Saturday 6 February 2016

The Autism Project

Many of you will know two things about me:
1. My son has autism
2. I am running the London Marathon (OMG) in April to raise money for the National Autistic Society (www.autism.org.uk)

I've had to think up lots of fundraising ideas, and my latest one is one of my favourites as it involves crochet. My plan is to get people (including you lot hopefully) to sponsor me actual money and also to crochet some squares for me. Yes, I'm getting people to pay me AND crochet for me - hopefully they will see it as paying to be part of a fun and worthy project :)



I'll somehow gather up all the squares and join them together into some kind of banner (like that above) which I'm then planning to donate to our local autism school in April. It ties in well with the timing of World Autism Awareness Week (http://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/world-autism-awareness-week.aspx) too.

I posted about this in a couple of Facebook groups this morning, and already there are people making squares for me - how fantastic! These are some of the photos they've posted so far ....






And here are a few I rustled up this morning .....



I am reeeeeeeaaaaaaally hoping to turn this into an international project, and it would be totally awesome if some of you, my lovely readers, whether at home here in the UK, or overseas, could crochet me some squares and also sponsor me. I am more than happy to bear the cost of postage, we would need to work that bit out, but it really would be fabulous to have a project that is truly global.

If you're interested (and I really really really hope you are!) here are the details:

- squares need to be roughly 3 inches by 3 inches (7.5 cm x 7.5 cm)
- you can use any pattern, solid granny, standard granny, rows, anything.
- each square needs to be one colour of green, yellow, red or blue. Any shade. But please feel free to make several squares of each colour if the fancy takes you!
- ideally I'd need the squares by March 17th (St Patrick's Day, easy to remember!)
- I'll email anyone who is interested my postal address
- I'm happy to reimburse for postage
- and the important bit - you can sponsor me at www.virginmoneygiving.com/jilldavidson

I don't really like asking people for money but the National Autistic Society is an amazing charity providing support, information, advice and training for families, like mine, who are affected by autism. Since our son's diagnosis we have turned to them for help,so many times, and the training course we attended, provided by the NAS was literally life-changing.

If you're not sure how this project will work please feel free to ask questions, and I really hope some of you will participate :) 

So - are you in???!!!?? Hope so!!!

Many heartfelt thanks for reading :)

Jillxxxx



Monday 1 February 2016

Sunlit Sunday : 2016, Week 2

Just a few things that made me smile this weekend .....

♥ beautiful carnations on my coffee table ♥



♥ big green squares finished - 18 of them - starting yellow now ♥




♥ new magazines, and yes one of them is knitting! Shocker! ♥




♥ needle minders arrived in the post ♥




♥ aaaaaalmost finished January motif of magical creatures stitch-a-long ♥




♥ my spring vase cosies are back out ♥




♥ next cross-stitch pattern - for hubby for Valentine's Day ♥




♥ book (which I didn't get) from my Christmas list, on offer at the Works ♥




Hope you found some sunny moments in your Sunday ♥♥♥

Jillxx