Time to get serious

 I survived 2 weeks of scouts and it is time to get back to being serious with the quilts.  But first I have to re-cap the last 2 days.  My youngest son Jared is now a cub scout and that means he finally gets to go to Cub Day Camp.  This last Friday and Saturday we spent the whole day up at camp and I believe I can safely say he had fun.  With just 3 pictures I will show how it worked out.

Day 1 don't I look cute and clean.

Crab walking as part of one of the dusty  activities we got to do.

What we have to go home?  I still have a few inches of me not dirty.

When I got back from camp Tanya had 4 rolls of queen size batting that she found on sale for half off (with an additional 20% off coupon) and she asked if I was mad.  I said heck no.  Next thing I know she drags me to another store an I buy 5 more.  I guess all the tops we have completed need to finally get finished.

I did finally get 2 more blocks in the beginners quilt along done, I am still behind.  Tanya has 2 more done and is caught up I will post her's later as I have a lot of items I want to post and still need to take pictures of them (she has been working hard and I want to show it off)

I have also been sewing together the country version of my color blast quilt.  I need to sit down some time soon and make up the pattern.  My plan is to put it up here on my blog and get some advice on how to make a good tutorial.  And then polish it and put it for sell on etsy! Maybe I will get rich NOT! 

John Deere Rag Quilt

This newest quilt of mine has actually been done for a few days now (well like 2 weeks ago).  I finished it the night before my new Janome sewing machine showed up.  Though it took a few days for Tanya to cut it up.  Tanya and I have a good deal going on these rag quilts I sew the rows together and she cuts them.  If you have never done a rag quilt it takes a little bit of time to cut it up.

This quilt has a long history of progress I first blogged about this quilt on my January 22 post named "Some one hide my CC".  When Tanya and I first bought this material we knew that we wanted to make 2 quilts one for her dad and one for her brother.  My wife is from a Rural town (I am from the City) and both of them are a salt of the earth type of people they are no more happy then working out in the fields on one of the John Deere's that they use.

We completed the first of our 2 quilts named Tractors on Patrol for my father in law back in April.  It really did turn out to be a wonderful lap blanket.  It was not quite big enough in our opinion for Cody my wife's brother he is Tall well over 6 feet tall.  Nolan's quilt was 9 rows wide and 12 long.  We decided to do Cody's bigger and when we went put it to gather to sew we realized we were short material.  So we threw all the stuff in a box and latter bought another JD print for the top and another one for back.  I should point out that this rag quilt is flannel on the back and cotton on the top.

When I finished this quilt I realized I have enough left over blocks to do a random baby size quilt so you will see at least one more JD quilt out of me so look forward to that in the future.

Link A Finish Friday #25 with prizes

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

 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.

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.