• America’s Best Quilting Projects, vol. 1 and 2, ©1994, 1995 Rodale Press
  • Fantastic Finishes ©1999 Rodale Press
  • Flawless Hand Quilting ©1999 Rodale Press
  • Choosing Quilting Designs ©2001 Rodale Press
  • Favorite Techniques from the Experts ©2000 Rodale Press
  • Great American Quilts, ©1997, 1999 Oxmoor House
  • Through the Needle, various issues since 2004, published by Bernina of America.
  • Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine, October 1997, p. 9; June 2001, pp. 54-55., Dec. 2004, pp. 38-41; 81, 2010 Wall Calendar
  • IQA Journals , award winners
  • NQA Quarterly, award winners
  • AQS Wall Calendar, January, 2000; April 2004
  • AQS Engagement Calendar, 1996
  • AQS Journals,  award winners, 1999 and 2003
  • Back cover, AQS Quilt Show video, 2003
  • Numerous Quilting Today, Traditional Quiltworks and Miniature Quilts magazines, February 1999 to 2004, Chitra Publications
  • Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece book and traveling exhibit 2006-2010 by invitation
  • Participant in Bernina artist and teacher program since 2004
  • Quilter's Home magazine, February 2010, p. 28

Confusion © 2006
During his last year at Kansas State University, my son Kerry’s part time job was being a live-in companion to an early-onset Alzheimer’s patient, Micheal. Kerry and Micheal enjoyed cross-country bike rides, coffee at the corner coffee shop every evening at
9 p.m., and listening to classical music. Kerry researched information about the disease and its progress, and in the process, learned much about the brain and how it works. I was very proud of Kerry when I observed how kind and patient he was with Micheal. Not many young men would take on such a challenge.

When I was invited to participate in the Alzheimer’s Invitational Quilt Exhibition, I didn’t know where to start with this project. I really had to step out of my box to make an Art Quilt. For nearly 6 months, I toyed with all kinds of ideas, but nothing came together for me, so I decided to consult Kerry for inspiration.

After giving my query a little thought, Kerry responded that if he had to summarize Alzheimer’s disease in one word, that word would be ‘Confusion’. He related how his friend Micheal struggled daily with time and dates, routine grooming tasks, eating meals, and dressing himself. Common-place things became mysterious objects, as their uses escaped him.

In the middle stages of the disease, Micheal still remembered how to ride a bike, although he had to be assisted with putting his helmet on and negotiating the stop signals of the city’s streets. His vocabulary and conversational skills remained strong, but he would remember nothing of his talk with Kerry soon after, and the same conversation was repeated many times during the course of a day.

I chose to use a Lone Star pattern as the basis for my quilt. Often the Alzheimer’s patient feels isolated and lonely. The upper portion of the quilt illustrates early stages of the disease, when only one or two pieces of the puzzle are confused. Mirror imaged question marks form a heart. As the patten progresses downward, pieces begin to be mixed up, left out, transposed, and later still, mis-shapen and distorted, kind of like things that don’t quite make sense anymore. The last events and experiences to disappear from the Alzheimer’s victim’s mind are the earliest and deepest memories. These long-term memories are represented by the central purple diamonds which are the last to become distorted and missing. The lower portion of the quilt represents later stages of the disease when memories fade and become nearly unrecognizeable, as the pieces that appear to lay in a pile on a table.

Elsie M. Campbell, quilt artist

Confusion © 2006