January progress, February's beginning

Happy new year!

Sorry that I'm late in wishing you a great new year! I'm hoping to feel better enough that I can get more done and create some more finishes.

This past month of January, my goal was to finish quilting the two mini ModaLove quilts.

I've also been able to spend more time quilting, more days of this past month, than I have in a very long time. I haven't been feeling well for such a long time, and I'm trying to push through it.

The other part of my goal for January was to finish the quilting on the Autism Swoon for my son. I didn't finish, but I feel like I'm making a lot of progress. 

A couple of weeks ago, after I pulled it out, my son came  this up to me and said "Mom, are you going to finish my quilt now? I really need a bigger quilt before I'm a big teenager!"

I laughed and asked "Did you just remember about it, or did you see that I pulled it out to work on it again?"

"I see you're working on it again! When will it be done?"

He just turned 10, and the baby just turned 3, so that means I've been working on this quilt for just over 3 years. Yikes.

This big quilt is really heavy, because my husband insisted that I use double batting. Not only will it be warm, but it will feel a little like a weighted blanket, which has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in people with autism.

This is great, but it's also made it difficult and slow and energy-zapping to push and pull it through my little Bernina to quilt it. Sometimes it just hasn't been fun, and sometimes I've wanted to cry. I haven't touched it for at least a year or more, because my health problems have zapped my energy and motivation and mental health. I know what's going on now, and trying to get treatment, so I'm determined to finish this quilt!

ALYOF--April finish

Whew! I squeaked in under the wire. Me and my perfectionistic attitude always somehow worked well with a tiny bit of pressure from a deadline. Even if it's a self-imposed deadline!

Here is my finished goal:

My Hugs & Kisses quilt top!

Oh dear. The lighting in the basement hallway doesn't do it justice, with nighttime, and my back was up against the wall with no more room, so I didn't get the quilt top completely in the camera frame.

I wanted to press it, but I used the air-soluble purple ink pen to mark the seamlines down the sashes to match with, and I'm afraid of setting the purple ink into the white fabric with the iron.

Statistics:

--Pieces of Hope 10" stacker by Riley Blake. Autism and Autism Speaks-themed fabric.

--Kona White solid background

--pieced with White Gutermann 100% polyester.

--approximately 53x66" unfinished

--pattern: Hugs & Kisses by Quilt in a Day

Linking up again with Sew Bittersweet Designs A Lovely Year of Finishes

http://blog.sewbittersweetdesigns.com/?p=4747

Autism Awareness Day

My son has autism, so this is my light.

Yesterday, I started cutting up the Pieces of Hope layer cake that I've been saving. Pieces of Hope by Riley Blake is an autism-themed fabric line. Lots of stripes, dots, puzzle pieces, and words of inspiration to describe autism. Each purchase of the fabric donates money to Autism Speaks, the national organization for autism awareness and research.

This layer cake is going towards teacher gifts for my son's teacher and aides.

Swoon #6

Hello.

I just finished my Pieces of Hope Swoon block #6. Only four more to go!

The pattern calls for 9 blocks, in a 3x3 layout with narrow sashes. I'm trying to decide what to do with block #10.

Should I piece #10 into the backing of the quilt?

Or make a throw pillow to match the quilt?

The beautiful blue-on-blue puzzle piece is the symbol for Autism Speaks, the national organization that promotes research about Autism and Autism Awareness.

The symbol is a puzzle piece, because so much is still unknown about Autism. Autism is a "spectrum", meaning the disability has a wide range of manifestations, yet each person who has Autism displays similar groups of traits and behaviors.

I get more excited as each block takes shape. 

Peteetneet Quilt Show

I woke up late, still exhausted, and feeling chilled, again. What is up? The antibiotics?

I finally got ready for the day and headed out around noon, telling my boys the rules for quilt shows as we drove. 

Walk, Hands to self, No Hiding, Stay with Mom. The Peteetneet building is only 2 miles away. I didn't get a lot of time to enjoy the quilts because of needing to keep track of my boys.  At least they followed some of the rules I gave them. They did enjoy the quilts in their own way, I guess.

My favorites:

--beautiful paper-pieces stars with Patriotic quotes in alternating squares, with Patriotic colors, made to honor a young man in our community that just died in the war in Afghanistan and just came home to be buried last week. Another quilt was made for his family right next to that one, with his picture in between.

--a beautiful Fireworks quilt, pattern by Camille Roskelly. I don't know who made it, but it was gorgeous in sunset oranges, soft pinks and whites, and bed-sized.

And I have to say, it felt good to see my own work up on a wall in a show. And it was gratifying that my little boys recognized the ones I made!

Pardon the fuzzy pictures and poor lighting--the building is very old, and I guess the volunteer hostess doesn't know how to focus an iPhone camera even after I showed her.  :-)

After the park, lunch at the park, and a chocolate milk run to the store, we got the mail. Hot and windy day. My package from Intrepid Thread came!  Julie had some great sales for Father's Day, and I couldn't resist. And she shipped them so quickly!

She always sends a cute charm square or two...I feel like it's my birthday in the mail because she wraps my fabric up in tissue paper and a pretty fabric bow and card!

I took the picture and realized my order was all blue this time. LOL. More of my favorite Cuzco, and blue puzzles from Pieces of Hope Autism. The blue puzzles print will be pieced with red puzzles print for the back of the Swoon quilt.

What a great day, but I'm bushed and time to lay under the fan and chill with the boys in front of a movie for the rest of the afternoon.

Pieces of Hope Swoon

Along other my husband's station quilt (see Maltese Dresden), my next quilt will be my son's Autism quilt. It will be twin-sized, and Thimbleberries' Swoon pattern. (aaagghhh, all if a sudden, I can't find the pattern; it's got to be around here somewhere!)

It will also be made from the Pieces of Hope Autism collection by Riley Blake.  I love this collection! I just have a wild urge to snap up as much of it s I can, because it's almost gone! Riley Blake did just announce they'll release Pieces if Hope 2 next February 2014.

I've thought and thought about what background to use, because the collection is such a pretty rainbow. Then I thought, why not red? Red is my little guy's favorite color. I am just worried that the orange prints will either clash with the red background or blend too much. Now, looking at the picture, I'm thinking it will be alright.  Your thoughts?????!

Maybe make a sample block to try it out?

I'm also thinking that I want the backing to be the red puzzle print on the left, above. I need a lot more, so If you find any, will you send some my way?

Then I was trying to figure out some color combos. Each star needs two fat quarters + background. Fun, huh?

Good fabric day!

Hi all!
What a fun day for me today: fabric fun!

While doing morning cleanup chores and sweeping the porch to get ready for Christmas lights, the mailman brought my package from Craftsy! I got a great Black Friday deal on the Riley Blake "Pieces of Hope" fat quarter bundle and the companion layer cake! That's the fabric line that with every purchase, a portion of money goes to Autism research and Autism Speaks, the national organization for Autism. Autism Speaks has chosen puzzle pieces for its logo, since so much of Autism is a "puzzle", i.e. so much is unknown and not understood about Autism. This cute line features puzzle pieces and inspirational words, cute stars, stripes, and dots. I'm thinking using the Swoon pattern, since the preview of the pattern online states it uses 18 fat quarters and some yardage, and the bundle has 20!
If you didn't know, my son has Autism.

Then I got the Christmas lights up. I must have done something different than last year, because they didn't extend across everything that I did last year. Growl* my husband wants me to wait until payday to get more.... But he can be such a Humbug when it comes to decorating for holidays.

Then I mailed off the Quilt U Be Mine piece to the next person.

Then I went to Walmart and found some cute little fabric bundles of pinks and purples, which I will use to supplement the next round of Quilt U Be Mine. Also, I found a remnant of a medium green viney print. Whee!