Link A Finish Friday #16

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 last LAFF was Strings from http://www.tarnyiamarycatherine.blogspot.com.au/  (One not of reminder on the links make sure you link to the specific post so that those following the links later can find the item they were looking for.)

I have completed 2 quilts this week one for my dad and the orange quilt.  There  is one more finished, but I have not had time to post it and give it a name (by the way when do you guys pick names for quilts I tend to make them and quilt and bind before I ever even consider the name).

Please remember also I have a giveaway going as part of the may giveaway week.  I on my B-Day gave some batiks away and this Sunday 5/27  is my wife's B-Day and we have more to give then.

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.

Fire in the sky

This quilt was made from a block pattern called Disappearing 16 patch and following that link you can read about these blocks that I made in that post.  This quilt top was was completed April 3rd and shown in my WIP wednesday post the funny thing I posted this quilt first yesterday on my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/richardquilts  so that it could be picked as one of the choices on the giveaway I posted yesterday.

The responses to this quilt are happy to me.  When I first made these blocks my wife told me they were horrible and ugly and only some one that is trying to keep from being shot while hunting would like it.  I think its amazing and I hope all of you like it too.

Just in case your wondering no she does not think its so horrible now.  In fact my wife Tanya is the one that took all of these wonderful pictures.  

Which picture by way do you like best?

linking to 2nd Quarter Finish Party As listed on  My 2nd Quarter todo list \ Color Blast Quilt Pattern

(closed) A tad late but not forgotten Giveaway

Contest is over and Tanya (my wife) is calculating the winners.  I will announce them when the boss tells me what they are.

Today is GIVEAWAY DAY ok maybe it started on the 21 I am only fashionably late.  But that just means I have something better to win.  You can go to http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/ to find the full list of sites to visit and win at.  The contests opened May 21, 2012 and will close May 25 at 5 p.m. PST.  My contest will be open to any one, any where in the world.

Today I am giving away 4 fat quarter of Reunion, one of my favorite lines.

I am not a fan of  random number generators, so I will not be using that to pick the winner.  What I have done in the past for giveaways and which works well is to give you a choice of items to pick.  When the contest ends, I put the name of all the items picked into a hat (bowl)  and draw it. After picking one of the items,  I then put all of the names of those who picked that item and put them into a bowl and let my 7 year old pick the name.  So not complicated, but no random numbers either.

If you are the type that just hates this kind of thing, just put in your comment same as above and I will use the choice of the one above you (or below you if none above made a choice).  For those with no zeal for fun you can still play the game.

This contest I want you to pick your favorite quilt or item (I have some hot pads) from my Etsy store.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/richardquilts again if you don't want to visit use the above option to pick some one else choice you can also look at the Etsy Mini on my right side bar.

3 Chances to enter.

1) Every one gets to pick one quilt (one entry)
2) Followers of my blog get to pick another quilt (one entry)
3) Favorite one of my quilts (or the store) on Etsy for a 3rd entry. (or you could share on Facebook)

For those that are new to my blog, my name is Richard Healey I am a Web Programmer by day and Quilter by night.  I have been quilting for around 5 months now, but boy have I made a splash into  quilting.  I have not made many large quilts, but I set a goal to make 55 finished projects this year (1 a week) and I am well ahead on my goal.  At the rate I am going I will be done in another month or so.  I am making a lap quilt for every member of my extended family.  So far I have delivered wonderful quilts to both of my grandmothers (wife's grandmother and mine) that are still alive and recently one to my dad who is in a rest home.  The rest of the brothers and sisters, and their kids will get their quilts for Christmas.

Any way on with the giveaway, but I would love for you to visit me back again some time and please comment on my quilts.  If you have suggestions and ideas on how to improve please let me know.  I blog to learn more about quilting and learn from the wonderful things you can teach me or maybe I can teach you?

P.S. This Sunday is my wife's B-day and will have yet another giveaway, so make sure to stop back by.  On Mothers day was My B-Day and you can see what I gave away and what I have for my wife's B-day to giveaway.

WIP Wednesday #14

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

Completed Projects:

1 Dads Quilt is finished and delivered.

Ready To Quilt:
4 Quilt tops ready to quilt here are 2 of them.  My wife is pressing for me to do the pinwheel quilt soon. (A change from last week is the orange quilt is quilted and bound and in the wash will show it off most likely Thursday)

Ongoing Projects:
I am opening a Etsy store and my wife has tasked me to finish a bunch of my homeless projects and a couple new ones designed for the store.  This week and next I will focus on those projects.   Other then that though we have enough fabricl for 8-9 new projects starting soon. http://www.etsy.com/shop/RichardQuilts

Planned Quilts:

Wow so many of these I have given up counting.

Totals:
Finished: 8 May, 8 April, 10 March, 10 February, 7 January
38 Total for Year
Ready to Quilt: 5
On Going Projects: Too many to count
Planned: Way more then I should be working on.

Today's WIP is not much changed from last week.  I swear I am working on things just not got much finished.  I hate to say it but personal life just blew away the last week.  But I promise you something good later in the day.  Not to be bested by the work I am going to join up to the week of giving and add my blog to the list of those giving things away this week.  a couple days late but my wife after entering 100 contests insists we have one of our own and for lunch today we will go buy something to give and then she will run home and make the post live so be back later today.

Dad's Quilt

Today I have a new quilt finish to share.  Some of you may remember this top it has been done and ready since before Julia was born 2 months ago (And to think I use to not understand how people collected UFO's and now I have a pile of them I am trying to finish)  To read more about it go here.  My wife told me at the time it was UGLY but now I think she likes it more. (mostly because it left the house) but hey I loved it.

You might find it funny I asked my dad how he liked it and he told me "No - Its not long enough" he is a tall guy and the quilt is short.  I tried to explain it was a lap quilt but I think he was too distracted looking at Julia.  My Dad turns 71 on 5/22/2012 and he has now been in a rest home for about 9 months I talked about him once before here.  Where I talked about the fact that he had yet another stroke.  He is not doing so well he talks very little and does not smile much any more.  I think the visit made his week.

It was funny though during the visit we took him to the dining room so he can eat.  It takes him more then an hour to hour and half to eat (we did not stay the full time).  While in the dining room one of the old ladies at the table next too us kept saying things to us (which I could not understand and we tried, we got something about boxing, strawberries) any way she got mad at us and she threw a spoon at us.  My kids not quite understanding what was going on kept talking and looking at her which seemed to only egg her on.  A few minutes later along came a fork.  I joked about that maybe we would have a food fight on our hands.  About 10 minutes later she threw a glass at us which shattered on the floor.  I guess my family brings out the rage in others.  As we got on the elevator to leave (she had been taken out of the room for bad behavior and was sitting at nurses station) she was saying something about us being bad people and to not let us come back.  Any way it was hard not to just want to sit there and laugh.  Its sad some times to visit my dad, but I enjoy going as he will not be with us for all that long.  He is slowly going down hill and he is not expected to make it all that many more years.

Here is a closeup of the quilt.  I quilted it by I believe its called echo quilting, next to the seams where it was sewed together.  Looking at the picture below you can see how neat the back looked and the front above.  I will do another quilt like this one as its one of the nicer quilting jobs I have done..

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