Block Party and your invited!

I am not sure if you have been following along or not (If you have not you should!) Quilting Gallery has and is hosting a block party 3 days a week starting September 4th 2012 and ending December 13th 2012.  The best of all the dates will be a week from Tuesday October 30th.  And why might you ask?  Well that is my day.  Yes Richard and Tanya quilts is participating in this blog hop.  This is my first blog hop and I hope to be involved in  many more.  I hope you will all be back a week from Tuesday to join me.

I feel like a slacker as its been a few weeks since I had a more interesting post.  One thing I realized is some where along the way I ended up showing the finishes, but not the beginnings or the process along the way.  Last week we sold yet another Rag Quilt from our Etsy store.  I have as of yet only sold 4 of my quilts on Etsy, but all that I have sold were my Rag Quilts.  Tanya recently has made 2 complete rag quilts from beginning to end, so with the money we got from the last couple sells we bought a bunch of new flannel.  Above you can see 6 inch by width of fabric that I cut for my wife Tanya.  She is is slower at cutting when its full yardage, so the other night I sat down and watched 2 TV shows and cut these all into strips.  Just before I came up to make this post, Tanya has completed yet another top (she still needs to cut it) and if she remembers we should have it on the site some time later this week. 

A week and half back I went to a SLMQG Mixer for  Sewing Summit and I actually won one of the drawings it was a Jelly Roll And if I can remember I will try to get a picture (or maybe show you what I am going to make out of it).  At the same even in the Door Prizes I got a pile of cute fabric and charm pact and mini charm.  Which of course I have not taken pictures of.  While thinking about all this not taking picture, I again came into yet another trove of material.  At our meeting last week one of the members had some material that they were not going to use and wanted to give it too any one that was willing to use it.  And you know me.   This is just a small amount of what they gave out, but when I saw it (and another quilt that some one showed off at the guild meeting) I knew what I was going to make.

Many months back you might remember that I went though a craze of Granny Squares.  Well it has happened again.  I am making them with this fabric.  I am doing them a little different this time.  I am doing a strip version of them rather then cutting all the material up to 2 1/2 squares first and sewing them back.  I hope I can make a large lap quilt out of this, since all of the material is scraps and I have no clue how much I go, it will be interesting to see how far it goes.  I have about 2 yards of a single print that I will use on the back and these on the front.

Any way I have bounced though 5 different projects in the last week with out completing one, so today is just a random musings day I guess.  Again don't forget to come back a week from Tuesday.  (Did I remember to point out I will have a giveaway that day too?) Any way hope your week is wonderful.

Link A Finish Friday and Prizes #37

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 (October) will win a $15 gift certificate to spend on Fat Quarter Shop.

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 Friday I mentioned that I got frustrated quilting my Diamond Quilt.  Tanya was unpicking the binding when I got home from work on Wednesday and it is now sitting back on the pile of quilts to quilt or bind (I think I have 9 in the pile and Tanya is telling me I need to get some moving along, as she ran out of pins to baste).  So look forward to more new quilts sooner than later.  Yesterday I posted my Halloween Quilt.

I could expect to see a few more Halloween items showing up over the next few weeks.  Here at the Healey Home we are working hard on the Christmas list and plan to have all of the gifts done on time which means less time slacking and more time quilting.

Last week It's About Time!! above and Say "Wonky!" were the 2 most visited links.  Remember the most important part of LAFF is to share the love.  Meaning Please visit and comment on the blogs that link up.  Encourage and let them know you love their quilts and other projects.  It is getting close to time that I too will have to do a Swoon, but it is not today.  Back to the sewing room for me and please link up to you.

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 $15 gift card 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.

I am slowly getting in the mood for the season!

Two days ago was National Boss Day.  To celebrate, my coworkers and I decided to do something special for the boss. We filled his office up with pumpkins.  A full pickup truck full.

My boss is a pretty cool guy and has a great sense of humor.  A couple years back we filled his office up with packing peanuts to the 3 foot level.  A few years before that we Shrink wrapped his entire office with a full roll of industrial packing wrap.  Needless to say, we try to keep things fun at work.  And some times the boss just sits and shakes his head and wonders what we have planned next.

Since I was all in a Pumpkin Mood, I brought 5 large ones home with me, so expect to see them carved some where down the road.  I decided it was about time I finished this Halloween decoration.  Its hard to tell how big it is, but its pretty decent size I think it was one yard by width of fabric.  My son James is scoping out the house trying to decide where to hang it and has pointed out the large front window would be perfect for it.  This was a one yard cut and all I did is some simple quilting around boxes and the strings from the spider I sewed down them too.  I circled all the ghosts and witches and all the purple boxes.  I would guess over the next few years each time I pull it out, I will sew it just a little more until its quilted more fully.

WIP Wednesday #31

Posted by Tanya

Additional borders were added to this 25 square rainbow quilt top to make it a little larger.  Most likely this quilt will go to Richard's Mom, for Christmas. It is basted and ready for quilting. 

The purple and pink quilt top from the Beginner QAL is finished.  Richard sewed the two outside borders on it and everything else was completed  by me. I still need to finish Richard's two that he started and start another for Rebecca for Christmas.  He does much better at all one type of block, than a slow based sampler. It is basted and ready for quilting. It is also a Christmas gift, for my sister.      

The plus quilt is about half way done with quilting.  We decided that it is going to be part of James' (17 yr old) Christmas present, good thing he never reads our blog. Richard was trying to decide what color of thread to use on this quilt and was having a hard time deciding, so I helped him out and told him to use a variegated thread we had on hand. 

This pile of fabric is for the pinwheel quilt for my Mom.  We found a block that is made of half square triangles, so no weird angles.  We are going to do half of the blocks in tan and half in the light green.  The plan is for me to start cutting it this weekend, if not sooner. 

This blue train rag quilt has been sewn, but not cut yet.  It is for a baby shower on Saturday, unless it doesn't get done and I end up using one out of our Etsy store. 

 This bright rag quilt with blue, yellow, green, and lizards is for another Nephews Christmas gift. I have three of nine rows done. He is four and likes all thing creepy and crawly. Some have asked why so many rag quilts.  They are easy and something I dare do. They are also what we have sold in our Etsy store. I am comfortable with beginning piecing, but not yet up to quilting a top. I have to give Richard time to catch up on the quilting. 

 This is a Halloween panel that Richard was having fun trying out different stitches on his machine.  He still needs to bind it, so we can hang it on our wall, before Halloween in over. The ghastly quilt for my other sister is on temporary hold, because I ran out of pins to baste with.  The zig zag quilt Richard is mad at, is patiently waiting for me to unpick the binding and prepare a new one. 

I think about every free moment between now and December 24th is going to be spent sewing, to try to get these and the other planned quilts/gifts ready. 



Men Quilt Too!

Almost a year ago when I first started quilting I had tons of people tell me about this Men's Quilt contest in October.  I have been looking forward to today all year long.

Originally it was supposed to be much bigger thing with a contest and prizes then it was downgraded to just a linkup.  I though want to say I am a Man that Quilts and I was so excited about this.  Then when it was changed from a contest to a link up I was disappointed, because I wanted to win.  How do you win a linkup any way?

A month and a half back the SLMQG had a contest using Dresden's.  When I made that quilt I also started on this quilt.  The quilt I made for that contest was A Snake in the Garden.  This quilt is going to go to my son Jared for Christmas (Shhh don't tell him, That is Jared by the way holding the quilt).

For those that are new to Richard and Tanya Quilts.  We are new to the quilting game.  I made my first test quilt Christmas Eve last year and have finished 53 quilts now (wait this would be 54).  My goal is to make 52 quilts in the 52 weeks this year, I guess I have exceeded my goal.  Please note that most of my quilts are baby or lap quilts, but I love each and every one of them.

Tanya, my wife is slowly catching up to me on the quilting game.  Last night she finished her 3rd quilt (ok really slow) but she will catch up one day. We are having a lot of fun quilting as a family.  My 14 year old daughter is now working on her 3rd quilt.  Her first is finished already and she is half done quilting the 2nd and just finished the top of her 3rd (in a sewing class at school this year).  If you are new to Richard and Tanya Quilts I hope that you follow us and see what we continue to do.

To view a few of the quilts I have finished visit my Finishes page here.  I would also encourage you to visit each Friday to participate in my Link A Finish Friday with prizes.  Stop by the 30th of this month where I will be a featured designer in the Glorious Autumn Block Party and I will also be doing a giveaway that day too.

For those that are interested, this quilt is out of the Reunion line by Sweetwater for Moda Fabrics