Autism Charity Quilt

My son Jared (and his older brother James in the past) goes to Spectrum Academy a charter school for Children with Autism.  Both of my sons are on the spectrum.  They are both diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome which is a high functioning form of autism.  One of the symbols of autism they use is the puzzle piece, because they come in all shapes and sizes and are all just a little different.  All are special and wonderful.

The quilt that I have created the top for today will be for a silent auction to raise money for his charter school to put on activities and get needed supplies.  The quilt top was loosely designed from quilts found by my friend Google and my wife Tanya.  When completed it will have the same thing on the back that is around the out side edge the little puzzle pieces.

I also got my May For Me Bingo Card top completed today A tad smaller then the Puzzle above it was a lot of fun to pick the pieces.  My family plans to make 3 of these.  My wife and my daughter are also making cards they have picked most of their pieces but not as fast as I am at sewing them up.

Don't forget to go enter the blog hop giveaway on yesterdays post and also the Quilt giveaway for guessing Julia's Birthday and Birth Weight you can find links on the right hand side of my blog at the top.

Blog Hop Party Giveaway & LAFF#8

Blog Hop Over


The prize for today’s giveaway is a $25 gift card to your choice of fabric stores that can be bought online.   It could be Fat Quarter Shop or it could be Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts. It is your choice. I just have to be able to purchase it online and have it emailed to you or have the ability to send a physical gift card to you.   This can be even international so those not near me can get a gift card in their own area to spend. (2nd giveaway already going on today read below for links to that also so its a bonus giveaway day)

Today is also Friday so today's Giveaway is going to be mixed with my Link A Finish Friday this is my 8th week in a row.  I am new to quilting and set a goal to finish 52 projects in 52 weeks.  And I am on the right track with 23 finishes already this year (note only been quilting 3 months so pretty amazing if I say so my self).

More Blogs with Giveaways like mine can be found

OK for the rules of today's Giveaway.  Contest starts March 16th and lasting until March 23rd when I get home from work.


1) Be a blog follower either though GFC, RSS, or Email.  Mention how you follow.
2) Pick your favorite Finish from LAFF #7 or This week LAFF #8 I will put the linky code of both on this post so that you can easily see them.


So example entry


"I follow through GFC and my favorite quilt is Dots and Flowers on last weeks LAFF#7."


Note no way to contact you and you can't win.  I must be able to contact you for you to win.


The quilt name is the most important.  I will take all quilt names and put those names into a bowl and let Jared my 7 year old fish one out.  So for example if he drew out "Blue Zipper Bag" from last week.  All of you that picked that quilt will then be put into the bowl and one lucky winner will be picked out.


This is my rebellion on pure random number generators.  I just hate random numbers.  So no real magic too it.  Though the twist is if you don't like the quilts listed you can link your quilt finishes from this last week and pick your own quilt.  No reason for you to like mine, you can like your own.


Last but not least above I said their is 2 contests running right now.  My wife Tanya is pregnant with a baby  girl who's name will be Julia.  Up until she is born I am having a contest that if you win you get your choice of one of 4 quilts.  The rules for those 2 giveaways are on the 2 pages linked here Guess Julia's Birth Day and Time and the 2nd of the bonus giveaways is Guess Julia's Birth Weight

LAFF #8 This Weeks
LAFF #7 Last Weeks

Burst of Color - A Giveaway Quilt

Not that the sky played nice with me today, but my newest quilt Burst of Color was taken outside into the sun cloudy sky for some pictures.  I finished this quilt on Tuesday night at 9pm and then washed it and took it to work and during lunch found a park to take pictures.

The wind made it difficult to sit any where and take a picture.  Flat on the ground worked well and then on the table could not get it to hang the way I wanted.  Every few minutes..

Whoosh and off the table it would fly.  Oh well I gave it a try to take better pictures.

I did find a pretty rock to fold it up and take pictures on.  I still need to work harder at this taking picture stuff , but these are better then some.

Another shot on the rock.














Along with the quilt finish, I also received 2 packages in the mail. The first package I am not going to take pictures of because the results are a surprise.  But I will talk about it.  May For Me info here More info here the gist of the matter is we are playing Bingo.  Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting Blog offered a week or so ago if you sent her a envelop with stamps she would send you some material to help out in making the bingo cards.  So the secret for today is what those materials are, but I will now have to craft up my bingo card and get ready for this.

Oh look I found a link button on Hillbilly Handiwork's to a info page for you to get all the details.

Now on to the next package I found on the door step today (OK my desk, kids bring mail in and shake them all first, before Iget home).  I got a package from http://thepewteracorn.blogspot.com/ A month ago we had a FUGLY giveaway and I scored and won a few different items.  I did not manage to get any thing fugly though.

This package had some Christmas fabric, a panel that's sitting on top and then a bunch of fabric most of which has text and writing and novelty stuff.  This excites me.  For one reason, I don't have much fabric like this.  Two its just in time for the May For Me mentioned above.  I am going to make a cute bingo card out of some of the items listed on this.  And a lot of other cool things my mind is turning on how to use this up.

Speaking of winning there is a huge blog hop party going on this weekend and into next week.  I am going to be involved in this giveaway and would suggest that you stop by and win something from me.  Even more important, throw your name into the hat to win at all of the different sites that are giving and if you have a blog Join in yourself.  Your blog needs to be added soon if you plan to make their master list.

Linking too

WIP Wednesday #5

Today is going to be a Work In Progress Wednesday.   And will be linking up with Freshly Pieced. 

Completed Projects:

1 completes A Twist of Red (almost 2 by the way)

Ready To Quilt:

None this week the almost 2 above is completed except pictures which will be done some time today ready to show off Thursday.

Ongoing Projects:

I am done making the 5 X 5 blocks and the granny squares I only have 2 left to make the first 5 X 5 block quilt is done just needs to have pictures and be posted.

Man Quilts 2 more like Dad's Zag Zag and Paisley Parade I have enough X's sewed for 1 and half of these.

Jared's Levi Quilt - Jeans for Jared I believe I have enough material now just need to make time to finish this one.

Kathy's Jelly Roll Quilt.  Back is bought and the sashings just need to sew it together.

Planned Quilts:

2 John Deer Rag Lap Quilts one for a brother in law and one for my father in law. (started cutting blocks this week)

1 Case Machinery Lap Quilt for a brother in law. (bought the back and then used it on another project sigh need to go shopping again)

2 Bug Jar Quilts for nephews.
Tanya's Lap quilts from her fat quarters.
Autism Quilt for My sons school Silent Auction. (started cutting this one up as the auction is soon will be working on it this week)
Rose Fabric for Mother In Law's Quilt.

Totals:
Finished: 5 March, 10 February, 7 January 22 total for year
On Going Projects: 7 ish
Planned: 6 (though I keep thinking I am missing a couple)

My stash is expanding

I have to start off and say I hate face book and social networking in general.  I do not know why, but today I will have to give it a little slack.

My wife loves to read facebook.  She is not a big poster, but she follows along with every ones life (hum I love my blog, but hate facebook, I guess I don't get this any way) The other day some one our family knows puts a face book post saying that they have some fabric that their mother no longer wants that might be good for quilting.

So my wife asks me if I am interested.  Ya of course I was.  What I got is fantastic.  They commented that its old and out of date, but hey I think its wonderful.  I got a huge bin full of fabrics I went though the whole basket and all I can say is I have ideas for a few dozen projects and I will just dent the pile.

My wife's and my taste differ greatly so it is interesting what excites me and what excites her.  Their are a ton of different plaid fabric which I love (wife does not lol).  All I could think is wow that would be fun to do a quilt with 20+ different plaid fabrics.  Any way some of this material is 10+ years old some is even older and it is cool so excited.

Not to be totally out done, the mail box did bring me a surprise too.  In the mail I got my buttons from Africa I won these 2 months ago (the first crafty thing, while any thing I had ever won).  These buttons made from a company Incomparable Buttons are hand made in Africa.  They are just fantastic I won them as a sponsored giveaway from Sew Cal Gal that link will take you to the post about these buttons.  I was 1 of 10 people to win and I was so excited.  They are worth the wait.

My wife Tanya's Maiden name is Button. Buttons are exciting to me.  I want to make a wall hanging of some type out of them.  My father in law gave me a wall decoration long ago that read "Button Button who has the Button".  He pointed out to me that I got the Button and that I am to honor and take care of her forever. 

 I love her deeply.