A Challenge and A Change of Hearts

Ten days ago I put a Challenge Forward Quilt Challenge #1 I hope to have this be the first of many quilting challenges that I share with others.  I threw down the Challenge and never my self gave what I thought was a resalable response to it.  Granted I was disappointed that few commented or took me up on the Challenge but I would like to put forth 2 blocks that I have made.  I will post them both here and on the flicker page http://www.flickr.com/groups/richardquiltschallenge/  To recap I want you to create a block or 2 that is inspired by these chairs.  You do not have to match the design or even the color exactly just needs to be inspired.  All those that enter will be put in a drawing to win all of the blocks to make a quilt out of them.

I am not sure what the proper name of the blocks are I will call them Quarter Square Triangles.  These are the 2 blocks I have made by rummaging though the stash.  My wife pointed out to me that the Brown I picked was her's for her Hearts quilt and I had to promise not to use a lot of it.  Which got me to thinking I have not work on that quilt for a while (see I am like a squirrel I see a nut and I run off chasing it, Or am i the nut? Hum who knows) wait where was I.  Oh yea the hearts.

In the post Blue Hearts Progress I showed some of the blocks we are making for a queen size quilt.  I am not rushing to finish this one mostly because I don't think I can quilt it (being too big) on my machine so have no clear path how to finish it.  But yet again it has received more progress.  When last I talked about the quilt we had appliqued the hearts down but had not done any thing past that.  While tonight not knowing how to do it better I tried out all the cool stitches my machine does (stitches 20-32 to be exact).  Any that want to put their 2 cents in I could use it on this how best do you sew down appliques that you do.  Here is what I did please give input (oh and don't get distracted like me top of the post the Challenge is calling you don't get side tracked and join in.)

Look at you your already distracted Think Challenge!!

Link A Finish Friday #11

The Goal for me this year is 52 Finishes in 52 weeks help keep me honest and show off your own finishes at the same time its a Link A Finish Friday!!

The most popular link by a large margin last week was El Petit Taller - Wonky Squares Thank you to all that linked up last week.

This week I actually got some finishes unlike the last 2 weeks.  The family is getting adjusted to having a new baby in the home and its back to business.  In fact I made my first Quilt to sell this last week. 

 I even created a Etsy Store to sell my quilts.  If you are interested check it out. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/rhealey101

So for the rules.

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.

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.

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.

WIP Wednesday #9

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

Completed Projects:

4 completes this week and we even kept the baby though she is screaming at me while making this post.

Ready To Quilt:
5 Quilt tops ready to quilt here are 3 of them

Ongoing Projects:
1 Quilt 5 X 5 blocks.  Also Jeans for Jared, 3 new baby quilts 1 more John Deer Quilt and I now started sewing the Case Machinery Lap quilt. Oh and Rebecca's sampler and Tanya's Hearts that are recently floating to the top of the pile.

Planned Quilts:

2 Bug Jar Quilts for nephews.

Tanya's Lap quilts from her fat quarters.
Rose Fabric for Mother In Law's Quilt.

Totals:
Finished: 4 April, 10 March, 10 February, 7 January
31 Total for Year
Ready to Quilt: 5
On Going Projects: 8
Planned: 4 (though I keep thinking I am missing a couple)

One more plea for my Quilting Challenge I want to do a monthly or so quilting challenge I am inspired by things (art, chairs, carpet, wallpaper, etc) and I want to create quilts inspired from it.  This first challenge is based on a pair of chairs at work in my office.  Some at work called them hideous, me they are inspiration.  Post about it  http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/04/richard-quilts-quilting-challenge-1.html I set up a flicker page to track your contributions http://www.flickr.com/groups/richardquiltschallenge/ The plan is to make a quilt top from blocks contributed by any one that wants to give this a try and then raffle it off to those that enter.

Tractors on Patrol

This is my newest finish this one is for my father in law he lives in a small town in Southern Utah and just does not understand me the City kid programmer.  My wife thought it would be fun to give him what he loves best his John Deer it should keep him warm while out on the backhoe or grader he uses for a living.

Could not resist getting a shot of Julia on it in the sun.

This quilt has 3 materials on top 2 of which are cotton and one is a flannel (the lighter brown one)  The back has all of the same a green flannel.

This one ragged up wonderfully.  I will be making a similar one for my brother in law but with one more front and one more back as the original amount of material was not enough with the slightly longer lap quilts we made for them (they are both tall)

linking to 2nd Quarter Finish Party As listed on  My 2nd Quarter todo list