The Last Piece of Hope

Today I am showing off The Last Piece of Hope or at least the last from us.  Last Christmas I bought Tanya Pieces of Hope a Riley Blake fabric line to show hope for those that have or want to support the Autism Cause.  My 2 boys both have Aspergers Syndrome (high functioning autism).  We made 2 lap quilts you can see them Here and Here but we had a little fabric left over and so Tanya made us a baby quilt.

I think maybe I pieced it, but Tanya quilted it and bound it.  I think this is her 3rd to quilt and 2nd to bind.  She told me it looked so ugly afterwords that she could not sell it or give it away and we are stuck with it.  It is not perfect, but it is not as bad as she makes it sound like.

There are some puckers in the back, but hey I can live with it.  Any way I love it and I am proud of Tanya.  As I tell her its practice, practice, practice to get better at quilting.

In other news this is one of the quilts laying around that is almost, but not quite done.  Back in March I finished This quilt for Rebecca for her last year's Christmas present.  It was a larger twin size quilt (while large in my standards of lap and bay quilts) any way when I got done with Rebecca's quilt I had a bunch of left over blocks some were exactly like the one's in Rebecca's quilt, others were made out of leftover material (like that top left bock in 4 different pieces).  Any way this is a decent crib size quilt and it will be for Julia as she shares the bedroom Rebecca is in and they can have matching quilts (once she is big enough for a quilt in the bed).

Work In Progress Wed #38

You know it has come to my attention that I have been slacking on my Work In Progress Wed.  In fact it took so much time trying to find the last post number that I am sitting here trying to remember what I was going to talk about so lets um sit here and dig and see if there is something worth talking about.

Oh yes this will work.  I at the start of this year planed to make a Orange and Gray quilt for my bed (because sadly I still have not made my self a quilt yet) any way I wanted to make a quilt for me.  But then again as normal around my house Tanya vetoed the quilt.  So plans changed.

Tanya hates Orange and Gray but he decided my idea of a scrappy quilt was not that terrible.  So now I am making a brown and turquoise (with a splash of tan). Quilt for my bed.  If any one remembers I made a Richard's Star (yes I know some what conceded naming it after myself but hey I am new at this)  block and giant quilt block.  Heck lets just show you.

Any way Tanya and I plan to do brown and turquoise checker board out of the large 10 x 10 blocks. and then instead of the yellow star in the center it will be out of tans.  Any way that is the plan I think I have 8 or so of the big turquoise blocks, but I am still working on getting enough brown and tan.

Lets see what else is going on.

Oh yes this is a good one and it follows along with my bock (again I could not resist calling it after me) In 2 weeks from now (well week and half) HMQS is going to be held here in SLC, UT.  I have 2 quilts that will be in the show.  My helix quilt will be on display with other quilts from the SLMQG and I have a quilt in one of the contests.  The above is all that I will show for now and will talk more about the quilt after HMQS starts (mostly because I never took a picture of it before I mailed it off) lol. Remind me to take a picture next time before mailing it away.

The last thing I will share is something that Tanya has been off and on working on.  It is a sorta art quilt with a butterfly on it.  She was sewing the butterfly down the other night.  I cant wait to see it when its done.

Any way thanks for stopping bye on this WIP Wednesday.

I have discovered Craftsy!

I have recently discovered Craftsy and started listing some of the Items that I have created there.   For example if you click this link or the picture you will see that I have listed my Orange and Gray quilt pattern for sell there.

My first visit to Craftsy was to view the QuiltCon Lecture Series which is a free class you can take on Craftsy.  I am a member of the Salt Lake Modern Quilt guild and the lecture series is classes that were done during the most recent QuiltCon 2013 sponsored by the Modern Quilt guild.  The reason I am making this post is kind of selfish.  I want to learn better ways to promote my self.  And if possible make a little money to pay for my next stash purchase.

After signing up for the QuiltCon Lecture Series I decided to poke around and see what all it had to offer.  The first thing I noticed is that they had the ability to share patterns.  So I grabbed my Richard's Star and added it as a free pattern.  To my great surprise people downloaded it.  You would think after the fact that people follow my blog I would stop getting surprised that some one might want my patterns.

As you can guess I added the sword and the shield as free patterns.  And blow me away people are downloading them also.  As of last night between the 3 free patterns I have had 99 pattern sales.  With all the success in the free pattern sales I have added the 2 patterns that are quilt patterns for a cost.  The first 2 patterns I put up I listed at 95 cents each my wife laughed at me at such a low cost but I have sold a few already and after Paypal fee's I think I have made $3.06 I think I can afford a new fat quarter or 2 if on sell.

Have any of you been to Craftsy?  Have you listed your patterns or shared your projects there?  Are you having any success?  If you have never been their follow one of my links and go like my patterns or follow me on Craftsy.  If you have been to Craftsy or are a regular their let me know what you feel about it are you successful at sharing your your projects there?

Cars

This Car Quilt was started months ago, but just finished this week.  Richard handed both of the older kids the camera to take pictures of quilts.

 The top one Rebecca took, she thought that a baby quilt with pictures of cars should be taken on Julia's little red car (OK, technically Jared's, but he has long since outgrown it).  Next up is one from James with his usual  straight down shot.

We also have a folded close up from one of them.

Also a few spring pictures thrown in for good measure.  Notice the bottom red tulip, how it mixed with the yellow tulips and has one yellow petal.  I thought it was quite interesting.  It is a lot like our family, not quite fitting the traditional mold. (A little messed up, but still pretty) Not sure if I am referring to the tulip or my family, neither am I.

Orange and The gray are here at last.

Back in January I decided I wanted to make a scrappy orange and gray quilt for my bed.  I started gathering oranges and grays and started chopping them up and making blocks.   The plan was to make a queen size quilt for our bed.  You know by know, that Tanya HATES orange and has since vetoed the quilt for the bed.

So still a year and a half after starting to quilt I still have slim hopes for a quilt for my own bed.  Not to worry I will not let my orange and gray go away so fast.  I made a lap quilt for myself a long time ago.  Sadly it is not what I want and I don't love it (can you not love a quilt you made? Hum).  Any way I have wanted a quilt that I love and I can love this one.

I decided since I cant go queen it will be a large lap quilt.  I decided to do 5 columns and 6 rows the blocks are 10 inches and 2 inch borders (finished size) so roughly 58 x  70 is the size of my quilt.  I started sewing last night when I got home from watching a movie at 10 pm (yes I started to quilt at bed time) and I kept sewing tell it was finished.  By the time my post was written (yesterdays post) for Saturday it was getting close to 2 am.  Hum does that mean I still have to get up at 8 am for Jared's swim lessons in the morning?

Any way not that my design wall/closet has enough room to hang it out it does look pretty.  Or as my wife would say pretty (ugly) hey I can hear you talking!

I do think it turned out fantastic.  I plan to make more with the design and make a pattern for it.  Though I like the quilt, I do think I might put it on Etsy and see what kind of statement I can get off of it.  My other orange quilt on Etsy has been in more treasuries then I can count.  (Edit from Tanya, I insist that he keeps it for himself, so he can go on to another color, maybe he can make a baby one  for Etsy with all the leftovers from the original queen size plan)

For those curious, Julia continues to grow and get cute.  She is every day cutting in to my quilting time.  No that is not a complaint, I love so much spending time with her.  Can we say Zoo Trip Planned?  As you can see in my last picture she loves the dog next door, even if its bigger than her.  Oh time flies when you are having fun.