My first Guild Meeting

Tonight I took that next step in my skill building. That was to get over the fear of joining/going to a quilting guild meeting.  I and in Salt Lake City, UT and the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild meeting according to my GPS was only 8 minutes from my house.  The GPS lied, it only took me about 5 minutes to get there (I have a lead foot).  When I got there the front door to the building they meet in was locked (its a condo) and the lady behind the glass did not look so eager to let a guy in.  I think the look on her face when I told her I was there for the meeting was priceless.

The meeting went well they had a show and tell section (No I did not bring any thing, I hate to look stupid and did not know what they would think of me). Next meeting I will bring something, maybe one of my Batik quilts I am making.  I did get a toy though from the meeting.

As it seems the quilt guild this last month has been doing a Dresden Quilt blog hop.  I have avoided it like the plague in the past. Dresden's seem to imply, not straight line quilting and I have been afraid of that.  I am going to have to suck up and try it because I can't show these girls how soft I am.  So my goal is to think up and then do a project using this ruler (or the much bigger one I bought months ago when I was living dangerous). Please tell me how easy they are or suggest a great beginner project with them.

What fun would be a guild meeting with out getting home work.  I tend to be shy in groups (you might wonder how that could be when I keep spilling my life out here), but I am.  It took me some working up the nerve to ask what the huge pile of material in the basket was.  It turns out that they are doing a charity quilt and as it seems I can help.  I asked what to do and they said grab a hand full and make some string blocks using a tutorial (that I could not find, sigh go figure) any way here is my home work in the not complete stage.

The block looks easy enough, but before I start I need to figure out what size I am making.  Once I get that figured out, expect to see something made out of this tangle of material.

To finish up my night I did get all of the rows sewn together for the blue and yellow batik top.  I have all of the sashing rows sewn together.  I figured its 11 pm and 6am (work) comes too early so I did not get the top sewn together, but I would guess I should be able to get it done some time this weekend.  I have I think enough sashings cut out for the border around the out side.  It should be easy to get this done soon or at least to the basting stage.  Tanya has been pestering me to get my Soldier Star quilt done, so may not touch this Friday and work on that as I need her help basting it (all I need to do is figure out the back I think I need to cut and sew it together to make it wide enough.

Beginners Quilt Along Block 2

Today when I came home from work I found on the sewing table Tanya's 2nd block for the Beginners Quilt along.  The last block I helped her do so she was pretty happy with the fact that she did this one alone.  It looks perfect and is a hard block to replicate (maybe not since I had to make 2 for mine) If you have not joined into the fun of the Beginner's Quilt Along your more then welcome to check out the link here and join up.


Tanya when we started hicked my colors and her's My blocks for this block are kinda interesting.  It will go great with the rest when done I think.

Don't you love my colorful block, remember the other blocks in this collection have animals and other wild things .  This block is wild to fit in, though it kinda reminds me of a flag.

I found this picture on my camera and had to share it.  I am guessing one of the kids took it.

I spent the rest of my night assembling my blocks for my Color Blast quilts.  I am making 2 identical quilts in radical different types of materials.  Tonight I finished making my blue and yellow blocks.  I now have 30 of each type of block.  Thursday night I will start cutting the sashings and with any luck maybe get one of the tops close to finished so I can get one or both quilted as I am being a slacker only 2 finished quilts so far this month.

I did the disappearing 16 patch block to make the below block.  When I got done sewing them together I had to trim them up and you can tell how straight (NOT!) my blocks were by the pile of my trimmings they looked so cute I had to take a picture of them.

WIP Wednesday # 18 & Kathy's Quilt

Today is going to be a Work In Progress Wednesday.   I will be linking up with Freshly Pieced.  

Completed Projects: I completed one quilt this week and this is where its being reported.  I have finally finished my sisters quilt.  The quilt is longer and skinnier then I would have liked.  Doing it again I would have put the 5 x 7 blocks in a 7 x 5 position but hind site is that.

In Progress:
I am making 2 quilts that will be like Fire In The Sky (the bright orange quilt for those with slow memory's). This time, one is a Batik in Blue/Yellow the other is what my wife calls 80's fabric (or so my wife describes them.) They will be 5 blocks wide and 6 long, so bigger then Fire In The Sky (I added a Picture of Fire for comparison).

Ready To Quilt:
I am getting behind on quilting my tops I have 4 I think now in the box.  Rebecca (my 14 year old) has a quilt also on the list ready to quilt we just need to get it basted.  It will be her first pieced quilt. With any luck I can help her get it done this week (she is doing all of the work I am just giving guidance).

Ongoing Projects:
I am now interested in making quilts for others if you know any one looking to have a quilt made, send them my way.  I also have a few quilts listed on my etsy shop.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/RichardQuilts.

I have been doing 12 1/2 inch swaps for the last few months and received a few the last week.  I have been meaning to post these for a few days so here they go.

In the 12 1/2 inch group, I also joined in on Fat Quarter Shops Designer Mystery block of the month.  Tonight before I started working on my blue and yellow quilt above, I cut out and sewed together this block it is using the Vintage Modern by Bonnie & Camille by Moda for the blocks.  Because it was the first month, they sent a charm pack (2 1/2 inch pack)  in addition to the material.  It is so cute I had to take a picture.  This is my first Block of the Month where some one provides the pattern and material.  I was impressed with the amount of fabric they sent me.  I have a good size pile left over, so even if I had messed up big time on my block I could have fixed it.  I am going to enjoy this year getting and doing these blocks.

Planned Quilts:

I started writing a list and so has my wife.  With just family quilts I need to make (about 10-12) and the quilts I just want to make because I can I think my list is now near 20 or so of what I want to make.

Totals:
Finished: 1 June, 10 May, 8 April, 10 March, 10 February, 7 January
46 Total for Year wow only 9 more quilts tell I meet my 55 projects and I have to set the bar higher maybe I should go for 100?.

One last note for the day I took these pictures and have been slacking about listing them.

These holiday fabrics I won during the May for Me.  I tied on one of the bingo's and lost the roll for the primary prize.

These cute card's I also recently won.  If I send you a package and I don't include a card, slap my hand I have no good excuse other then I am a man.

linking to 2nd Quarter Finish Party As listed on  My 2nd Quarter todo list

Large bag of old leftover fabrics

Back on March 13th I posted about a Lady near me that brought me some old stash that she wanted to get rid of this was material from her husbands mother who had passed away a few years earlier.  You might remember that I made my Summer Fun Hot Pads from it (and gave her a pair) and I also made the quilt for my dad from it.  Most recently I started making a quilt that as of the moment my wife refers to as the 80's Quilt.  Saturday morning before we left for the last 3 shops on the shop ho,p this pile above showed up in a big black trash bag.  Below is a side look at it.  

This pile came from the same lady Sarah, she sews but she does not quilt.  She was blown away with what she had already seen that I made and found some more stuff (we filled a huge box with the pile) it was a bulging bag.  So if you think I bought a lot of stuff during the shop hop I just inherited more.  This is going to be a lot of fun.  I have not yet even sat down to look though it.  This is remants from 3 different past quilters (one was her) the other 2 much much older.  She said some of the material dates back to the 40's and 50's up to the 90's or so from her old stash.  I just cant wait to divide these into color groups and figure out what I plan to make first out of it.

WAIT!! stop the presses.  What is this? Oh I found 10 blocks that are roughly 9 inches in the pile of material (While Tanya found it I honestly have not even looked at it yet but will this week)

With my new love of EQ7 I created a mock up of a quilt (wont show you the picture it looks way bad) and this will be wonderful.  Tanya is digging though the material out of the bag (its now in a box) and looking for pieces of the originals to use.  Our quilt is going to have 20 blocks so the 10 original ones and 10 more of some kind or other (not circles as I am not quite up to that yet but loved them).  This quilt might just bump its way forward in the line of other quilts I am working on.  I love to be inspired by the quilts err blocks I find.

We shopped until we dropped and its all BULL!

Above is all the free or won items we got.  It includes 8 FQ, 5-6 Fat Eights, 2 patterns.  Some of these ranged from funny (the orange one with a pumpkin wearing a mask was Tanya's Get out of Jail prize) and the little cars and horns on top left (Dick and Jane) was Julia's Prize.  The top 3 were the finishing prize for the Wasatch Shop Hop, so most likely will have a few things I will give away over the next few months.  The Watermelon pattern we also got as a finish prize for the family finishing the 3 passports.  All in all a great time.  The 2 pins, green and pink Tanya and I won for dropping thimbles and bobbins into a milk jug. 

Here is our pile of papers with a million patterns on them.  We got a paper or 3, from almost every one of the 31 shops we visited.

Now these 3 piles of stash are what we bought (yes so much it would not fit on a single table) You can see in this top one there are 20 or so prints from the reunion line.  We have a variety of purples, a pile of fun dots and other fun prints, various Norman Rockwell era scout prints etc.  My wife had thought we could list all the stashes and make people  guess who bought what. That is no fun.  I will tell you the HUGE pile at the top was Tanya's shopping.  She kept telling me after each of the Reunion prints she bought that they were for me,  I wanted them.  Then keep adding to the lists of projects I will make for her out of it. Clearly they are all hers.  I just have a honey do list that is fun to do. Although I have been hinting about them for several months now. 

This next pile of fabrics are what I picked.  Granted I love the reunion above, but I got 9 of the Ghastly prints (I will buy more when my wife is not looking), but for now that's a good start.  I want to make 2 quilts one to sell (or keep, can't decide) and one for one of my sister in laws that would get a kick out of them.  The blue green and red prints on bottom left will go with the 2 lizards on the top right (Oh she bought another half yard of that on Saturday, I forgot to take picture of that) for one of the nephews.  I added 5 more batiks to my collection.  The top most was a clearance one, its 3 or so yards at just about 3 bucks a yard pretty good buy.  I got 3 of the bee block patterns and materials just because I thought  they were too cute to resist.  I bought 3 patterns (one of which is a Ghastly skirt pattern). I don't want to make the skirt, but I figured I would look for someone that can make skirt and trade them a quilt top or something for them making me the skirt for Julia ( for next year when she is big enough to wear it) (Hint, Hint anyone want to trade skirt making for quilt or quilt top making?)  I think in one of my other posts I mentioned the 2 Temple patterns I got and the bottom left is a cute pillow case pattern.  My wife wants us to make pillow cases for some step nieces and nephews for Christmas gifts and figured if I bought a kit to make one I could then make a few dozen more after (there are only 17 or so of them).

This pile is what Rebecca bought.  The dots at the top and the 2 materials bottom left is for that baby pattern she is going to make something for a neighbor that is pregnant with a baby girl.

OK now for the BULL!!  In the LAST shop we entered my wife pointed out some bag's on top of the shelves.  The shop was Floyd and Lizzie's,I like the shop and they had some fantastic batik's.

The bags though is what excited me.  I love surprises (as long as it is not a gift for Christmas or my Birthday)(My wife would argue this) and I love a challenge.  They are having a contest called the "Beautiful Swan Quilt Contest" and the point of the contest is to discover the joy of turning the ugly ducklings into a Beautiful Swan.  The bags are bought sight unseen for $20 dollars.  You get 4 1 yard selections of fabric and you have to make a quilt that uses 80% or more of all 4 of your fabrics on the front side of your quilt.  The contest ends next May.  I grabbed a bag (Lucky 7 or so I told myself) and wandered out to the car.  I looked into the bag and though "YES!!!!!!!!"

On the top of the bag were some pretty butterflies, blue flowers, and some blue and yellow flowers.  I handed the bag to my wife and told her she would love them and it was not so bad.  So she pulls them out and saw the fabric hidden at the bottom.

I think it took my wife 5 minutes to stop laughing.  I can of course handle any challenge.  This is a real one.  I have to make a quilt with butterflies, flowers, and Bulls.  Hum!  If you have any thoughts let me know.  As for me I already came up with a great plan, but I want to hear your thoughts.

So any way "It's all Bull's and and Flowers" here at the Healey house.  I have enough new material for 10 quilts (minus batting).  So expect to see new projects in the next few weeks. Wish me luck in the 31 drawings I entered.  The one I want the most of course is the grand prize of the sewing machine.  Boy oh boy could I use it now.