Look what I found when I got home

For those that do not know what this is this is one of the Traveling Stash  This one came to me by 

From Blank Pages   My kids are bugging me to open the box so will go do that but wanted you to know that it has arrived and in a few days will talk more about it.  If you do not know what the Traveling Stash is visit http://vroomansquilts.blogspot.com/ She is great at keeping track of the stash and talks about it often.

Block Swaps and Winnings

 I got my March Block today from one of my block Swap Partners Cathy Love this wonderful Pin wheel block.

 I won one of the Blog Hop Giveaways from Margarita they are some amazing hand dyed fabrics they are going to be fun to use.  I love the bright and flashy materials so this will be fun to find a project to make out of them.

I was also able to wrap Julia up in a quilt that she got from her Grandmother.  She looks so cute in it.


On our winners they both picked the same quilt (and I believe the same 2nd quilt) waiting for one more email back and then will notify both who got which quilt (need to hold a drawing for it as they both picked the same quilt but with baby and all I am some what distracted)   Will get that all wrapped up in the next day or so.

Tanya (My Wife) says my new Quilt top is ugly!

 I am sure you all are looking at this picture and saying that is not ugly.  No this is not the top she called ugly.  This quilt when finished (its only a top right now) will be given to my wife's Grandmother she is a wonderful lady that has taken good care of her 8 children, 30+ Grand kids, and who could count the number of wonderful great grand children she has (Julia will be one of these). She is around 85 and still lives at home (with help now as she cant see well any more).

Tanya and I plan to make this quilt and one similar to it for our grandmothers this year they have done so much for us and they deserve something sweet in return.

 Now for what my wife calls hideous (now she is claiming she only laughed at it) Sorry for the bad lighting this time of day its hard to get good pictures with light though window.  You will remember a while back I got some material from a neighbor.  And that I dug though looking for plaids (ya ya Gingham)  Any way I pulled them all out of the box and took the summer fun type and made hot pads.  While I made a top out of the others.

 I cut a strip or 2 from each of the Gingham prints and then sorted them into piles and while shuffled them like cards to make a random selection of prints.  The color ranged from brown, to blue to a cool orange and a red.  In my defense I think they all went to gather great and when my wife agreed they worked together she was having a contraction so was not really doing any thing other then telling me to get lost.

 So once I got them sorted I sewed them together.  I wanted to make a wavy pattern (and from learning the hard way with the hot pads) I had to turn on angle each row as I sewed them together.  Its not as easy as it looks to sew a diamond together but by the last row i got pretty good at it.

 Snow ball one of our cats (can I say I hate this cat?) Decided to come visit me.  It likes to circle my legs and rub against them and being allergic to cats (yes I live in a house with 5 cats) it while gets on my nerves.  I had the kids toss it out a couple of times.

 But the darn thing kept coming back.  It loves me and I just cant figure out why.  I hate this cat.  I love most of our others.  Its nothing it does other then it likes me and it makes me itch more then any other cat.

I was able to get the cat to leave me alone long enough and I finished my quilt top.  I showed it too my wife and all she could do was laugh at me.

I cant decide which way I like the quilt going right to left or up and down on the waves.  Let me know which you like best?

Now I like this quilt and my wife hates it.  If I cant find a better home for it I will finish it and put it in the car so that we have a quilt while traveling.  The real reason I made this quilt was not for the quilt its self.  I want to make a quilt in my bright oranges (yes more things Tanya hates) but before messing it up this was my practice run to see if my crazy ways will work and I think it turned out great.

On a good for wife note I tonight after making my ugly top (as Tan calls it) I cut the sashings for my sisters quilt and got the first row sewed together.  The blocks are made from Good Fortune Jelly Roll which I won from January Finish Linky party at Such a Sew and Sew if you have not been by her site go visit I love it and please link up your finishes she has some great prizes offered each month.

To spray or not to spray that is the question?

Today I did it again (this time with better results) I tried spray basting.  I read a blog post/ {not a tutorial} over at amylouwho about spray basting.  It made me decide to give it a try.  I went big and basted this baby quilt to the right (I'll talk more about that in a sec) My autism quilt, my may for me bingo card (see the link on side bar for more info for that), and 2 more of my fugly runners.  So a total of 5 items.  This time I took help with me, I dragged Tanya my pregnant wife out into the yard on our picnic table and we were able to do this.  I think its WAY!!!!!!!!! easier then what I was doing.  This time when I was done I went shopping and gave them time to dry a tad so they were not sticking to every thing.  I have to say I was able to quilt this baby quilt and the bingo card with Zero trouble (OK I lied the bobbin case that is messed up ate my thread and caused me to put a couple new shinny holes in it (good thing its plastic) I sanded out the rough spot, giggled a little and kept sewing. I can't wait tell the new bobbin cases show up so I don't have to keep fighting this any more.

Before any one gets too excited about this baby quilt I made, Walmart did all the hard work.  This was literally the first thing I ever bought.  I figured I could hand tie the quilt and I would be able to have a quilt made around Christmas time.  Long story short it took me 2 months to get my quilting frames (I got my mother in laws shipped up to me from southern Utah 300 miles south of me in Kanab).  It has a funny story though, we bought this off of a bolt in Walmart and the guy at the table cutting was while not so sewing smart.  The top was suppose to be 1 yard.  Some fool had cut the previous top off about 5 inches from the end and the guy measured his one yard and was about to whack my baby quilt 5 inches from the side.  we tried to show him that its a quilt top and he needed to cut it farther.  He charged me for 1 1/4 yards because I wanted more lol I just wanted my full top.

So I have a question, Do you spay baste or do you pin baste?  And why.  The {not a tutorial} was great and if you don't spray baste I suggest you to read it and then come back here and give me your thoughts (oh ya comment on hers too we all love comments) .  I am not sold one way or another, but I want to be and I need some good reasons to do it one way or the other so please give me your 2 cents on the matter.

I am in Bliss

My wife had to laugh at me today I got a pink package in the mail.  You would think after her dealing with the fact my favorite color is purple that pink packages would not be a issue.  And better yet inside of the pink package was the wonderful charm pack domestic bliss.  My wife already could tell you which ones I would like  before it even showed up (she goggled it when I first won). 

Thanks goes to Vroomans Quilts if you have not been too her site I highly recommend it.   One of the things I find neat on her site is she is keeping track of the Traveling Stash boxes and keeps you up to date on who is currently holding giveaways to win this if you have not been to her site go check it out.

Winner Announced Leap Day Blog Hop

 OK today has been a long day, we have moved from one office to another at work and during the middle of our move we had a server outage on our live servers.  Busy exhausting day, did not expect to be doing this so late, but better late then never.  With the help of my wife Tanya we identified 12 names that had chances to win the first place prize.  If you notice the list here are those names from the post.  You will see that Irina had 2 entries because she got a 2nd guess for hosting a giveaway but did not name a 2nd quilt so she got 2 guesses on first quilt.

 

I folded up all the papers and put them in a bowl.  I mixed them around and then had my son Jared mix it again and pick one.

Here is the live action shot of Jared grabbing the piece of paper when I was editing the images I noticed how dirty his face was and I want to point out I am a good dad and normally wash his face.  So I went and looked at this mornings picture to verify that yes it was clean.  Then what do I notice his shirt is on backwards.  I check tonight's picture and yes dad dressed Jared funny sorry Tanya is pregnant and dad is taking up the slack and not doing so good.

So finally we get to show the picture.  Drum Roll .... The winner is Elizabeth of Such a Sew And Sew I was so happy to see her as the winner.  She was the host of this great day of giving and it is great that she won.  I will post the choices that the 2 winners gave after I get back answers from both of them.  Oh ya I never said the name of the 2nd place winner that would be a good thing to do.    Connie from Quilting By the River was our 2nd place winner as the only one to like Hearts and Flowers 2.  Congrats Connie.  I will make another post with the exact winnings when I get emails back from both of them.

One last note of the day my son James is having surgery tomorrow at Primary Children's Medical Center to remove a bar that has been in his chest for 3 years to fix a sunken chest that he had causing him to have difficulties when he exercised.  If any of you like minded people could keep him and my family in your prayers I would appreciate it.

Fugly Wins and a Blog Hop

 I promised my self that I was not going to stay up too late tonight getting my blog post in for the day so I am home from work and going to do it first thing.  And to my delight piled high on my desk was 3 packages.  What fun it is to get mail.  I use to hate looking at the mail and now I love it.

The first to be opened was this wonderful fabric to the right from http://smalltownstitcher.blogspot.com/

Like every one of my fugly wins that my wife Tanya has seen, her first words is that's not fugly.  And then of course she lists the project I could make it into.  This one is destined to be a part of a quilt for her mother.  Her words is that looks so much like my mom.  If we added blaw blaw blaw (wait I have to admit like most men when the wife starts going on you just start saying ya ya and nodding the head at the appropriate time).  But hey as long as she has a plan I am happy and I am sure she will smack my head for not listening to all the important details she was sharing.  But she will re-remind me of them later.

 Next up Amy from http://threadrobin.blogspot.com sent me the bricks and batik fabric.  It is very pretty and I love it.  My wife is not a bright and flashy fabric person and this is not on her list of likes (in fact any thing I have suggested similar she drags me in another direction). My my mind is calculating a good project for it.  Though my first thought is wow some of those would look neat in my 2 1/2 cuts for my granny quilts and other 5 x 5 blocks and depending where the cut ended up it might be in purple, maybe in blues or pinks or yellows and a few others (oh ya more colors on the same material on other side).

As for the bricks the plan is to make some "Love At Home" Decorations.  We have been trying to work with our kids over the last few years to convince them that if they love each other dad will have less of a desire to clunk their heads together.  Has not worked so far but maybe some decorations will help.  My wife has even offered to hand sew the text on for me and do other things.  I am unwilling to hand sew its not my thing but a plan is in place.  If you remember right last week I got some clouds too that would go great with the little houses.  So maybe in a month or 2 will have something amazing to show you.

As for the last package it was HUGE I had never though about it when I won these, but man it takes a monster envelope to shove rulers in.  I won these rulers in the Craizee Corners Nifty Notions Cut for the Cure Giveaway One thing I love is rulers.  I now have 2 long ones one 6 inch wide one 8 1/2 wide.  I also have to smaller squares 6 inch and 8 1/2 the long ones I use to cut the half width of fabrics (folded so cutting full length across.  Then the littler ones to cut to size.  Also have a 12 1/2 inch square and then 5-6 other strange shapes.  So this will be a great addition.

Last but not least I want to mention the Leap Day blog hop.  As soon as I get done with this post I will go write my post for that day.  I have a giveaway that I am excited about.  More info on the hop by following the button on my side bar or this button here.




Don't be a fly on the wall for this hop, get involved.  It only lasts one day and if you miss it you can't get involved for another 4 years.

I WON, the Wife won more

Today I would like to start out and say "I WON!!" On February 2nd  on this post you can read ffmq-winners  " Prize #4, Fat Quarter Shop $50 Gift Certificate goes to #1, Richard of Richard Quilts" I was so excited and yet so unsure of what to get.   My wife is finally getting more excited about this quilting and I told her to look around and find what she wanted and that she could pick what we got.  She picked this Fat Quarter bundle called Twirl.  My wife is so funny, she spent $120 on this bundle so I ended up paying about $70.  So not only I won, but she won from me.  I took 2 pictures of the bundle one with my cutting blade so you could see how huge this stack is.  We definitely have a little material to make her a quilt.

One good note in this is I was able to get 2 more black prints in this bundle that I chopped up Thursday night for my Rag Quilt that my wife insists I make next.  Something about I need something for myself, before I make something for someone else.  After cutting up the blocks and not sewing x's in the ones she pinned she sat down for the first time and sewed.  Yes my wife has finally caught the bug and turned into a quilter.  YEA!

Besides what my wife sewed, Thursday I spent the night making the first "Swap" Block I have ever made.  I stressed over this a little too much I think.  I have not mailed it yet, going to do that tonight after work. Or during lunch.  I have joined 2 swaps.  One here in the USA and one in Australia  http://quiltingblockswapsaustralia.blogspot.com/  My USA swap will start next month but I was lucky enough to make it into this months swap on the Australia one my first swap I get to do this month.  Any way the last picture of today is my sneak peak for the block I completed.  Off to The Netherlands it will go.  I cant wait to see what shows up for me.

Addition to original post so one more picture. While the last day has been busy while waiting for Friday to pass with my Link A Finish Friday I got a package in the mail.  I was excited to win a new Quilting Book "Loose Change". Which gives many neat ideas to make quilts from Nickels, Dimes, and Fat Quarters.  From what I have read so far its got some great ideas.  I was able to get this book from winning a Giveaway here http://simplifyandquilt.blogspot.com/2012/01/300th-post-giveaway.html I enjoy reading all of the blogs, I now have on my blog list and would suggest if you have never been over to Andra's blog that you stop by and check it out she has made some marvelous quilts.

Not the day I planned.

Today I had all these huge plans to get one of my 2 dragon fly quilts finished or at least most of the way done. The plan was today show off the quilt or maybe have it or something finished.  At around 2 I got a call telling me that my dad had a stroke and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  Long story short and 5 hours at the hospital later, he only has a infection and is being shipped back to his nursing home.  So instead of a quilt to show off you get to see my dad.  He is better and home I came.






What do I find when I get home but a package from the "Fat Quarter Shop". The other day I won a Jelly Roll from Such a Sew and Sew on the January Finishes Linky party.  I had a great month with 7 finishes.  And of course the win.  Now I need suggestions on what to make with my new Jelly Roll.  I plan to make a quilt using the idea found on a quilt from  http://www.redpepperquilts.com/ called Quilter's Palette (that link will take you to the quilt) It has a 5x5 block in diffident color ways it will take me forever to get enough to do a full quilt but going to use some on that.  I am looking for any suggestions on what to use the rest of the Jelly Role on. Now that I am home, I think I am going to make a stab at my Dragonfly quilt. Oh and one last thank you to Such a Sew and Sew.  I have won 3 other items this week also will link back and show them off when I get them too.  But this is my 2nd win ever, but the first to show up so YEA!!  At some point in the future I plan to have some type of give away if you have thought or ideas to make it fun let me know.  Think small though, I am new and don't yet have a lot to give.

Some one hide my CC!

I am officially a Quilting Addict and some one needs to stop me!  Wait don't stop me I am having too much fun.    I am new to quilting so lack the stash that others might have after years of quilting. Last week in my post The need for a stash!! I talked about my Trip to Joann's and my million year wait at the cut table.  While I did not learn from my mistake last week.  I again visited Joann's on the weekend.  But while you see I had this 20% off every thing coupon on my phone (android Joann's App that gives weekly coupons) and I had this 50% off coupon (paper coupon). And as it turns out they are having 40% off a lot of material.  So I sort of had to go shopping.  In my own defense, I did take my wife to visit my LQS (oh ya learned a cool term and had to share it) before I visited Joann's,  I visited The Material Girls Quilts they are not the closet quilting shop or even the second closest too me but hey I follow their blog had to show them some love. This morning I saw their post about the last day of their 30% off sale and when making the to-do list for the day added them to my list.   They are close to where I work (about 2 miles I think) but they are about 20 miles from my house.  The sale ended today so I just had to go today.  I have never yet bought any of the Moda fabrics. But have admired them from things I found on the web.  I was able to talk my wife into getting a charm pack for my daughter Rebecca and I bought 3 more black & white materials for my Man Quilts for my brother in laws and my self.  My wife kept looking at the materials in the Layer Cake, but kept putting it back.I finally twisted her arm and bought that.   I have to note out of every thing I bought today that is the only item that does not belong to a current project on the Quilting List which you can read on my Resolved to sew 2012 blog post yesterday.

 I have yet to talk tell you what I bought at Joann's, but already you have seen above purples and greens and to the right my John Deere collection.  As I said I have no stash.  While I have one now.  The purple on the upper right is for 2 pieced top lap blankets one for my Rebecca and one for the only Girl Cousin she has (keep this quiet its for her Christmas present next year).  The green on the left is for a Lap blanket (rag quilt style) for my son Jared who has this fascination with green.  His first trip to Joann's he had 5 bolts of green material in the cart before I knew what he was doing.  Now I know how my mom felt with me as a kid in the material store.
The John Deere materials (all 4 are John Deere prints) the 3 on top will be the front and the big one behind will be the back for 2 lap blankets one for my father in law and one for a brother in law both of them live out in the country and  while drive John Deere Equipment and neither quite get me and my computer's.   Again a Christmas present so keep these under raps for me (good thing they both don't know what the Internet is).

So your thinking to your self.  He must be done now.  Nope more material below. On the left some sinfully cheap charm squares for Rebecca and some black material for the Man Quilts (the 3 others on top are a repeat from above don't know how I managed that one.  Any way walked out of Joann's with a bill for just over $150, but I saved $145 not bad for a shopping trip. Those 50% off and 20% off of already 40% off items was a killer deal.  I think the only thing I had to pay full price for was one of the John Deere Prints.  Oh I did save 30% off at Material Girls which I have to say I will go back and visit again.  Now for those of you that are not half blind (like me) you will see that their is some fine print on the bottom of the post (under the last 2 images) My wife did not not like my title and asked me to add the fine print to explain it, so good luck reading it. Wow what a day, almost $200 and I have a stash.  And about 6-8 quilts worth of material.  Now some one please shoot me if I go shopping next Saturday!






Wife says I need to put in the fine print some where that my CC in question was a debit card meaning that I paid for all my material with cash on hand and did not charge up the credit card.  Now if you can read this fine print then you tried too hard to read it. And while nothing useful is in it so stop now! No really fine print is never meant to be read, its just their to annoy you and let you know some lawyer was involved. And who in the world wants a lawyer involved in any thing.

Resolved to Sew 2012

Over at Very Berry Handmade (http://veryberryhandmade.co.uk/2012/01/16/giveaway-resolved-to-sew-2012/) they are having a giveaway and being new too sewing and could use the love.  The idea behind the give away is the resolve to sew which hits home to me since while I have been sewing only a few weeks.  Quilting is new and fun to me and amazing with all the colors and patterns to chose from.  In this post I am to say which item I would like.  Material is what I need.  It is a given one of the bundles.  The first or the second one on the list I like the best, but all the others are nice to.

What I want to do this year is make at least 1 item for each of the 5 (almost 6) members of my family.  Then I would like to make my brother and sister and their spouses quilts.  Doing the same for my wife's family.  That is at least 15 Lap size or queen size quilts.  What all is your goals for the year in quilting?  So far this year has been great have 5-6 quilts done and about 8 or so in progress.  Wish me luck on getting the family all quilted this year.