Quilting the HST Quilt

Last week I quilted this custom HST quilt it is for a custom order.

I Echo quilted all the sewn lines in the quilt nothing fancy.

The material is from the client we did just the sewing and batting.

Only issues I see in quilt is that we had few materials so there is lots of repeats and like fabrics next to each other but it turned out cute its in wash now.

Oh and Today is Tanya's B-Day so happy B-Day my wonderful wife!

Whats my issue with staining quilts

I can not figure out what my deal is lately.  I keep making quilts and then staining them.  Today I am doing a partial show of a quilt I made for a family that lives a couple blocks from me that just had their 4th daughter.  I will show off the full quilt later but here is a teaser from my Binding.

The picture above was taken just after I finished the binding.  I think it looks pretty neat just laying there on the table but that is not really what this post is about.  I did some free motion quilting on this quilt and its not something I am good at.  This quilt screamed for something other then my normal strait line quilting.  My wife tells me I did it more dense then she would have liked, but I think it turned out pretty fantastic.  Though what I want to share is my bad luck in the washing machine.  My kids it seems washed a pen recently.  Well Pens and a new quilt do not mix well.  You cant hardly see it, but in the picture below there is a long black streak on the quilt that is ink.  My wife washed it a second time and yep got the ink out on the back and got new ink on the front.  It took 2 more washes to get all the ink out.  Will give more pictures later of the finished quilt.

Diagonal Quilt Top times 2

Last night, I finished up sewing my two  Diagonal Quilt tops.  Both of these quilts when finished will be put up for sell on my Etsy Store.  I currently have 2 diagonal items on my Etsy Store.  The first is a Aqua, Gray, Yellow, and Turquoise lap quilt.  The other is a 24 inch table topper.

The two quilts in these pictures are made out of Batik fabrics from a bundle called  Fossil Ferns that my wife bought for me on a sell on Craftsy.  The Quilt top above is for a Baby Quilt it will be about 40 x 40 when done.  The quilt top below is about 52 X 64 for a lap quilt.  They are both made using my Diagonal Quilt Pattern.   If you are willing to go either to my Etsy store, my Craftsy store, or my Facebook page and like, favorite, share,  comment, or other wise engage those pages which will help them get found more in search results Then come back here and comment I will email you a free copy of this pattern. Please send me photo's if you make a quilt top so I can share them with others.  Oh and even if you don't want a pattern I would love any help sharing my goods so that I can find a few more sales.  Oh feel free to pin to share on instagram or twitter or any other way 

Thanks Richard Healey

Back up and Quilting!

It is funny when I thought about what I wanted to post today the 3 pictures in this post were not the original plan.  I have finally got back to a little quilting after my knee surgery (and I have new ugly pictures of the inside of my leg, that again Tanya says is not material to share on a quilting blog).  

Kaffe Fassett Classics Fat Quarter Bundle (Blue and Purple) - $39.99

from: Craftsy.com

Last year Tanya and I started making 3 new patterns for our Craftsy Pattern Store The first was our Chevron Quilt Pattern it has already be added.  Then second was a HST quilt (Richard calls this the boring quilt pattern, but don't tell Tanya she might smack him up side the head). These three today, are I think my favorite of the three. I like pinwheels, not sure why.  I also am not sure why we are struggling to get them done, as you can see they are finished up to the same point.  What we are still missing is our borders and they will be cute you will just have to wait.

Again these are sadly not what I quilted this week, but the pictures have been sitting here waiting for me to show them off.  SO TADA!  I did create the front and the back of a cute Simple Squares Quilt, but at 11 pm at night could not convince any of the kids to hold them up so I can take a picture of them.  You will have to pretend these 3 pinwheels are the quilt I worked on.  Maybe another day I will show them.  Or maybe just the finished quilt a month from now.  Any way I am doing better.  Dr tells me that I can start to exercise and I signed myself up for physical therapy, so that they can make me hurt all the wrong ways.  Any way thanks for all the prayers and well wishes.

Quilt in Progress Update

Over the last month or so I have been working on this large Twin Size quilt for my son James.  It is from a pattern called Winter Windows Quit in the book Quilting Modern by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen.  I love this book and am inspired by the neat modern designs in it.  I have been going to the Modern Quilt Guild for over a year and half now and this is the most modern attempt to date to be a modern quilter.

As you can tell this quilt is not finished yet.  I have now completed quilting about 2/3 of it so it wont be long tell its done.  After all it was my son's Christmas present so yes I need to finish it sooner than later.

And of course who cant resist seeing a cute kid in her brand new snow boots.

Little cut corners and other things.

Over the last few weeks Tanya has had me working on all kinds of odd's and ends preparing for quilts and patterns that we plan to make over the next few months.  Above is scraps cut off of some of those blocks any one care for a guess?

Maybe these strips will give you some clue as to what I have been up too?  Hum, maybe that is not a big enough hint?  Maybe not how about this?

Hum that is looking some what familiar, but what the heck is it.?

Yes, we are making Granny Squares again. (Granny Squared, Granny Gone Wild)  As you can see from the stack above were just starting and not nearly done with them.  I have them in different  stages from ready to just stacks of blocks.

We have a variety of colors also not just sticking to one color.  You ask what in the world are we making?  Yes you guessed it, baby sized quilts.  We have more then 30+ blocks in various stages.  No they are not all for 1 quilt.  The plan is to make quilts with 1 of each color in either 3 rows by 3 rows or 3 rows by 4 row sizes.

But can I do any thing simple?  Heck no to add to the mess going on we are also making 25 block squares of the various colors. (Mom's Quilt, Orange and Gray Baby)  Above are some pink and below some purple.  These are just the first of yet another pile of 30+ blocks.  Again the plan is to make baby quilts of either 3 rows by 3 rows or 3 rows by 4 rows.  We will make some quilts with just 2-3 colors and others with 1 bock of each color.

Just so you realize we do other things then 2 1/2 inc blocks (oh that is the size of all the above little blocks) Tanya had me cut up all of the flannel that we have stored up, so we can make all the rag quilts and get rid of the flannel.  We have decided we much prefer the pieced quilts over the rag quilts, but we need to use up the fabric.

This picture shows about 1/8th the pile I have cut.  We have enough for 10-20 rag quilts and will be spitting them out over the months to come.  To end on a fun note this is what we did on the night of the 4th, a simple little fireworks show in the front yard.

A Pile of Quilts

Here is a a picture of the quilts that I basted, most of them over the weekend.  If you aren't a regular, this post is brought to you by Tanya, Richard hates basting quilts (pin or spray).  I did give in and went and bought some more pins.  I don't think Richard will run out of quilts to quilt anytime soon.  In Richard's defense, he did get one quilted and bound.  It is in the wash and pictures will be coming soon.

I also finished two quilt tops this weekend.  The owl will most likely go on Etsy and and the butterfly one is for girls camp auction.

The owl is a star quilt as Richard pointed out.  I was going for alternating blocks from 8 1/2 inch squares forming half square triangles . This was using the same pattern that I did the pieced rag quilt in.  I don't know if I will ever do that large of blocks again in a pieced quilt.  I think 5 or 6 inch squares are easier to work with.

 The Butterfly quilt top is in the pile of stuff to be quilted. I plan on doing another Butterfly one in different colors, it was fun and simple quilt. 

The other boring stuff I did over the weekend involved hand sewing the sleeve on a quilt Richard is displaying at HMQS for part of Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild Display. We watched a movie while setting on the couch and hand stitching.  Richard should be proud, I didn't even fall asleep.  Normally I fall asleep while watching  any movie at home. 

Last night I was trying to get Julia to go get one of her toys.  She said toy and went and grabbed a strip of fabric.  I thought it was cute.   

Such a Sew and Sew

I would like to introduce any that does not already know about the wonderful blog "Such a Sew and Sew" hosted by Elizabeth.  This is one of the blogs that has influenced me the most since I have started quilting and one of the first that I followed.  You could say I am a little biased because I have won things from her.  I will explain my newest thing later in this post.  A year ago with in the first few weeks of the year she was celebrating her Birthday and Blog anniversary, She inspired one of the funny posts I have done in the past where I offered as a giveaway my 17 year old son (well 16 at the time) if you have not read it go do so, its funny.

Long story short I won my first prize from her in February of last year, a Jelly roll which you can read on this post.  I am one that loves to talk (if you can't tell from my blog) and if you have ever commented on my blog (which I encourage) you will almost always get a fun response back.  I have had many a fun conversation with Elizabeth.  I think what I enjoy most about her and her blog is that she is friendly and helpful.  Through the early days of my blog when I had no clue what I was doing (Sometimes I still think I have no clue) she would always help and encourage me and later on I though reading her blog was inspired to try many new and exciting quilting techniques.  For example my great desire to learn paper piecing is so that I can do some of the amazing things she has done.

Well she does not know that I am doing this today, but I am sure she will read it as she has read and commented on almost every post I have ever written.  She is a True hero to me.  Take some time today and go visit her blog at http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/.  You will love her blog, and while you are there tell her hi from me.

So as mentioned above there was incentive to me praising Elizabeth and its not just because she is a wonderful person.  Its that I won a wonderful prize from this months B-Day and Blog Anniversary.

This is a fat quarter from each of the 20 prints in  the Indie from Pat Bravo (Art Gallery Fabrics).  I am sitting here right now looking at all the pretty colors and trying to come up with a project or 2 to use them in. (suggestions welcome). This is not what makes me realize how special and neat Elizabeth is, almost a year I talked about a quilt that my wife Tanya wanted to make.  It is a "Bug Jar" quilt if you have ever seen one I talked about it back in this post. One of the things we realized is it is harder then one thinks to find the proper type of bugs to go in our bug jars.  In our conversations she mentioned that her and her mother were also working on a bug jar quilt.  Well along with what I won above, I received a huge stack of "Bugs" I am so excited Tanya and I can now finally do the bug quilts that we wanted to make.

So again check out Such A Sew and Sew and see why she deserves a post all about her.  Oh and for those interested in giveaways she has a wonderful finish giveaway every month (I won one last year) Go link up your finishes and win something too.

Beginners Quilt Along Block 2

Today when I came home from work I found on the sewing table Tanya's 2nd block for the Beginners Quilt along.  The last block I helped her do so she was pretty happy with the fact that she did this one alone.  It looks perfect and is a hard block to replicate (maybe not since I had to make 2 for mine) If you have not joined into the fun of the Beginner's Quilt Along your more then welcome to check out the link here and join up.


Tanya when we started hicked my colors and her's My blocks for this block are kinda interesting.  It will go great with the rest when done I think.

Don't you love my colorful block, remember the other blocks in this collection have animals and other wild things .  This block is wild to fit in, though it kinda reminds me of a flag.

I found this picture on my camera and had to share it.  I am guessing one of the kids took it.

I spent the rest of my night assembling my blocks for my Color Blast quilts.  I am making 2 identical quilts in radical different types of materials.  Tonight I finished making my blue and yellow blocks.  I now have 30 of each type of block.  Thursday night I will start cutting the sashings and with any luck maybe get one of the tops close to finished so I can get one or both quilted as I am being a slacker only 2 finished quilts so far this month.

I did the disappearing 16 patch block to make the below block.  When I got done sewing them together I had to trim them up and you can tell how straight (NOT!) my blocks were by the pile of my trimmings they looked so cute I had to take a picture of them.

Block one of the Beginner Quilt Along Done!

I started my quilt along block with some bright orange and some cute animals.  You know me, I love my orange and it still makes my wife laugh (and she picked it out, so I think I should laugh at her).

My second block is much more down to earth and simple, some nice flag flowers (Don't ask me why we have flag flowers, I am still trying to figure that one out). It looks pretty good and not bright and flashy like my other block.

Last Tanya's block looks fantastic.  This is her first pieced 12 1/2 inch block that she has cut out, sewed, ironed and I did not do a thing (other then showed her how to iron to get the seams to match.)

Tanya won a $20 gift certificate during the last blog hop from http://www.amateurquilter.blogspot.com/ she used it towards the items above, and she also got some other fabric directly from him, pictured below.  Before your eyes pop out, no we did not get all of that for $20 bucks.  We used a coupon, a free shipping deal, and the gift certificate and put it towards 3 grab bags of various fabrics to boost our stash some.  Tanya says we ended up paying $30.

Lastly,  I did some work on my batik quilt. I am doing a 5x5 quilt blocks and I got my blocks done and started sewing sashings together for it.  I am doing a design that I whipped out in EQ7 with my wife.  I love to just sit down and throw some ideas together.  It is nice to see how much fabric is needed and a feel for how the design is going to play out.