The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI)
Raising Awareness & Funding Research Through Art
Questions? Email us or call: (810) 637-5586 --- ![]()
Jean Cheszek
Palatine, IL USA
Width: 9" Length: 12"
Materials/Techniques: Photo, edited in Photoshop, and then printed on fabric and machine quilted.
Artist Statement: My mother's parents were avid gardeners, especially in their retirement years. My mother was also an avid gardener, a writer of gardening books and a photographer, and my father liked working in the yard. I didn't inherit any of their gardening talents, but my mother got me started taking photographs when I was about 10.
From my grandmother's journals: "1940 -- August afternoon—Sitting in the swing shaded by the apple tree and sipping an afternoon cup of coffee accompanied by a sandwich. Been weeding. Recent rains gave the weeds a start. Flower beds looked almost beyond hope but now after several hours work what a difference. The pansies freed from the weeds are nodding their heads at me stirred by the breeze—how real their faces look—remind me of Show White’s little dwarves." I made this quilt starting with a photo that I took of a plain, white, somewhat motley daisy growing in my back yard. Through the magic of Photoshop I turned the daisy pink -- my mother would have loved playing with digital photos. I finished the quilt by printing the photo on fabric and then adding a lot of fun thread work.
Jean Cheszek
Dedication: In memory of my parents, Charles and Marion Schroeder, for whom every stage of life was interesting, even Alzheimer’s.
This quilt has Fast Finish Triangles.