Batik progress and a giveaway

Today is Flag Day here in the USA. My son James is a Boy Scout and I got him up early and we put up flags around our neighborhood. I though since I am up and the sun is just peaking over the mountains here in the Salt Lake Valley I just had to show off how the quilt is looking.  I have the center of the top completed, this is the biggest to date pieced top for me.  I am still debating (wife tells me she wants it a little bigger then planned) about how big I want the borders.  So tonight I will be looking at the amount of light gray and dark gray I have and figure out how I can do the borders.  You can see with the top row folded over the swing set it hangs quite a bit down.  My guess is its just under twin size now?

Last Saturday we took my mother in law to visit her son in vernal (3 hours from my home) while she was visiting us (5 hours from her home). We were all sitting around the couch admiring Julia when she rolled on her side and I thought it was so cute I had to take a picture.  Showing off she flipped onto her tummy.  She now just 4 days later is not content to lay on her back any more and she has even rolled her self over and slept on her tummy.  At 11 weeks old this is a pretty big accomplishment for her and she is ahead of the norms on doing such.  She is going to be mobile soon.

Last Thursday my family took a drive up to Silver Lake (near Brighton Ski Resort in Utah) to show my mother in law the mountains here in the valley (she is from southern Utah and said the northern mountains are not worth visiting and we wanted to show her they were).  Any way some one saw me holding a camera and said oh did you see the mother and baby moose?  I have never seen moose up here, yet they have signs all over telling about them.  I ended up hiking a mile before I got close enough to take this picture.  It was taken from about 1/4 mile away (Even though it looks 10 feet away) thanks to my 400 zoom lenses on my Nikon D90 I was able to take this.  About 4 minutes after I took this picture, the baby walked out into the open to take a drink.  I went to take a picture and the camera just did nothing.  Note to self, to not miss cute baby moose bring an extra battery.

Yawn I know who cares about all of that I said something about a giveaway.  First off I want to say that all of my giveaways have been provided by me.  I do not yet have any sponsors (but would love some if any one is looking to do that) .  I do have some advertisements from Google displayed on my blog and I do get a little money from that (note little means at current rate a year tell I will get a check). If you like any of the things in the advertisements please click on them and check them out.  Each click will increase the amount of giveaway's that I am able to do.

Alright enough of that.  On to what I am giving.  Sadly I am not sure what that will be as of today, but I wanted to tell you how to enter.  Yesterday started the Beehive Shop Hop and the Wasatch Front Shop Hop's here in Utah.  I would like to share some love from what I get along the way between the 2 their are about 30 stores.  I have taken off today and Friday from work.  Tanya, Rebecca my 14 year old, Julia and I are going to go visit as many of them as we can.  Last night Tanya and I visited 3 of them on the way out to dinner.  We got 16 fat quarters and material to make one of the block's that they gave the pattern away from.  No I did not win any of these, but I would like to share some of the love once we get back from our adventures.  I plan to take the camera and share some pictures.  So the what is not known but will be in the next 2 days now on to the how.

I have been doing a Link A Finish Friday every week for the last 18 weeks and I would like to increase the awareness of it.  As such I would like to give to those that link up.  So any one that has already linked up in June or any one that does link up between now and the end of the month will be entered.  Please make sure the email listed on the link is valid for you or leave a comment on one of the posts linking too you.  http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/search/label/LAFF is a link to the tag for the most recent posts.  Also at the top of my blog in the main page is a re-cap page for all previous LAFF (Link a Finish Friday in short).  Also I have got a new button that you can put on your blog though its not required to win. (note to self if this works out and it gets a good response we will have a giveaway every month on those who link up).  Oh one last thing on the LAFF I understand that not every one has a finish every week.  If you have progress on your quilts link that up I still want to see what your working on.

<center> <a href="http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/search/label/LAFF"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFlg1CtkP_w_gCP_2zdsIXYXILI3c9WKrATFksD8K0z_EqO4Hw8a_fQlcnMBvjwKjkQ_TSHwLiTcYwoPr25tm-xR_7Mlyoy_JMt-ZEDRpzNjh9eqft7EmSqUexMgXh-VGMf3hH2FpEpaQ/s1600/961059p0w26Lp8.jpg" width="125" /></a> </center>
Thanks again for visiting Richard and Tanya Quilts and supporting  our quilting adventures.

WIP Wednesday #17

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

Completed Projects:

I completed only Grandpa's Cards this week even though I hinted of it last week.  I never did get a good picture of it but posted it any way (Good meaning out in the sun, instead we got inside under Julia).  Speaking of Julia she is just 11 weeks old tomorrow and she is a moving baby now.  OK not crawling, but she can roll from the back to the front and back again.  The last 2 times she slept today she did it on her tummy (her doing not ours). She is not content anymore to stay where she is put, so pictures like the one below will get harder to take.

In Progress:
I am making 2 quilts that will be like Fire In The Sky (the bright orange quilt for those with slow memory's). This time, one is a Batik in Blue/Yellow the other is what my wife calls 80's fabric (or so my wife describes them.) They will be 5 blocks wide and 6 long so bigger then the pictures here.

The one in batik's I am waiting on some material I ordered to show up.  The other one all blocks are done now and I need to start cutting up the sashes and sew them together.

This is another batik quilt that I am working on. I have just over half of the top sewn together and I believe I have enough cut out to sew the rest together.  I  just need to find time to sit down and do it.

These 3 blocks are not mine (Richard's), they belong to my wife Tanya.  This is what she got done while I was at work today.  I am interested to see how this turns out.  For those that have been following along with us, we plan to make a quilt for every member of our family (mine and my wife's brothers and sisters, all the kids, parents and grand parents that are alive).  These I am told will go towards a quilt she is making for one of her sisters, or her sister in law.

Ready To Quilt:
I am getting behind on quilting my tops I have 5-6 I think now in the box.  My wife basted one for my sister and this week I finally got it quilted.  I did such a large amount of work quilting it that I ran out of umph before finishing the binding.  Hopefully I can find some time for this weekend.

Ongoing Projects:
I am now interested in making quilts for others if you know any one looking to have a quilt made, send them my way.  I also have a few quilts listed on my etsy shop.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/RichardQuilts.  I am also looking for some new swaps to join if any one has some good ideas or suggestions.  I am already doing 2 - 12 1/2 inch swaps but looking for more things to do. This week my wife and I also joined in the new quilters quilt along. The button can be found on my blog on the right side or in a couple different posts this last week.

Planned Quilts:

I sat down this week with my wife and we made a list of a few things we have in the works and a few things I would like to do and the list has over 50 items on it.  So no lack of ideas here.

Totals:
Finished: 1 June, 10 May, 8 April, 10 March, 10 February, 7 January
46 Total for Year wow only 9 more quilts tell I meet my 55 projects and I have to set the bar higher maybe I should go for 100?.

Batik Quilt Progress And Planned Quilts

Tonight and last night I have been working on my batik quilt.  The above corner is one piece of the below pictured quilt.  As you can see I enjoy EQ7 it helps a lot to see what you are doing.  The below picture was made in about 15 minutes.  Sure helps you understand what your doing.  I printed off a copy of it and checked things off as I was making it.  And yes the below blue is actually a light grey and the borders are a dark gray and the checked ones are random batik 2 1/2 in squares.

This last week my mother in law Arvon came and visited (she slept on the couch 4 nights last week) I told her that I wanted her to help me design a quilt that I would make for her.  This quilt will be a larger twin and she will use it on her bed.  She lives in a care center about 5 hour drive from our house and we do not get to see her often.

The blue and yellow batik quilt and the pink and blue quilt other then colors is the same quilt.  I have all the blocks done for the bottom quilt and need to cut out the sashings and start sewing it together.  The one above I have 10 of 30 blocks done (they will be 5 wide and 6 long, I changed the plan after I made the images)   I would like to make patterns for all these quilts and put them on the blog.  But my real question is whether that is something that would interest my readers.

Tonight my wife picked up a project she started a  months ago (she made 1 block before and got half a block done tonight) yes she is slower then me.  I am the only one that goes 100 miles an hour quilting.  By the way my quilt top at the top I sewed all the block rows across and half the sashings (I ran out, did not cut enough the first time) and my top will be finished Tuesday night.

Look I even got a picture of her sewing on my daughters machine.  I took 4 pictures but she would only let me post one (yes I was excited to see her sewing).

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. 

Tanya and I Quilting Together

Tanya has decided that she is going to Join the fun of the beginner's Quilt along.  I had asked her to help me find some matching material in the piles of stash I have gotten (I don't match well or at least that's what Tanya Claims).  I was surprised to find when she was done that she has 3 piles of materials.  The plan is that I will make 2 quilts in the quilt along using 2 of the sets she found.  And she has committed to make the 3rd quilt.  This is a big step for her.  Here is a picture of the 3 sets of material we plan to use.

First up is the bundle that Tanya picked these are colors she likes.  Any way every one needs to encourage Tanya to continue with the sewing she is intimidated by the sewing machine and you need to help her understand how fun this is.

For me we have a more wild one (this one will be made for one of my nephew's)

And a more patriotic one which I will most likely sell

In addition to our finding material for the quilt along (we will make the first block tonight and get it posted Monday) I have been working on quilting my sister's top.  I completed the sewing of this top a while back and just now have the quilting done.  I did a echo pattern on all the sides of the 2 1/2 inch blocks (strait lines not around each one but any way you know what I mean) it took me forever a lot longer then I expected not sure how soon I will do that again but it looks cool.   I lost the desire to bind it the same day 2 days back while quilting it.  So it will be some time next week.  Also next week they are doing a shop hop here in Utah.  And I think I have gone quilting nuts because I am taking off a couple days of work so I can go visit all the shops.  Maybe I will bring my camera and show off a little of each shop.  Has any one done a shop hop before?  If so what did you like most about it?