I aint talking you can't make me talk

Today's post brought to you by Richard

I went shopping today and spent a little over $200 bucks buying materials for 2 projects (both competitions)  I have talked about one of them already the Dresden completion at SLMQG and also this one here.

I only today decided what I am going to do for the Men Quilts today.  I have a hundred things in the works that I would LOVE to submit for this contest but it has one rule that I have to say SUCKS.  I cant talk about it.

Each entry must be a BRAND NEW piece never published or blogged about..

You cannot blog about the creation or discuss it in any forums you may belong to.  Mums the word in all entirety this year!  If you get caught abusing this very important rule, you will be disqualified.

The above comes from the official rules on the Men Quilt Too! post.  This of course only reminded me of being a child.  At Christmas time my mom always took us shopping for presents for my Dad.  One year I bought him a tie.  And my mom has teased me ever since.  I went home and promptly told him that their is no way he is going to get out of me that I bought him a tie because its a secret.  The story is so old my mom is the only one that remembers it.  But I am not going to tell you that I am making a quilt.  ACK!  No Must not talk any more.  Its a secret and I am not going to say a thing.  While other then wait its a secret.  ACK! I hate secrets.  Well I need to go hide in my sewing machine and sew my lips shut.  As my mom always told me loose lips sinks ships.

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In other not so secret news my Dresden baby blanket for the the contest at the end of this month I was able to find a front and a back for the quilt today out shopping (ya after spending $200 bucks you would think I could find something).

I have my top finished (While almost finished) I have the Dresden Snake done..

What in the world is that.  Yes its a Dresden Snake.  While you know me, if there is one way to make something I Richard Healey will find a way to do it not the right way.  And yes that goes for Dresden's I made 2 regular Dresden's but how can we stop and do things all normal like when its so much more fun to do things the wrong way.  After all this is a "Modern Quilt Guild" that my completion is for, so I did the more modern thing and did not play by the right play book.

Any way more pictures later but the 3 items are stuck to my back ground fabric which I think you will all approve of and on Sunday (well after I go to sleep and wake up again) later in the morning I will sew it down.  Some have questioned how I like my new machine.  It sews like a dream.  I just love using it.  Just wish I had more time in the day to quilt and less work.

All is well that ends well

Today's post brought to you by Richard

While I finally did it.  I broke down and made a Dresden.  My guild SLMQG is having a Dresden competition (Just got distracted the 2  quilts I showed off last month in guild meeting are listed on a post on guild site yea!).  Well I am running out of time to get serious to enter the competition.  So I must make some serious progress in the next couple days so I can get something to turn in for the competition.  Just so you all know this is not a guild only event.  Their is lots of NICE prizes so please make up a Dresden project and enter.

Last night just as it was starting to get dark my kids ran in the house screaming that the neighbors tree fell into our yard.  I ran out to look and was happy to find that it did not land on the power line (we have over head power in my area).  While scouting around I was saddened to realize that a coaxial cable was laying on the ground.  I ran in the house to realize that my Internet is out.  How can any one live with out Internet.  I was so excited to post about my Dresden but I could not get online.  Before I finish my story, I want to show you what happened 3 years ago this month.

Yes this is the same yard you can see in the picture above.  The top picture the right side of the picture is my neighbors yard and the left side is my yard.  In the bottom picture the left is their yard and the right is my yard.  So 3 years ago my tree fell into their yard hitting the roof and landing on the car.  My insurance company loved me.  The tree was dying and we had talked just weeks before that we needed to have it removed.  This time 3 year later its payback and the limb is now in my yard and our poor fence is dead.

Any way to start over on a good note today I finally cut into the Reunion material that we bought during the shop hop.  We ended up with 21 different fat quarters (22 we had one duplicate).  I took a six inch cut off the end of each fat quarter (the above picture was after the cutting) and was able to cut  8-9 petals of each material type.

Using the instructions on this post I sewed the top together and then flipped it over.

This was actually a lot easier and lot faster then I expected.

Once I got all the single petal's sewn together and ironed I sewed them all into pairs.  and sewed the pairs to other pairs.

It turns out that it takes 20 petal's to complete 1 flower.

I finished 2 full flowers and have enough petal's cut for about 4-5 more.  It seems that I need a circle for the center so will be going to the store today to buy a cutter for that and buy some material that I will use to put these on.  My plan is to make a baby blanket so with any luck I will have the top put together tonight and have something to show off in my next post.

To end off the post thank you goes out to the Comcast repair guy that climbed the pole and put my wire back on so that my Internet is back on and alive.  I host all my websites at my house so it was a sad night last night.  Almost 12 hours with no Internet.  Many unhappy visitors to my sites.  Oh well its back on and happy now.

Link a Finish Friday #27

Today's Post comes to you from Richard

Wow, I can not believe another week has come and gone.  I feel like its been months since I have been able to spend any time sewing and its really only been a few days.  I am a computer programmer by day and when I was showing off something of mine to a friend at work, I realized that something was broken (On one of my many web sites).  That lead to me doing some things that I had been putting off forever on another website.  And of course Julia is getting cuter and busier by the day (and taking more of my time).  So you are asking why all this dribble, your not talking about quilting.

I am right now thinking about Dresden's, I belong to the SLMQG and they are having a contest at the end of this month (well next month is the linkup time). You see they are all women and I am not one. I can't be beat by a bunch of women (well my wife beats me all the time, but we won't talk about that) any way I do not dare show up to next months meeting with out a Dresden quilt of some kind.  I have yet to get inspired.  I am thinking of doing a baby quilt, but have yet to pick material or even get inspired on design.  The above image by way is from a Dresden Tutorial on Sew Mama Sew and am linking it here as one idea as to what I want to do (or while how to make a Dresden).

So I need help.  If you have a Dresden quilt that you have worked on in the last 6 months or completed please link them up today (I need ideas).  Also I need Dresden advice.  If you know of a tutorial that is easier or even a different idea of how to make them please leave a note and let me know where it is.

One last question for the road.  I have a large wedge ruler and a small one.  Is it easier to make bigger Dresden's or smaller Dresden's.

The most popular quilt last week was from The Amateur Quilter, so thank you for linking up your finish it looks amazing.  Don't forget for each linkup you get into our random drawing for Fat Quarters.  The ones picked by last month's winner is the top left 2 from the picture below.  Thanks again for all those that link up.

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 8 pictured.  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.

Winner of LAFF

The winner of the the 2 fat quarters for LAFF is Alyce at blossom heart quilts.  She has her choice of 2 of the 8 fat quarters.

Life has been busy the last few days.  On Saturday we went hiking as a family. We went up by Lake Solitude which is basically between, Brighton and Solitude Ski Resorts. Richard and I need to get in better shape, we were very tired the next day.  James, our oldest is camping/backpacking with scouts in the high Unitas for the week. We have been busy getting last minute preps for his camp.

I have been working on the purple quilt for my step-mother.  I have all the blocks done and the 4 rows or 3 blocks sewn together. I didn't notice that I had one row wrong direction for picture, good thing they aren't sewn together yet.

Richard has been working on his 12 days quilts. (Richard now taking over the blog post, Tanya wrote every thing above)

I love giving things away and now that I quilt I have a special project I am working on for Christmas.  Now normally I am not a do something long ahead guy, but I don't want to do it in small scale I always think huge.  My family for the past few years (I think 4-5?) has been doing secret Santa.  It started out a lady I home taught (church thing) was kinda sad and not in a Christmas mood so the 12 days leading up to Christmas we brought a gift and left it on their door step.  Our family had so much fun giving that each year since my wife starts shopping the after Christmas sales for cheap gifts and we have been preparing a box.  We like to do a bigger gift the last day and  this year I want to give a 12 days wall hanging,  you can follow that link for where I found this great idea.  Any way its a mini wall quilt with 12 blocks, the first having 1 material going upwards for the last block, yep you guessed it to have 12 pieces.  I got to counting all the people I need to make one for (we are doing 3 families this year), my own, my home teaching families, my friend at work, a guy down the street.   By the time I got done counting, I ran out of fingers and the toes were close to gone also.  So the above shot is the first 7 days done.  Each stack has about 20 blocks in it (except the last 2 I did not cut enough the first time, so will just come back for them when I get the other blocks done)

Needless to say all this cutting and sewing the last 5 or so days on this project made me hungry.  So I decided Sunday that I wanted cinnamon rolls and of course in my giving spirit I wanted to take some to work.  Tanya agreed to help me make them if I wanted some.  So I made some. You can thank BeccaCooks for the directions to make your own..

Now that my fingers are tired and my belly is full I am going to sit down and watch TV.  You know I have a link for this too.  http://trackmyshows.com/ is another site of mine that I created (free to use) so that myself and others can keep track of whats on TV.  You can create a user account.  Find shows that you like to watch, and then using the calendar or the quick list page find out what they should be watching tonight on TV.  My list tells me that I have Warehouse 12 and Perception that I can watch tonight while I sit down and try to pound out another block or 2. 

Thanks again to all those that have linked up on LAFF.  Please remember their are more prizes to win so make sure you stop by each Friday and link up.

Link A Finish Friday #26

Another week has come and gone and again its time to do LAFF.  This is a new month and we will be picking new winners for the 2 Fat Quarters won for last month.  My wife will put all the names in a hat and have Jared pick it out some time Saturday so we can get it posted

This last week I have finished another quilt (my lizards) and sadly my wife is giving it away.  She seems to like my lizards from a far (she hates when I keep them at home) Though during our married life we have had 2 different Iguana's and many many blue bellies that I have caught over the years.  I think the lizards are getting faster as I don't seem to catch as many as I use too.  Though I take a few more pictures of them.

This month starts my 8th month quilting and as such my skills increase and I hope that yours is also.  I would like every one to set a goal of completing 1 Quilt this month.  If you can not complete a quilt complete a top, if not a top a block.  What ever you complete please link it up and share it with the rest of us.  We all need encouragement (me and you alike) Please take the time to visit a few of the completes and let them know how proud of them you are.

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 8 pictured.  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.