Orange and Gray

This is a mock up of what I am thinking about on my Orange and Gray quilt.  Tanya says Purple would be better with my gray so maybe I will have to do a Orange and Gray and a Purple and gray quilt.  Today I was able to get 14 blocks done so far.  So do you like Orange and Gray better or Orange and Purple?

Here are 8 of the 14 blocks I have finished.

Rebecca in the last couple days has made 3 more string blocks to add too our collection also.  Tanya has done some work also but I will wait to let her show it off as she has a completed quilt that is in the wash.

I love scraps do you?

Tanya and I went shopping today for some stuff I need to make a couple quilts I want to do..  More about that later.  While shopping, I found a brown bag that said scraps $5 bucks.  I do not know why, but I just can't pass up a good bag of scraps.  Above is what I found crammed into the bag.  Most of it I was able to cut up into 2 1/2 inch blocks (I love that size block and love making random quilt blocks out of them).  I have been in a mood for a long time to make a new quilt.  It will include tons of 2 1/2 inch blocks which leads me to what I bought.

Any idea what colors my next quilt will be made out of?  The picture does not show all of them well, but they are gray and orange (even though some of them might look white, they are not).  The plan is to make a quilt with 5 X 5 blocks alternating in oranges and grays.  Tanya still thinks I am nuts for liking orange, but every time I go shopping I seem to come back with more orange fat quarters.

Today my daughter found a phone book on the front porch and promptly threw it into the garbage.  I told her to take it too the sewing room, I had better ideas for it. (Does any one still use phone books to call people any more any way?)

I chopped a few dozen pages into 6 1/2 inch blocks which just made my daughter give me a even more puzzled look. Then I showed her what we were going to use them for.

My guild a while back made some string blocks for a charity quilt.  They suggested using news paper, a phone book or dryer sheets as a foundation for the string blocks.  I had none of those, so my pile of strings has just been growing.  Well today I made my first string block and starting Sunday I am going to start Rebecca on a task to make more of them out of my scraps so we can make a string quilt.

Well Rebecca and I (Richard) were doing the above. Tanya was quietly making a quilt top.  She spent a lot of time leading up to Christmas quilting our Christmas wall hangings (which never got finished and is stuffed in a box for next year, well we did give away 10 or 11 of them so some got done).  Any way she quilted all of them so I look forward to her quilting this quilt.

This is a baby quilt in size and its made out of Cowboy type materials.  Very cute if I say so my self.  Tanya did a fantastic job.

Link a Finish Friday #47

Yea Christmas is over (did I really say that) I am burnt out tried to do too much this year so going to take it easy by working on a slower project you can read more about it here.

I made 2 more now and they are a little better then the first one.  I have a long ways to go to get them perfect though.  One thing I don't like is I am wasting lots of fabric and I hate that.

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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 (December) 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

Mod Pop from Playcrafts

Last Minute Christmas Pillow from Mountain Quilt Works

Play Quilt from Stitches to Sprinkles

Are 3 of the popular ones from last 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 $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.

1 Sword Paper Pieced

I have finished my first paper pieced block and I messed it up, but I still thought it turned out cute.  I did a number of things wrong.  I cut out material for 2 different swords. I grabbed the first 2 pieces to sew together (the larger part of the sword I on accident grabbed 2 of the same color rather then 1 light and 1 dark as my son's desire was.  So to continue the mistake I just did the same alternating gray for the other part.  I also made one other big mistake on the left half of the sword I cut down the block edge instead of the  1/4 inch seam edge on accident so my block is smaller then what it should have been.  I did this Christmas afternoon and only had time to do one because the family was rushing me to go visit others in the family.  Anyway 1 sword down.  A million to go.  Though I have to admit this is going to be a time consuming, but fun quilt to make. (Sword Pattern Here, Shield Pattern Here)

I am looking for help making a charity quilt with these paper pieced swords and shields please look at this post for more details.

Merry Christmas to All!

Is it really Christmas already?  Tanya and I have been overwhelmed and worn out over the last month, burning the candle at both ends.  Tanya's mother had surgery, in which her foot was amputated and she lives a 4 hour drive from where the hospital is, but we live only 30 minute drive and as such we were the only family near her.  We spent more time then we had anticipated visiting and comforting her.  The plan originally was for 3 days at the hospital and 2-3 weeks in rehab and then back to her home.

Well after just a few days at rehab, she decided she was not getting waited on enough and she talked us into staying at our house for a week.  Oh boy did that put a monkey wrench into our family Christmas plans.  Well my mother in law is now back home and doing well. Both Tanya and I are exhausted.  Don't take this wrong, I love my mother in law, but I am so glad she is back home. I am tired, but it was great to let Grandma spend some quality time with our kids, which she is not able to see as often as she would like.

So your wondering what I am making with my cool Architectures bundle from Carolyn Friedlander.  I did not get the full bundle above, but I did get 17 of the 21 prints (its all I could find and I just had to have them).  You might wonder what would I do with such a pile of wonderfulness and well I am glad you asked.

This is the pattern I would use, but not exact order.  Last week I was pointed to a neat program called FabLib that helps to import fabric swatches into my EQ7 app.  You might be saying at this point not fair Richard got all the fun stuff.  I did good this year getting Tanya presents.

I bought Tanya Pieces of Hope a Riley Blake Design.  We have 2 Autistic Children so this one hit home for us I look forward to seeing what Tanya makes with this.  I did not stop there though I also got her another surprise.  She likes Me and My Sister Designs and I bought her a Fat 1/8 bundle of Ticklish.

Me and my family will now just take the rest of the day easy.  I do plan though to try to make a sword from  James pattern as I also got the material for it this last week.  Have a fun and safe day.

As for Julia today she got a walker/baby stroller and is cruising the house.