Bug Rag Quilt

Today's Post by Richard

I have been sick and under the weather the last few days and have done no quilting (I know no one believes I can just sit around and do nothing) but it does happen.  I guess I have been doing a little more then nothing.  I did some programming, but I did not do any thing fantastic.  I did watch some TV tonight the new show Revolution was on.  I have a link to my blog and on the blog a link to the pilot if any one missed and wants to go watch it.  Enough about that I guess your wondering what this quilt is.  This is another finish, but I have to give most the credit to Rebecca my 14 year old she sewed all the X's together and then all the blocks into rows.  I did sew the rows together and Tanya cut it.

This is some flannel I found last trip to Joann's  It was on sale and so cute (talking about the bug's). I had to grab something to go with it, so I got some blue and then some yellow gingham.  It turned out great.  This will be going on the Etsy store as soon as I get better pictures and I told Rebecca she could have the money it makes.

Link A Finish Friday #32 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

Wow is it Friday already?  When I got up for work today my wife asked me why I did not put the Link A Finish Friday Post up.  Wow I though it was Thursday.  I am so happy that I have to work one less day this week then I thought.  Late last night I made a post http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/2012/09/look-another-squirrel.html and talked about my newest Completed Top.

I guess I got so distracted last night making it that I forgot what day it was.  The last few weeks have been crazy.  Any way its Friday so lets get to it.

Last week the most visited quilt was from Vroomans Quilts  This week it could be yours.

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.

Look another squirrel....

Today's Post by Richard

My wife teased me a few weeks ago in this post about getting easily distracted and chasing squirrels.  In that post I really did chase a squirrel around but this time I was distracted by new fabric that showed up.  Tanya in the last blog hop won a 20$ shopping spree on http://www.christaquilts.com/.  The other day she was sitting at the computer next to mine (Yes I can't even have one computer I have to have a room full of them, You know computer programmers kinda silly) I was programming my great true love (Oh don't worry I have lots of free time to quilt) working on new features on my TV site http://trackmyshows.com/ and Tanya was pestering me to help her pick what fabric to buy.  I looked over and saw this cute material.  It is a line called Brooklyn Heights Textures by Benartex which is a Kitty Yoshida fabric.  Any way I pointed at it and said yep I like that one.  And I went back to programming.  She pestered me again after finding 4-5 other great things to buy and I said nope I like the other one.

Things like this frustrate my wife.  I looked over for all of 5 seconds.  Made a decision and never looked back (Well she did make me look back that second time, but we won't count that).  So what do you think showed up in the mail tonight.  I asked Tanya if I could cut some Diamonds out of it and she reluctantly said yes.

So I cut out some diamonds.  They were just sitting their all sad in different stacks.  So I guess the least I could do is sew them into some rows.

Well now.  A few rows got done and I figured out that I needed some more diamonds and repeated the process.  By the time Tanya got home from work for lunch (well dinner time for me) I was just putting the last few stitches on the last row.

As you can see what I ended up with in the end is yes another quilt top.  You see I ran out of quilt tops that were basted so I had to make another one.  This on the small end of lap quilt size.  It is bigger then the quilt of the same design I made for my dad which you can read about here.  So ....  Wait I think I see another squirrel, so off I go (to bed, believe it or not I do get a hour or 2 in here or there)

Work in Progress Wednesday #27

Today's post is brought to you by Tanya. 

I finally finished this purple rag quilt I started several months ago.  I may have got a little too creative though.  I tried various stitches on each of the appliqued hearts, basically I quilted the hearts.  One more of my own UFOs done.  Now the combined list of both Richard and I has a long way to go. 

2 Amelia Quilts and Lizard Quilt



Pink Quilt, not basted

The baby quilt tops we worked on over Labor day weekend are almost done.  With the exception of the pink one that I haven't even  basted yet.  They have been quilted and are in the process of being bound.  We did a wide variety on backs, some are minky, one is flannel and two are cotton prints.



My favorite "Bee Quilt #1"

Twirl Brick Quilt

Richard was working on binding my favorite quilt when I went home for dinner, "Bee Quilt #1". The two baby quilts out of the Amelia line by Me & My Sister for Moda are finished, but pictures are not taken yet. Richard said he was planning on finishing the two "Bee Quilts" before going to bed (They are done now).  That leaves two quilts waiting to be bound, one more out of Twirl line and the lizard quilt.  I am usually pretty good at picking fabrics to go together, but neither Richard or I like this Lizard quilt as much as the first one he made. It is cute, but we liked the brighter colors of the first one.  One of us, probably him will be posting about each finish individually in the next few days.  Notice any trends?

"Bee Quilt #2

 We bought more of the Batik fabric for the back of his twin sized quilt over the weekend, now to have some time together to decide how we are going to piece it together.  I guess that is what weekends are for.

I receive a couple packages in the mail for items I won on the last blog hop. The first package was from Kim at Lily Patch Quilts. Four pink FQ's.  It will be fun to work them into various projects.

 I also received these patterns from Loris at Luckypup Quilter.  I love appliques and think the Teddy Bear one will be a fun one to use up some of our larger scraps on.

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?