LAFF #23

Welcome to LAFF here at Richard and Tanya Quilts.  This is where you get to show off your finishes

I came home again to my wife showing off again.  She is now caught up and current with our beginners quilt along and she is doing a fantastic job.  Above is the first 6 blocks together, and below is the block that she did today.  They are looking amazing.

When I came home from work I checked tracking for UPS.  My new machine was suppose to be delivered tonight. but it was a no show.  So I spent the night trying too not look so sorry compared to my wife.  She is doing 1 quilt and I am doing 2.  I have the first 4 blocks of one quilt done and the first 2 blocks of the other done, so I am 6 blocks behind.  I was waiting for the machine to show up, when I refreshed the UPS tracking and it now tells me its scheduled to deliver on Friday rather then Thursday. My wife is now working nights, so I called her to let her know that it did not show up.  And she sprung the "News" and it was that when she took the full shot of her 6 blocks above she "Accidentally" dropped the sewing machine off the table onto the floor (she blames the Cat, which is probably true).  Since my new machine was not going to show, I grabbed the old one off the floor, where she left it and tried to use it.  It turns on and it made lots of noise.  Scraping plastic and all kinds of other good noises.  Long story short, I pulled all the screws out of it and popped the case back into place (never could figure out how to pull the case off) and it works just as crappy as it has for the last 2 weeks.  I can't wait until the new machine shows.

I did get one block done (so I am 5 behind now, lol) and two more cut out.  So I got some progress done today.

So my misery can only be fixed by your successes.  The most popular link last week was from Captain StitchyPants  It is a wonderful baby quilt.  Remember each linked up quilt gets you into the random drawing once a month for 2 Fat Quarters.  Thank you to all last week's linkups.

 Each link on LAFF enters you into a random drawing for 2 fat quarters each month. The winner will be picked the Thursday after the last Friday of each month.  The winner have their choice of 2 fat quarters from the 9 pictured. This picture will be updated with current selection, as the two with safety pins were chosen for June.   These are from my stash, but have no current project with their name on them.  Some of them are items I got from the shop hop, others are items that came with materials we bought, but did not make it into a project.







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Thanks again for visiting Richard and Tanya Quilts and supporting  our quilting adventures.

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.
4) Monthly random winner picked from all of the months linkups to win 2 fat quarters.

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.

200th Post oh time is flying

You would think I would have something exciting today to say on my 200th post.  But sadly that its not so.  I have been keeping busy though.

I finished my part on the John Deere quilt.  Tanya, since our first rag quilt, has been doing all of the cutting of them.  She tends to cut though less of the seams which causes less mess of trying to fix that.  This lap quilt is for my wife's youngest sibling.  Cody was 9 years old when we started to date and was a cute kid.  Its amazing how much time has passed since then.   Cody now has 5 boys of his own (only 2 with current wife).  We tease him that he can't produce a girl.  He does love Julia and on every instance that we have see him, he is more giddy then a school girl when it comes to getting to hold Julia.

After finishing the rag quilt (sewing it, its still half done as the cutting I think is harder work then the sewing it). I started on another project given to me from my wife.  When out at the shop hop, I bought these cute lizards.  As a kid I loved to catch them and we have had many as pets (even Tanya I think enjoyed the iguana while we had it).  I also picked out the cute swirls and my wife found the dots.  A few days ago I posted the picture of what this quilt will look like (it was the one with the silly castles on it) Any way I can't wait for my new sewing machine to show up and I can see how easy (or hard) it is to sew up this quilt top on it.  Hopefully later today.

Surprise, surprise, when I went to go make this post my wife whipped out another beginner quilt along block.  I think that I am a couple blocks behind now.  Once the new machine gets here, I will I guess relent to catching up.  Before my wife rubs my nose too much into it that she is faster then me.  Her blocks are looking nice.

One last thing, I think my oldest son James has decided that my invasion of the family room (or as its now referred to, the quilting room) needs to come to a end.  He approached my wife and I, after I got home from work, with a plan to share one room with his brother and let his sister have his old room leaving room for our sewing room in the larger room in our basement.  My daughter Rebecca is a pack rat and tends to collect junk (in the middle of her floor).  She is away at Girl's Camp and her big brother was trying to be nice and find the room.  After 4-5 hours of cleaning his sisters room, he could barely find the floor (I exaggerate, but only a little).  Any way as Julia gets older and will soon need to move from our room in a bassinet (or the bouncer depending on her moods) to her bigger crib.  It has come time to tame the wild room, so that Julia can live in it. It seems like with the prodding of my son, I will get a large sewing room (that I can share with Julia).

WIP Wednesday #20

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

Completed Projects: I completed my Soldiers Star quilt this last week and it turned out fantastic.

In Progress:
I am working on a few rag quilts at the moment.  My machine is giving me grief.  Once my new machine is back I want to get this blue and yellow batik done and I also have my other batik that needs borders and I have bunch of tops that need quilting.

Ready To Quilt:
I am getting behind on quilting my tops I have 4 I think now in the box.  Rebecca (my 14 year old) has a quilt also on the list it was basted by her and her mother this week and she has started to quilt it.  It will be her first pieced quilt. With any luck I can help her get it done this week (she is doing all of the work I am just giving guidance).

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.

Planned Quilts:

I started writing a list and so has my wife.  With just family quilts I need to make (about 10-12) and the quilts I just want to make because I can I think my list is now near 20 or so of what I want to make.

Totals:
Finished: 3 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?.

Back to where I started

Today I worked on another rag quilt.  I know its been quite some time since I have done one of these.  Its not for lack of materials or plans to do them.  Its just that I like to do the pieced quilts more then these simple rag quilts.   As I have mentioned my machine is on the blink.  If I try to do any thing too hard, too fast, or too much and it freaks out.  My wife assures me that my new machine is on the way and will be here some time this week (by UPS guess it should be Thursday), not that I ever trust those tracking sites.

Until the new machine shows up and I get though the learning curve. I am doing what my machine does OK.  And that is sew straight lines and not too long and not too fast (I am a speed demon) and my new machine is supposed to be fast and bigger by far then my old machine.  Any way I am proud to report that I have finished my 13 rows that my wife tasked me with sewing on this quilt for her brother.  (I did not sew the 13 rows togethe, just the single rows across do you think that's what my wife asked?  Maybe not, but I was too distracted with Julia tonight to sew any more.)

Quarter 3 Finish Along

Last Quarter I participated in the Quarter 2 Finish Along.  And I was surprised I was able to complete 9 quilts.  I am not one that plans a head well and I like to so this is good practice for me to give it a try.  Tanya and I came up with 31 quilts we are working on and a few that got left of of last quarters.

In no particular order.

1) Blue and Yellow Batik using my color blast pattern.

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/06/blue-and-yellow-batik-top-finished.html

2) 80's fabric (My wife's name not mine) using color blast pattern.

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/06/wip-wednesday-16.html

3) Gray Batik Quilt.

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/06/batik-quilt-progress-and-planned-quilts.html

4) Reunion Baby Blanket

5) Ghastly Quilt 1

6) Ghastly Quilt 2

(same as above picture)

7) Lizard Baby Quilt

We bought some Lizards and some color fabric and designed out the quilt above.  EQ7 did not have any lizards so the castle and dragons in pink will be the lizards and the other blocks will all be the color blocks.

8) Purple Heart Rag Quilt Crib size with applique hearts (Tanya project)

9) Patriotic Sampler Quilt (QAL)

10) Bright color Sampler Quilt kids(QAL)

11) Purple & Pink sampler Quilt (Tanya QAL)

12  Roses Quilt twin (MIL)

13 Flowers quilt (Tanya project)

15) Purple Quilt Butterflies

16) Bug Jar Quilt

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/02/dance-of-dragonfly.html Picture on this post of my wife cutting some out.

17) Reunion Baby Blanket 2

18) Girl Baby blanket out of Twirl (Tanya Project)

19) Scrappy Batik Heart (Tanya Project)

20) Vintage Block find quilt

21) Quilt for friends Twirl with stash stuff

22) Quilt for friends purple

23) 25 Square Rainbow Quilt

24) Child rag quilt lizards

25) Purple Butterfly rag quilt

26) Blue Crib size rag quilt with Appliques Stars

27) Sampler quilt from stash #1

28) Sampler quilt from stash #2

29) Beautiful Swan with Bulls & Flowers

30) Men Quilt Competition

(This one is a secret I am told I can post nothing about it tell the day it goes live)

31) Crib size train, bright color rag quilt

Left over from Last Quarter I failed on these and will work harder this quarter to finish these along with the new list above.

1) Rebecca's Sampler Started January still not finished.

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/01/magic-of-quiltmaking.html

2) Jeans for Jared Started January, Worked on in March still unfinished

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/01/jeans-for-jared.html

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/03/jeans-for-jared-part-2.html

3) Blue Hearts started January still not finished

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/01/blue-hearts-progress.html

4) John Deer Quilt

I finished one quilt last quarter for my father in law but have one for my brother in law that I need to work on.