My Dad Lynn Jay Healey

Today's post comes with a little bit of sadness and a little bit of joy.  My father above (holding me when I was just a baby) passed away last night.  He was one of the greatest teacher of my life.  He helped me become the man I became.  As a little child he spent all of his time teaching me and my siblings (I have a brother and sister) the things that we needed to know.  He was in my youth, a scout leader to me and hundreds of boy's that came before and after me.  

As he seasoned,he also cared and loved my children and my wife.  He was not always a easy man to deal with, but he was a loving and kind man.  He loved to tease and joke.  Even as recently as 3 weeks ago when visiting him, Baby Julia was being the cute baby she was sticking her tongue out, and he stuck his tongue out to her.  He loved his grand kids and they love him.

Last May I made my dad a quilt I am saddened that he will no longer get to use it, but I have joy that he has found peace.  He lost his only sister just a year ago to MS and both of his parents years before that.  I am happy to know that he will have some one to meet him on the other side and I know that he is now at peace and no longer in pain.

One of the great things that my father left me is a legacy of love for taking pictures.  As such a few of the pictures that were taken of my father in his younger years can be found here on a picture site of his. I created from slides he took when I was a kid.  And even more in the recent years can be found here on my picture site.

Dad we will miss you and we love you and will never forget you.

Yes more lizards, What can I say I love them!

I have been thinking for a while that its about time I put a picture of me on my blog.  I like the pictures of Julia better (she is cuter), but today I went to the Sahara Cares 2012 Carnival for Autism. We have two boys that are diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a high functioning form of Autism.  Any way one of the booths had a bunch of reptiles.  It was so funny to see how freaked out Jared was with the snakes, until he realized they were not scary.  Then he would not put them down.  Though Tanya kept her distance, about 10 feet back and kept yelling to wash our hands.  Any way I got to hold a cute lizard (and 5 different snakes and 2 turtles.  I drew the line at the scorpion that James my oldest held and he said it tickled as it walked on his hand.)

Any way all of this brings me to the quilt I will show off today.  This was finished a few weeks ago (but with being sick for 2 weeks and my father getting closer to meeting his maker). I have yet to post it as a finish. This afternoon I went to the park with a huge basket of quilts (6 completes that you have only seen bad pictures of the tops, so expect them over the next few weeks).  But today (thanks to the above mentioned Lizard) you get the lizard love first.  Tanya and I made a quilt for her step brothers kid out of the black lizards in this quilt and just had to make another one.

On this one we chose ivory minky to go on the back and various fun kid friendly prints to mix with a blue and black version of the lizards.  But I have to say, sadly that I do not like this quilt as much as the last one.  It is cute, but it could have been cuter.

Any way another quilt to add to my Richard loves Lizards line of quilts.  Enjoy.

Link a Finish Friday #33

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

This week I have been working on a Plus quilt.  This is the first 4 rows sewn together.  If you looked again at the wall this morning their is 8 rows sewn together and there is rows 9-13 on the table.  I ran out of Pluses and have to cut a few more tonight to finish it.

The most clicked link from last week was this Tetris Quilt from Fabric Engineer.  Long ago Tetris was one of my favorite games.  As such a quilt like this is on my to do list.  Now link up and have a great week.

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.

It all adds up to something?

Tanya was confused when I started this project.  She could not understand what I was doing.  I told her I was going to make a plus quilt.  If you look at my http://pinterest.com/rhealey101/quilts/ board on pintrest you will see many + Quilts that I have pinned over time.

In this photo here you can see my mess, I mean my quilt above the mess in my closet.  This is going to be a quilt of plus's all added together.  Each block is 4 1/2 inches wide.  It is out of the Reunion line which I have I believe 22 different fabrics from.  It is surprising how slow this is going trying to keep the 5 blocks together and sew them into rows.  I put 5 rows on the desk, all lined up and went to check on baby Julia.  I came back to a cat who had made himself comfortable while stretching out on my lined up rows.  Oh well this is going to be a cute quilt when done.

Speaking of the cute little one, she is looking cuter by the day and she is enjoying her quilt Hearts and Flowers which was one of the first quilts I ever made.

Work in Progress Wednesday #28

Today's Post by Richard

This week has been a slow week for me on progress.  Earlier this week I completed a top made out of the above diamonds, but it still hangs up where I took the picture not yet basted.  My Dad is sick and not doing well. Because of that I am more distracted then most weeks.  We were told a little over a week ago that they did not expect him to live a week.   Yesterday when visiting the nursing home where he lives, he said that he did not even recognize me.

This last week we did post a new quilt.  It is a complete that is mostly credited to my daughter Rebecca.  She sewed all the X's and she sewed it into rows.   I did finally spend an hour cutting up new blocks for another new top that is about 1/4 done now.  I sadly did not have the camera handy so have no pictures done.  Tanya and I have both got a cold so things are just not happening this week around our house.  Any way that is my progress if you can call it progress for this week.