John Deere Baby Quilt

This quilt comes with a story.  I am from the city (Salt Lake City, UT) and my wife is from what I would call the country (Kanab, UT). I have never really fit in with my in laws.  They have always thought of me as a city boy and being a Computer Pprogrammer they just never got me.  When I decided back in January that I wanted to make a quilt for every one in the family Tanya and I went shopping you can read about that here.  Any way we ended up with a pile of John Deere material to make my Father in Law and Brother in law quilts.  You can follow those links to see the 2 quilts we made.  

To me my father and brother in law are more comfortable on their John Deere equipment then they are talking to me, so the quilt is a fitting tribute to them.  This little baby rag quilt is all of the left over pieces of those other 2 rag quilts.  The other day when I was making all of the pieced tops, Tanya put this quilt together and it is washed and put it up for sell https://www.etsy.com/listing/109051939/john-deere-rag-quilt-37x47-inches on our Etsy store.

As you can see, we had far too many of the green and not enough of the others.  This quilt has the full top and bottom row green and then every other block green with random yellow, tan, or brown block in between. 

As a last thought for the day, I managed to get some thread stuck in the well for lack of a proper name the up and down arm on my machine (any one know its real name). So I took some time and pulled apart my machine and figured I had to take a picture of it gutted.

Since I am still new and a novice at machine maintenance.  What do you do and how often do you do it to keep your machine running well?  I well killed my first machine. Now that I am on my 2nd one (yes less then a year and one died) What would you consider proper care and feeding for your sewing machine?

Twirl Magic and a Sewing Saturday

Today I get to show off our newest quilt.  This quilt looks beautifu,l but it almost killed me making it.  I discovered all the ways to not do half square triangles.  I used a method to create the blocks by sewing 2 7 inch squares all the way around. Then you cut diagonally on the bias.  I did not ever understand the issue with bias tell I decided to sew 2 bias cut peices back together again.  Any way I think the quilt ended up wonderful and it is on our Etys store at https://www.etsy.com/listing/109021822/baby-girl-patchwork-quilt-out-of-twirl  HST Quilt

All in all I think it turned out fantastic.

This last Saturday Tanya and I went to the SLMQG sewing Saturday.  This is the 4th activity I have gone to with the guild and I enjoyed it a lot.  The goal for the day was to work on charity quilts.  Here is a few pictures I took.

This last picture is what Tanya and I worked on, the fabric was donated from  http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/  to go to the http://phoenixquilts.blogspot.com/ Tanya and I will be making 3 lap size quilts for them you will see more on this later.

My first Doll Quilt Finish

Today's post brought to you by Richard

Yes you heard right! I finished a Doll Quilt.  My wife decided the 8 HST that I had left over from my quilt (finished, but not yet posted) would make a cute tiny doll quilt for Julia. I hope to get pictures Saturday in the sun (the baby quilt, not the doll quilt).  But I decided that I could take not so fancy pictures for this finish.  This is not the only small finish I have ever done though.  In fact the first thing I made was small.  This post http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-sits-on-my-desk.html talks all about it if you have not read it go check out my gun!

So as to not completely slack over the last few days (Like I know how to slack), I did quilt 3 of my baby quilts.  They still need bindings added.

For any one that thinks I forgot, tonight Julia helped me pick a winner for LAFF giveaway for August.

Tanya wrote down all the post numbers and I cut them up and tossed them in a bowl.

And Julia ate them.  Good thing we can still see the winner.  The 26 is for Link a Finish Friday #26 and the 4th item linked which was http://amateurquilter.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-hexy-quilt-is-finished.html Amateur Quilter and his hexy quilt.  I will email him and let him know he won and have him pick 2 FQ.  My wife is putting together a picture of his choices.

Link A Finish Friday #31 with Prizes

It is now time for Link A Finish Friday.  Today I would like to start with a big Thank you to Fat Quarter Shop who has offered to Sponsor our Link A Finish Friday with Prizes.  This month's winner (September) will be able to pick a yard of fabric of their choice.

Please remember to thank our sponsor by visiting their store at http://www.fatquartershop.com/ their blog http://www.fatquartershop.blogspot.com/ and Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/FatQuarterShop

Last week the most viewed entry was from Vroomans Quilts

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 one yard of fabric from Fat Quarter Shop.

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.

Work In Progress Wednesday #26

Today's post by Richard

The first thing I want to talk about is Link A Finish Friday here at Richard and Tanya Quilts.  We have for the past 30 week given you a place to share what you have accomplished in the last week.  It could be a completed quilt.  Or simply progress on a long term project.  2 months ago I started giving prizes once a month to those who linked up.  Those consisted of 2 FQ from my stash.  I am happy to announce that thanks to a new Sponsor this month for September we will be able to up the offer some.

I am excited to share that this month http://www.fatquartershop.com/ has offered to sponsor our giveaway.  They are offering one yard of the Winner's Choice of fabric this month.  If you have not visited the Fat Quarter Shop in the past you should.  I have for the last few months participated in their block of the month program.  The program I enrolled in is the 2012 Designer Mystery Block of the month it started in June and runs tell may of next year.  I was worried at first that I would mess up my blocks but am happy to say that I am so pleased with the amount of fabric sent each month with great cutting skills you might even be able to make 2.  Check this post out for details on what I got the first month.

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This last week has been a busy week not only for quilting but for emails.  I ran 2 contests with 4 prizes  all of which ended this week between the 2 contests I received 350+ emails of which I responded to each and every one.  I am pleased to say that I have sent out all the prizes but one (waiting on a snail mail address) and this last weekend I wanted to see what I could amaze my self with quilt wise and what I have managed to do was complete 8 baby quilt tops this week (one of them is quilted and was sent to the wash, sadly I am not sure where the kids "Put it away" so I have not yet got a chance to post my finish on it) but here they are.

I am pretty sure I will not any time soon try to do 8 tops in one week.  But I had fun.  I have to admit I did not do this alone.  My wife Tanya helps a lot in our quilting progress.  My wife for example has basted all but 2 of theses quilts (they are all waiting for me to quilt them) the last 2 are waiting only for me to free up some pins so that she can baste them too.  I have mentioned in the past that I plan to make 52 quilts in 52 weeks.  I am way ahead in my goal.  Which of course means I have to up the goal.  As such I have been stretching my self and setting more lofty goals.  Now if I just set the goal to sleep some that might help my sanity?  Can you say I am addicted?


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