Another guild meeting.

I have joined the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild and I went Thursday night to my 2nd meeting  I am still pretty nervous to go, as every one other then me is female (yes women can be scary). I took my blue and yellow batik and showed it off along with my soldier's star and my not yet completed gray batik.  But that is not what I want to talk about.  The first meeting I went too there was a lady that was also new and she shared a quilt that she was working on that was built in sections (and quilted in sections) and then completed by sewing those sections together.  It generated a lot of questions from others (and me also as a queen size quilt could be difficult to sew on a small machine.  She brought the completed quilt and showed it off (it was a wonderful quilt with chickens on it) for her son, but she also brought a sample of how to do the quilt.  Above is one half of the sample and below is the back.

Its not a great picture but you can see that flap (the green cloth in middle), you put the 2 parts of the quilt together and sew on the strip above then on the bottom sew one half and the put flap over and sew it down.  I tried finding the name of this technique on the web, but could not find something like it.  Any way I am looking for more info on this, if any one has some links they could share let me know.

Also the last 3 days (Thursday and Friday and over night/Saturday morning) I spent at Camp Tracy with my 11 year old scouts.  So here is a rare picture of me doing my scouting at camp.  100 pictures taken and only 2 of me sadly oh well.

Link a Finish Friday #24 with prizes

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

I am busy this week with my 11 year old scouts at scout camp.  I will tell you about it when I get back for now you know the drill link up your finishes for the week.

 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.







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.

WIP Wednesday #21

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

Completed Projects: I completed Blue and Yellow Color Blast Quilt this week.

In Progress:
Tanya and I designed out a baby quilt to give to her new step brother in law's soon to be born baby boy.  This is a simple baby quilt that Tanya and I designed in EQ7

Soon after I got the above top sewed up Tanya decided that we were going to make one for Julia (I guess she loved the look of it in her crib. Next thing I knew she sewed up her first complete top on her own. (Tanya has helped design and encourage many designs along but this is the first that she has completed her own top so give her a hand).  This is using left overs of the twirl line that she had me make her own quilt out of.

Ready To Quilt:
Tanya basted the above Lizard quilt and its sitting on the couch ready to quilt.  In addition to that I have the below top and a couple others waiting on me.

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.

Also my Quarter 3 Post has many projects on the design list for me to work on if you have not read it you should check it out.

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 July, 3 June, 10 May, 8 April, 10 March, 10 February, 7 January
49 Total for Year wow only 6 more quilts tell I meet my 55 projects and I have to set the bar higher maybe I should go for 100?.

One last thing I was the recipient of a Pay It Forward gift.  If you have not seen this before in the soon future I will post about this but the concept is you put your self out to get a free gift from me (3 of my readers) But after receiving the gift you also have to give a gift to 3 more people (so you get one item and give away 3) if you are interested in this please keep a eye on my posts and Pay It Forward.

Blue and Yellow Color Blast

I have finished today my favorite quilt.  While at the HMQS quilt show I bought a pile of batik fabric (you might remember the giveaway I did with them) out of all the batik's that I bought the Blue and Yellow ones were my favorite.  This quilt is made from a pattern I am putting together that I call Color Blast.  It is made using a disappearing 16 patch block.  My plan is to sooner than later post the pattern as a free giveaway.

I have been working on this quilt for some time now.  I finished the top just a month ago on June 23rd.  I have been waiting for the new machine to show up so that I could quilt it, with out fear of messing it up.  When I washed it I was afraid that I would get bleeding all over the place and put 5 color catchers in with it and they came out quite blue, I am glad I added those.  Any one have much experience with batik washing?

This is now my second quilt that I have made using this pattern my first was my Fire in the Sky ,it is my bright orange quilt.  As you can see I am keeping with the bright idea with this quilt being blue and yellow.  I have one more quilt that I am doing with much more down to earth colors, my wife calls it my 80's Fabric.  This quilt has 2 differences.  First that the corners have corner stones (Is that what they are called?) and second  its one row wider and one row longer so a bigger quilt.

Nothing is better than Lizards!

I am all boy at heart and nothing is better then lizard or at least that is what I believe.  On vacation or other locations that we visit as a family, the kids know that there is a standing order to look for and find lizards and since none of them seem to love them as much as me (maybe they love them more who knows). They are paid $1 for every one I get to see and take a picture of.  This one above was found on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  If you love lizards as much as me you can go to my picture site here and see all of them that my kids have helped me take pictures of (and it cost me a lot of money so check them out).  I think I enjoy taking pictures especially of wild life, as much as I love quilting.  But then here I am going far from the point of my post today.

While out at the Beehive Shop Hop and the Wasatch Shop Hop Tanya and I spent way too much buying every thing we fell in love with.  Needless to say when I saw lizards I fell in love with them.  Above is the completed quilt top the pattern is of my own making and design using EQ7 and Tanya and I plan to make a pattern for this quilt and give it away here on my blog.

This quilt is being made for my wife's step brother Jared  (his baby any way).  They are pregnant with another baby.  I have only met this step brother once (at the wedding of my Father in law and step mother in law) 2 years ago.  When we found out they were pregnant with a boy we knew we had to make them a quilt and what boy would not love a lizard to snuggle with.  Tanya went and sized the quilt in Julia's Crib (she is not yet sleeping it, but she is getting big quick and in no time she will be).  Any way less then 2 min after putting the quilt in the bed, Tanya tells me I am not done yet today.  She is going to have me make the same pattern (different material) for Julia.  So as I write up this post my wife is cutting up blocks out of the Twirl line of fabrics.  You might remember that we made Tanya a quilt out of this line and can go read about that here. Most likely by tonight (its only 5pm as I write this) I will have yet another top done, but I wanted to make a post now as I wanted to showcase my lizards.

Its hard to see on the 2 above pictures but the 2 white strips on the top picture and the middle section on the bottom picture I was able to Stipple them.  I was so excited about finally being able to do some FMQ.  After I did the little bit I did Friday night I went over to the Free Motion Project site and watched a few video's then came back and did the above.  I am so happy with this new machine.  Tanya even complimented me.  The bottom of the 2 she said even looked nice. Back in January I made some hot pads for the single purpose of having something to try FMQ on and my wife made me stop because she told me it sucked.  So her saying kind words means a lot.

I finally got my back done for my blue and yellow batik and my wife basted it for me.  I think I have a good deal with my wife, I quilt and she bastes.  She does a fantastic job at it.  Any way this is the second back (that I can remember) that I pieced something into the back.  The swirl material was not long enough for the back, so we used the left over fat quarters to make a line across the back to make up the difference in space.

 It is sitting right now on my sewing machine, waiting for me to stop babbling and get back to quilting.  I have to say the walking foot on this machine is just fantastic.  It is so smooth and so quiet compared to my old machine and foot.

Last but not least, I got one of my blocks for my swaps in July.  I guess that is the hint that I should start working on mine this month this one comes from Dawn in KY.