Kids Quilting a Follow Up!

 Last Saturday I was happy to have our friends little girl back again to finish her quilt.  Last week she came over and we made her a quilt top (she did all or most all of the sewing).  Then with the help of my wife we made her a back and basted it.  We sent her home with the 3 layers basted together along with quilting frames (which I got when I first started quilting thinking that all quilts had to be tied or hand quilted) and with the help of her big sister and her mother they spent the last week and tied it all in multiple colors of yarn.

 This Saturday we made binding.  I cut the 5 strips of binding (we did 3 inches so she would have room to spare) and then after sewing the first inch and all of the corners she machine sewed on the binding.  We had to unpick a few times where she got so far off the edge that we could not pull it over but other then that rare exception she did amazing.

To finish it off my wife created a tag that said "{her name}'s 1st quilt" my wife made me scratch out her name in the pictures, but its cute.

As you can see she is one happy camper.  I wonder how many weeks will go by before I get her over again to quilt, I think I have her hooked on this.

Puppy Love

Today's post by Tanya. This is my first pieced rag quilt.  I chose to do giant half square triangles and add some appliqued flowers.

I used two flannels for the top and an off white flannel for batting and bright pink for the back. This is a really small quilt.  It only measures 32 by 32 inches.  It is for a new baby girl in our area.  This was a fun and really easy.

Also a reminder we are having a giveaway on our Facebook page please go check it out.

Getting Puzzled

Last year I made an Autism Quilt for my son's school and this year year we are making two.  One to sell and one to donate again to my sons school.  Above and below are some of the pictures of both of the quilts.  I have finished the top on one and its been basted and I even quilted it half way.

The 2nd quilt all the rows are sewn, but they are not yet sewn together.  This quilt is made from the material Tanya received at Christmas.  It is a line called Pieces of Hope a Riley Blake Design.

Our family has 2 children with Autism so this is a good cause that we support.  Do any of you have children or family that is struggling with Autism?

One last thing we are having a giveaway on our Facebook page.  We are giving away a Dr Seuss Pillow case.  To enter go to our Facebook page and like our Facebook page and share our giveaway post.

Who's There

This is a 39 inch owl quilt of the same fabric that I made a owl rag quilt of. I was going to a comparison on etsy and see how they compared.  I am just getting to listing this quilt, and the rag quilt already sold.  So much for my theory.  I used the same size six inches piece of fabric and did a two inch white sashing around a four patch and used a green flannel on the back . Richard did an echo quilting using white thread. We did a fun striped binding.  I think this one turned out super cute.

            

You can find this quilt now listed in our Etsy Store.

Link a Finish Friday #55

It is now time for Link A Finish Friday.  Today I would like to start with a big thank you to Fat Quarter Shop who has offered to Sponsor our Link A Finish Friday with Prizes.  This month's winner (February) will win a $15 gift certificate to spend at Fat Quarter Shop. 

Please remember to thank our sponsor by visiting their store at http://www.fatquartershop.com/ their blog http://www.fatquartershop.blogspot.com/ and Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/FatQuarterShop

Ship Shape - The Way I Sew It

Postage Stamp - My Quilting Addiction

Bee Block - Quilt, Knit, Stitch, Sew, Live - In Colour!

These are 3 of the wonderful quilts linked up last week.  Please share with us what you have done this week.

1) Who likes rules. Toss them out.

2) Add a link to your finish blog or where ever you show off your finishes (Not limited to quilts but I like them the most).
3) Visit a few of the finishes and comment or encourage them on.
4) Monthly random winner picked from all of the months linkups to $15 gift card from Fat Quarter Shop.

Not required but fun to do

1) Follow my blog.
2) Follow the blog of all those that link.
3) Link back to my blog.
4) No finish, go quilt and stop reading the web.

Pillar of Fire using the Helix pattern

I would like to introduce my newest quilt "Pillar of Fire" it was created using my Helix pattern (At least that is what I am going to call it for now).  A few weeks ago I talked about the creation of this quilt in the post
My Orange and Gray Needs a New Name! As such I needed a name.  I loved the suggestions and all of them would have fit great.  I am going to call my pattern Helix. This quilt its definitely a Pillar of Fire.

This quilt has more then 30 colors in it.  The blocks are 2 1/2 inch blocks of many different shades of orange, yellow,  and red.  The back of this quilt was a solid piece of orange fabric I do not remember what it was originally bought for, but it was decided that it was way too bright for it.  But I think it fits this quilt well.

In my post This, That, and the Other Thing I talked about how I was having trouble deciding what binding to use I had bought the orange binding that I ended up using and was wimping out and thinking about something else, any way long story short I got talked into using it and doing a biased binding (which I had never before done, and it will be a while until I do it again).  I sort of suck at reading directions on how to do it and I ended up with a serious mess on my hands with dozens of short pieces all sewn together.  But in the end it looks wonderful.

I quilted this quilt with my quilting of choice, an echo quilt.  Because of the small 2 inch view able blocks and echo's on all sides I ended up doing a lot of quilting on this little quilt and I think it turned out fantastic.

Last of all I want to thank my son James for taking the pictures of the quilt.  I think he gave it a neat look and feel with his pictures.  While I am thanking people, thanks goes to Ella from Throw a wench in the works for the name Helix which I will name my pattern.  Also to Karen from The Recipe Bunny for suggesting the name Pillar of Fire for the quilt. And for giving me the confidence to attempt a biased binding Elizabeth from Such as Sew and Sew and to all others who help and give me suggestions along the way.

http://amyscreativeside.com/2013/05/17/bloggers-quilt-festival-wall-hanging-quilts/

Kids and Quilts

Today I had the joy of seeing another child's joy in quilting begin.  Last week we gave her family a quilt to thank then for all the wonderful kind things they have done for us.  When we were there, she commented that she wanted to learn how to quilt.  So last Saturday we invited her over and let her chose material from out stash to make a quilt.  She picked the wild flowers that Rebecca picked out and to help tone it down some Tanya added some 5 inch solid squares she won some where in blog land.

I started out by cutting up the fabric that she picked into 5 inch blocks to match the solids that Tanya added to our mix.  I had her line up the first 4 rows first, before we started to sew.  The above picture was taken half way though.  The quilt top ended up 9 blocks wide by 12 blocks long.

She was a total natural at the piecing.  I showed her how to pick up and keep track of the blocks she was sewing and then showed her how to keep putting it back together.  I taught her how to chain piece and was impressed with her speed and skill at doing it.  In just 4 or so hours we were able to get the top pieced.

Before she went home with her quilt top, Tanya was kind enough to cut batting and a back out of flannel for her. Together Tanya, my daughter Rebecca and our new quilter were able to baste her quilt.  The plan is that she will tie the quilt with the help of her mother and sisters and when that is done she will bring it back, 

Link a Finish Friday #54

It is now time for Link A Finish Friday.  Today I would like to start with a big thank you to Fat Quarter Shop who has offered to Sponsor our Link A Finish Friday with Prizes.  This month's winner (February) will win a $15 gift certificate to spend at Fat Quarter Shop. 

Please remember to thank our sponsor by visiting their store at http://www.fatquartershop.com/ their blog http://www.fatquartershop.blogspot.com/ and Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/FatQuarterShop

Pineapples from Julie's Quilts & Costumes

Barn Raising Quilt by Busy Hands Quilts

First 2013 Quilt from Ramblings of a novice quilter

These are 3 of the wonderful quilts linked up last week.  Please share with us what you have done this week.

1) Who likes rules. Toss them out.

2) Add a link to your finish blog or where ever you show off your finishes (Not limited to quilts but I like them the most).
3) Visit a few of the finishes and comment or encourage them on.
4) Monthly random winner picked from all of the months linkups to $15 gift card from Fat Quarter Shop.

Not required but fun to do

1) Follow my blog.
2) Follow the blog of all those that link.
3) Link back to my blog.
4) No finish, go quilt and stop reading the web.

Happy Valentines!

This post is to Tanya from the Family that Loves you.  Richard, James, Rebecca, Jared, Julia.

Happy Valentines from Me and The kids to you.  Your Heart is finished (OK well its only a quilt top but hey its the 13th and my basting queen is not home to baste it.)

I did make a cute little something to go on the back.  Since you think its too big to be a wall hanging (quilt top above, not the cute little thing for the back) maybe we can add a border and make it a quilt for you.

Quilt for a friend

This post by Tanya. This is a quilt we made for friends.  They gave us tons of hand me downs for little miss Julia.  It measures about 52 by 52 inches.  We have planned on making them a lap quilt for quite a while,we just had to get Christmas over with and have some free time.  This is the first quilt that has a label made with the new embroidery machine.

We figured this was the perfect quilt to have for their family with four girls. It has a ivory minky back, so it should be great to curl up on the couch with. Overall I think the quilt and new label turned out pretty well. I'm sure I will get better with the labels over time. It is the biggest quilt I have pieced so far. It is pretty much the last of the "Twirl" fabric, OK some of the small flowers are in the quilt Richard is making.

We delivered the quilt last night. The girls all tried to claim it, their 2 year old thinks it belongs to her.  We are going to help the 11 year old piece a simple quilt top with odds and ends from our stash this Saturday.  Yep, and we came home with 3 more bags of baby clothes. I don't think I will need to buy Julia clothes in a while.

           

Love is in the air or at least that's what every commercial tells me!

While looking though things on pintrest the other day I found a link to a mini quilt of a heart done in twister blocks.  I of course had to re-pin it.  The pin came from this blog, but the true source came from Connie at www.conniekreskin.com on a blog post from a week ago.  I am not claiming originality, but I just love the idea of making different designs with the twister.  I want to make this for my wife for Valentine's Day. My wife is the type that I could not figure out if our LOVE was hollow like on the left of full like on the right.  It figures that she wants the hollow heart.  If you know Tanya you will know she HATES red/orange or any thing to do with that.  She picked out some fabric and threw out my original idea.

Yep you guessed it this will be made out of turquoise/blues.  You can see that Tanya and I have some different tastes in colors.  When I first told my wife about this I told her that she could hang it on the wall in her room.  She was thinking I was making a little wall hanging.  Unlike Connie, where I got this idea from my twister is huge hers is like 2 inch squares where mine are more like 6 inch squares.  So any way this is going to be a bit bigger then she expected.  The baby twister I made for example is 2 squares less in each direction so it will be decent size.  After I took my design downstairs and started cutting it out I realize one big oops, my design was backwards from what the twist I was doing (my blocks are spinning the other direction).  I sent James my oldest son up and this is his interpretation of what my heart should look like.

You can see that Jame's taste is closer to mine (but a little darker), but at least they are spinning the right direction so that I can use it as my pattern.  You can see that I have almost the top 4 rows made.  I don't think I have enough white so I will be shopping some time this week.

Speaking of love, Tanya played with her Embroidery machine today trying to make a label for a quilt she finished.  Above is the first try.  You can see that she was still working out spacing issues on this first try as the year ended up in our heart.  The second try looks wonderful and is sewed onto our quilt (more on that in the next post).

Just in case you guys were feeling bad that I did not get to make a pink heart Tanya did give me this pile of pink material with a beige background material to make a quilt that we will add to the Etsy Store.

Oh Tanya has a new toy or is it Richards?

What a cute little kitten.  My wife has been in need of a sewing machine for a while (since we gave hers to our daughter for part of her Christmas) We have wanted to try some simple embroidery yet needed a machine that she could do normal sewing on also.  This was a lower end machine that gave us options for both without investing too much.

This is a picture of the machine I got off the web.  Tanya had to go to work before she even got to play with it and told me to go figure it out.  It has a few built in designs and since we are partial to cats, I made a cat.

Now for questions.  Is there any free or cheaper end software that can be used to make our own embroidery designs.  I found online a demo for the high end brother editing software and my son and I were able to make a design we liked using it.  But of course demo software, I can't export my design.   It seemed easy enough.  I look up the price tag and gagged on the 900+ price tag.   Such is life.  Any way if you have experience with Embroidery let me know your thoughts.