available online at http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltsforsale.html.