Raggedy Ann N Andy

Today I want to give a huge thank you to Mary Jacob of Made With Love by Mary. Last month, she linked up a baby swaddler and she had Raggedy Ann swaddled in it.  I struck up a conversation with her about that doll.  When I was a kid my sister had the pair and we would play with them.  She of course with Ann and I had Andy (boys do not play with dolls, but it is OK if its a boy doll, so you see I was covered here).  I have wonderful memories.  Any way I commented asking if she knew where to get pattern or buy them (I want to get them for Julia). It turns out she had a extra pattern for both the dolls and their clothing (pictured above) the patterns come complete with instructions to do every thing, including completing their hair.  Rebecca (my 14 year old) and I plan over the next few months to work on completing these for Julia.  Lucky for us, we have a lot of time.  But I will show you my progress as time goes on.  Right now we have a list of items that Rebecca wrote down to buy at the store.  It includes the buttons for the outfits, the proper fiber fill stuffing and of course the red yarn for their hair.  I look forward to making this project with Rebecca.

Recently I got block 2 of the 2012 Designers mystery block of the month.  I have been so busy with other things the last couple weeks, it has been sitting in its bag.  Tonight I finally got it out and sewed it together.  I had some difficulty with the flying geese, just pretend they are all straight.  I had to do a big set and a small set to complete this 12 1/2 inch block.

In other news, I have now moved my sewing room downstairs.  The bad news is I can't find the floor or even move in it (kids just tossed every thing sewing related though the door). I plan to have 2 places to sew (one table for me and one for my wife), so we don't have to put every thing away so the other can sew each day.  We also have a 3rd table we plan to have just for cutting.  We have been moving the machine and cutting mat back and forth to sew or to cut so I am excited to not have to move every thing around.  We are out of the front room, so we now have somewhere to sit and watch TV or visit with friends again.  

Paying It Forward

Back in January, just a month after I started quilting I was going though the many blogs I followed and I ran across a blog post about "Paying It Forward.  I love this concept.  I am one that likes to give more then I receive.  I found the post over at Grace and Favour and here is the link to that post I signed up and was picked to get something.

While my gift arrived this last week in a very large envelope.  It is a Wonky Tree wall hanging with stars on the tree's and I have to say I just LOVE!!!!!!! It.

Now it's my turn to "pay it forward".  

There are of course a few rules if you would like to participate.

1. You must pay it forward to 3 people within a year of receiving your gift (easy enough)

2. You must have a blog. This is so you can in turn blog about it and pay it forward to 3 more people.

3. Once you receive your gift, you blog about it to keep it going.  Use the "pay it forward" button.

It doesn't necessarily have to be quilted, just handmade. We're not talking a queen size quilt here either.  It could be a little table topper or a mug rug.   If you sign up, I will be stalking  checking your blog to see what you like.  This is fun!!

Soooooo wanna play?  If so please leave a comment on this post saying you want to be in on this and we will pick 3 people to pay it forward too.  And some time with in the next year you will be getting your gift.

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.