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.

WIP Wednesday #6

Today is going to be a Work In Progress Wednesday.   And will be linking up with Freshly Pieced. 

Completed Projects:

2 completes Color Burst and Summer Fun hot pads x 4

Ready To Quilt:
2 May for Me Bingo Card and Autism Charity Quilt

Ongoing Projects:
3 Quilts using 2 1/2 inch blocks 1 5 X 5 block quilt and 2 Granny Square Quilts.  Also Jeans for Jared.

You will notice that Jared's quilt has doubled in length.  That is James my oldest holding it.  So it is getting closer and closer to being long enough the width at the top is good you can see I messed up and made the 2nd half too short lol that will be a fun one to fix.

Man Quilts 2 more like Dad's Zag Zag and Paisley Parade I have enough X's sewed for 1 and half of these.

Kathy's Jelly Roll Quilt.  Back is bought and the sashings just need to sew it together.

Planned Quilts:

2 John Deer Rag Lap Quilts one for a brother in law and one for my father in law.

1 Case Machinery Lap Quilt for a brother in law. (bought the back and then used it on another project sigh need to go shopping again)

2 Bug Jar Quilts for nephews.
Tanya's Lap quilts from her fat quarters.
Autism Quilt for My sons school Silent Auction. (started cutting this one up as the auction is soon will be working on it this week)
Rose Fabric for Mother In Law's Quilt.

Totals:
Finished: 7 March, 10 February, 7 January 24 total for year
On Going Projects: 6 ish
Planned: 6 (though I keep thinking I am missing a couple)

Oh and not to be forgotten we have a plan to have a baby.  I sure hope that its before next wed but who knows.  You would think you could plan one of these things down to the day.  But not so.  I will need to start going through the guesses and see who has already been passed and who still has a shot at this.

Jeans For Jared Part 2

Some of you that have been following along for a while might remember my post, Jeans For Jared one of the first quilts I started to make.  It was a  patch work quilt made out of Levis the picture to the right shows the image from that post over 2 months ago.  I can not believe 2 months has come and gone.  Jared has not let me forget his Jeans.  A few other bloggers have sent me some jeans scraps.  I thought I had posted about them, but can't seem to search my own site and find them.  Any way thank you for all those of you that have sent me some scraps.  About a week ago I got a big kick in the butt from Elizabeth at Such a Sew and Sew she offered me a box of jeans if I would pay the shipping.  I have not yet blogged about it this last week (been a bit busy getting all the last minute things done to be ready for the baby), but Jared has not give me 2 seconds of time between yelling Jeans for Jared work on my quilt.

Along with the pants from Elizabeth I have some from my mother and brother so I hope that I can get a good chuck of it sewed this week and maybe get it finished sooner than later.  The plan is to hand tie the quilt and put green minky on the back if we can find it.  That is Jared's favorite color.

Today was what my wife and I hoped to be last Dr apt before the baby comes.  Sadly the Dr told my wife that she was still only dilated to a 1 and that she needed to come back next Monday.  She was hoping to be told that she is much farther along with a chance to have her this week some time (which if you saw my family's baby guesses is when we thought she would come). While its possible to have the baby before the next Dr apt, its highly doubtful and my wife is quite depressed about it.

 On a more happy note the 4 quilts are done for my contest and their is nothing I need to do to be ready for the baby other then to wait.

 I handed the quilts to my son James and told him to take them outside and get some pictures with them together. What he came up with made me giggle.

 He tossed all 4 out on the lawn and then walked around them taking pictures from different angles.

Any way as a reminder if you pick the correct birth date and time or pick the correct birth weight for Julia's birth one of these 4 quilts will be yours.  The 2 winners will each get to send me their first and second choices (in case they both want the same quilt).

Then I will ship the quilt to you anywhere in the world.  It will be hard to part with these quilts, I have grown attached to them.  I think having Julia in my arms will make it a little easier to give away.  For those that are curious the 2 remaining quilts, will be donated to the Girls Camp Auction.  This is held each year to raise money for the girls at church to go to girls camp .  My daughter Rebecca is part of this group.

Summer Fun hot pads

A week or so ago I got a large box of fabric from a neighbor of mine. It was fabric from their mothers old quilting stash.  I was very happy to take it off their hands.  I have been going though the box looking for things to do and found a lot of fabric that I called plaid.  Well my wife tells me that I am wrong that its actually called gingham.  Well I told her I am a guy and I can call it what I wanted. She punched me.  I seem to irritate her well when pregnant. LOL.

So any one that guessed the 18 for the birth day your wrong. (Wife tells me I should be more tactful.  Its been a long week.)  My wife is still waiting for the day to fast approach.  Her next appointment is tomorrow and we are hoping for better news about her body being ready.

My wife was laughing when I was making them.  As I show you my process you might laugh too.  I have this 4 1/2 inch diamond ruler and while I have wanted to use it since the day I got it.  So I took the Plaid (ya ya Gingham) that was while spring/summer colors and started cutting up diamonds out of them.  The whole time my wife sat on the couch moaning about Julia kicking her.  Once I got done sewing them into rows I sewed them into a giant Diamond.

Then the fun began as both the wife and daughter started to pester me about what the heck I was doing.  All I knew is I wanted to make hot pads to practice more FMQ on.  Any way I diced and sliced the giant diamond into 8 hot pads roughly 8 1/2 inches in size and 1 mug rug.  I had read on a blog about the joys of basting with that nice spay glue stuff.  So I took 4 of them and on the front porch I glued them together.  Now this is the point where reading instructions may have come in handy.  But I am a man and what fun are instructions.  If men read instructions, how would all the doctors keep in business.  No I did not hurt myself but freshly glued together hot pads and my wonderful sewing machine do not mix well. (That stuff sure is sticky).  I managed to break 5 needles and damage the bobbin holder on my sewing machine.  I gummed up everything.  Sigh.  Someone that is smart on this spray basting, please let me know the proper way to do things.

In the process of breaking all the needles I managed to mess up the bobbin holder.  Not to be discouraged, I got sand paper out and um repaired the holes I stuck into the bobbin holder, by sanding out all the nicks that were catching on the thread.  Needless to say I have ordered a replacement bobbin holder as mine is toast (though I did get them quilted and bound but never could get the FMQ done as I messed it all up.

Though one last note for the night and the means to to the madness I have 2 pot holders in the wash and as soon as they are dry I am taking them and the box that the fabric came in (they wanted that back) and a thank you card to the neighbor.  So it all ends a good day.  Oh and since I added the picture and forgot to mention it I received one of my 2 block swaps last week.  I updated my block swap tab above on the menu and added the 2 blocks I sent and this one that I received.

So wish us all luck that the baby will come soon.  And remember I will post a picture or 2 of the baby here when born but I will post a ton on her blog at http://juliadawnhealey.blogspot.com/

Autism Charity Quilt

My son Jared (and his older brother James in the past) goes to Spectrum Academy a charter school for Children with Autism.  Both of my sons are on the spectrum.  They are both diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome which is a high functioning form of autism.  One of the symbols of autism they use is the puzzle piece, because they come in all shapes and sizes and are all just a little different.  All are special and wonderful.

The quilt that I have created the top for today will be for a silent auction to raise money for his charter school to put on activities and get needed supplies.  The quilt top was loosely designed from quilts found by my friend Google and my wife Tanya.  When completed it will have the same thing on the back that is around the out side edge the little puzzle pieces.

I also got my May For Me Bingo Card top completed today A tad smaller then the Puzzle above it was a lot of fun to pick the pieces.  My family plans to make 3 of these.  My wife and my daughter are also making cards they have picked most of their pieces but not as fast as I am at sewing them up.

Don't forget to go enter the blog hop giveaway on yesterdays post and also the Quilt giveaway for guessing Julia's Birthday and Birth Weight you can find links on the right hand side of my blog at the top.