Rag Quilt from Stash #9

Some of you might have thought when Tanya forgot to post a quilt last week that we were running out.  She had ran out of pre-made quilts so over the last weekend she made 3 more.  This of course did not run the boxes of parts we have out.  My guess is we will get to at least 20 before running out.

Tanya did experiment a little with pictures this week.  We have been struggling with pictures and these pictures she took in our sewing room with a minky as a backdrop with the table she uses to baste on as a stand.

She took them in many different poses.  What interests me is your thoughts on the pictures.  On this page which do you like and which do you not like and why?

I like the one above.  I believe Tanya stuffed Julia's little chair under it to hold it up.  Any way lets hear what your thoughts are on which is the best picture.

Richards Quilt and a Silly Teenager try 2!

Having teenagers are fun.  They listen so well and always do what you want right?  Last week Tanya handed Rebecca our 15 year old the camera and asked her to take some pictures of my new quilt.  She went out side and took mostly pictures of the back.  We laughed so hard about it, that we had to post what she took.  Since last time we got no pictures of the front we figured we could hand the camera to our older son James who is 18 and see what he would do. 

The first 3 pictures listed was the first try.  Our instructions were to lay the quilt out flat on the ground and take a picture of it (so we would have the whole quilt front in a picture).  We asked for 1 single picture and ended up with these 3 pictures of my rumpled up quilt.  After getting the camera back and looking and laughing (not one picture with it flat, which was all I asked) we again sent him out for another try.

As you can see below , we finally got a picture of the whole quilt.  Oh wait, he chopped off 2 corners, but hey its close enough.  The blocks are 10 inches each (orange block, gray block) the finished width is 58 x 70 which will make a fantastic lap quilt for me.  Too bad its the middle of the summer and all I want is the AC on.

Oh an of course since I sent him outside a 2nd time for 1 (yes I told him 1 picture) he had to take 2 so we ended up with 5 shots.  Can you see he was just dying to take a picture of the back too, just like his sister.

Tanya's Hotpads

We have decided to make some small items to put in a box for a future sale (or as Tanya says give away as they are ugly)  I have been making table runners and hot pads (though few of my hot pads are finished).  These hot pads were made by Tanya and she hates them mostly because of the bindings.  She tried to do a no bind method as she is still terrified of binding things.

So today's post is a question for you post.  We need help and suggestions for great ways to make hot pads.  Since we have some fantastic followers I figure I can ask you for some help on this.  If you have a fantastic tutorial that you just love (either yours or others) please share it with me.  If you just have tips and or suggestions let us know that too.  Tanya tells me that from now on we are doing bindings on them and that I am doing them and I don't want too so need your help.

Earth to Sky Table Runners

Last week I talked about the wonderful Modern Yardage fabric I bought.  Well the week before my Sister in Law challenged me to make smaller things (like my baby quilts are not small enough)  so keeping with that I am making table runners.  As every one knows I like to chop my fabric into little pieces and put them back together.  So for my table runners I decided to make them out of 2 1/2 inch squares and do a diagonal table runner similar to the diagonal quilt I made.

I decided I wanted my rows to be 7 squares across.  So I sewed them all together at a angle going down.  When I was done I cut the top off one (and then sewed it to the bottom) so that I did not have to figure out the shorter rows.  Then I cut that long strip in half.  Tanya thought the way above looked great and wanted me to figure out how to bind the jagged edge, but having common sense I chopped them off.

Even chopped off they looked cool (yah, not as cool, but hey I was not up to the wild edge)

Above is the back of my table runners I used the 10 fat quarters to make the front and the back of these (and binding) and had enough left over to make a few hot pads which will be finished at another time.  These images show them before I washed them (oh ya they still need to be washed), but that will happen soon enough, but I wanted to show them off now.

One last thing I would like to mention is that I have started to Instagram my along the way shots (as I tend to always forget to post them here) if you look at me on Instagram (http://instagram.com/rhealey101) you can see all the crazy things I am making and many of which have never yet made it to the blog.  I also added a viewer to the sidebar that shows off the last 6 shots and as of the writing of this it shows some yet to be shown off table runners I was working on last night.

Orange and Gray Lap Quilt, Richard Sized

Rebecca was given the camera and asked to take pictures for us of this lap quilt.  I guess she like the back more than the front.  

The only full quilt pictures are of the back  It is a fun back with some gray squares and some orange pieces of fabric.

Finally, Richard made a pieced quilt for himself. It turned out great.