Richard Quilts

Granny Squares have taken over the building

2012-02-26T23:41:00.001-07:00

Today I want to start off and say sorry to http://grammieq.blogspot.com/ I won a fugly bundle from them and I thought I had posted about it already but just realize I forgot too. Or I am posting twice about it not sure which.

Today I cut a 2 1/2 inch strip off every single FQ that I have saved up (while the ones I had not already done in the past) and as you can see their is a pile of them.

While I was doing all the cutting today I ended up watching the first 5 shows from the show Jericho if you have never watched this show before you may want to check it out it is interesting.

Here is a close up thought it looked cool so had to post it.

I also finished sewing together my brothers queen size rag quilt. Rebecca my daughter even sewed X's in the last 20 or so blocks while I was cutting the above strips. My wife, Rebecca, and myself each sewed some on this project. It will not be completed (we still need to cut the edges of about 1/2 of it and wash it) for a couple more days but my brother has been pestering me for this one so it was a needed thing to get done today.

Rebecca spent some time today also sorting all of my 2 1/2 inch squares into piles and then putting them into bags to keep them all strait. After sorting all of them she decided I had to do my pink blocks today.

I ended up with 2 5 x 5 blocks in pink today.

And 5 of the Granny Square blocks. I now have squares cut for maybe 5-6 more colors sets and we even found a few more green, purples mixed in so may end up with another block or 2 their also.

My wife made the comment though that maybe we will have to make more then 2 for the grandmothers maybe with luck I will get to make one for me.

The addiction has expanded!

2012-02-26T01:02:00.000-07:00

Having one sewing machine in the house is not working, so we have Expanded a little. We have been looking into getting a 2nd machine and my wife has been reading, looking, and pondering what to buy. This machine was on sale at Hancock fabric and my wife decided to buy it. We went to get it last night and got there too late, so we went this morning. My wife went with me for fear that I would come home with the embroidery machine I keep talking about.

Rebecca quickly put it to use and made this doll a bed complete with a brand new quilt. She first made a pink block for Julia, our not yet born new one. You can see it on the left of the picture below. Then she made a pillow. Then she made a mattress. Then getting bold she decided to make a quilt. She had originally planned to just make 2 pieces of material and sew them together. I talked her into a little bit more fancy and it turned out fantastic.

One last picture of Becca while sewing. She plans to make a post on her new sewing blog in the morning, but it got too late. I could not resist posting about it first, so some time Sunday I will give a link to her complete post.

Just so you all don't think I am sleeping all day, I have been sorting, cutting and piecing together granny square blocks and some 5 by 5 color coordinated blocks. Like normal I can't do things simple. My plans are to make 2 quilts out of the granny square blocks. Fitting for the name, the plan is to give them to our Grandmothers. Both Tanya and I, have one living grandparent each and that is a grandmother on each side. I plan to make them each a lap quilt.

Oh the green ones by way were Saturday night and the purple ones some how missed getting posted from Friday night.

Oh and if not enough other things happened today I also got some mail from Karen at http://www.kaholly.blogspot.com/ she sent me some denim to add to Jared's quilt. Jared was pleased to see it and of course asked me when it will be done. I have gotten totally distracted and not worked on it in a month. So it seems that soon I need to put more of a effort into it. The plan for the Denim quilt is to tie it after I get the top sewed together. Because of the weight, the plan is hand tie the quilt, the way my mom did when I was a kid. When I started this adventure a month ago, I did not realize you could do it all on a machine. Anyway I got quilting frames from my mother in law, that was missing 2 boards and some clamps to clamp it. I bought the boards and clamps today. I am going to use the board to help me stretch out my next quilt and bast it on the quilting frames so I can try to get a little less pucker going. My plan was today to quilt the fugly top I made last week, but it looks like it will be a Sunday project (if I go to bed this 12am posting is not going to be good on my sleep).

As a last quilting thought, a guy down the street from me created this cool tool which he sells for $20. It helps you put the tacks in the old fashion quilting frames and pull them out. The tool on the left is a push tool that pops the tacks in and then you pry-bar them out with the bar on the right. I also picked this up today. If any one is interested in these little toys let me know and I'll get the guys contact info for you.

Just in case you think all I do is quilt (I do a lot of it but I do other things) I created a new blog to go along with my http://trackmyshows.com site which is designed to help track the TV shows you watch. The blog is at http://trackmyshows.blogspot.com I am still setting it up and deciding what to do with it but it will be a place I can post about some of the more popular shows being tracked via my tracking site and info about those shows and a place where those interested in TV can talk about it. Any way I have had a few comments about wow you do so much. My quilting is just one of my passions. TV is another (tracking it as much as watching it). Also my wife and I are both involved in scouting. My wife is a Webelos Scout leader in Cub Scouts and I am a 11 Year old Scout Leader (Webelos are 10 years old) and I have the 11 year old's the year later you can see one of the fun activities I did with the Cooking post I made last weekend on Beccas blog here along with pictures of our scout and my assistant leader. BBQ Chicken and Rice with the Scouts

A Few Of My Favorite Things

2012-02-24T23:04:00.002-07:00

Another finish for my wife Tanya and I, she is the one responsible for this quilt. It was her idea and she sewed the X's in I believe most of the blocks. I did sew all the blocks together though, and she points out that the 3 blocks I managed to put side by side on the bottom 3 rows(all the same) was my fault not hers. I did pretty good not getting others side by side. The black ones that are side by side are different colors of black. This will be for Tosha my wives's sister. Tanya is the oldest in her family (Her dad calls her #1) So this quilt is for #2. She is the mother of the girl that will get one of the Dragonfly Quilts.

The quilt has purple, black, butterfly's, and dragonfly's. So Tanya called it "A Few Of My Favorite Things"

The back of this quilt is roses that I first bought for my man quilts, but later was told by wife, not manly enough lol so they have been re purposed.

Ank my Block Partner sent me the below block. She felt that the first block she sent was not as good as she desired so she sent this as a replacement. I loved her first block and I love this one also its hard to tell but the background is a aqua or light green with purples It is totally beautiful

You can see the other block she sent on my block swap page. here

Tonight I did not get a lot done. I cut up some white squares for my granny square blocks I have been working on and was able to finish these 2 5 x 5 blocks in green and have the squares for 4 granny square blocks sitting next to the sewing machine. I did not get a lot done tonight because I took Tanya, my wife, out to dinner to her favorite Mexican Restaurant Garcia's near Layton Hills Mall. I had the plan of afterwards going to buy a new smaller sewing machine that my daughter could use (and wife or me depending who is using the other). It was funny we got to Hancock Fabric 10 minutes after the store closed. They have one on sale that my wife found and read the review on. It was kinda funny that we were just a few minutes too late to buy it. So Rebecca (my daughter) and I will go buy it in the morning.

One last thing remember to put your guess in for the baby quilt giveaway links for the 2 pages to put the guess on is found on top of menu on the right of the blog.

Linking too

http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com

http://quiltedeuphoria.blogspot.com

Link A Finish Friday #5

2012-02-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Goal for me this year is 52 Finishes in 52 weeks help keep me honest and show off your own finishes at the same time its a Link A Finish Friday!!

This Week 4 finishes including this one Sweet Dreams. 2 were quilts and 2 were hot pads. That puts me at 9 completes for February (though will maybe have another tomorrow afternoon finished but will put that into next weeks) and I have 7 finishes for January. So that's 16 finishes so far this year and we are into week 8 So I am right now at a rate of 2 per week. But I am sure in a month the new baby will slow me down a little. Don't forget to put your guesses in Julia's Quilt Giveaway as this finish this week will be one of 4 choices.

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.

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.

Another Direction, Easily Distracted

2012-02-23T05:04:00.000-07:00

I never realized how exhausting it could be to just cut up little squares. I have gone though about 2/3 of the scraps and left over stuff from other projects and made 2 1/2 inch blocks for my granny squares and also my 5x5 color blocks for 2 different quilts I want to make.

I don't have any where near enough variety yet to make a cool quilt but I have a ton of a few things (Green, Purple, Orange, Black/Gray's) I need a lot more of a few colors.

Good thing my wife has that huge FQ stack going to have to swipe some of it when she is not looking.

My son Jared was trying to make a Fish with his wedgits and every time we went to take a picture it fell apart. So just pretend that is a fish in the picture. If you look over his left shoulder their is a sneak peak at Tosha's Rag quilt its a combo of purple and grays left over stuff from 3 previous quilts.

Don't forget to stop by Friday and link up your finishes. I promise the Linky will work this week.

Also remember to put your guess in to win a quilt.

WIP Wednesday #2

2012-02-22T04:38:00.000-07:00

** Rebecca's First Quilt see her post on BeccaCooks blog **

Vote for me in the Valentines Showcase this is my entry.
I am number 42 on the list.
http://www.linkytools.com/like.aspx?entryid=3867417

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

OK this is my second WIP so I am looking at Freshly Pieced listing for some good advice.

Completed Projects:

2 recent finishes Fug Runner and Sweet Dreams (Giveaway Quilt)

Ongoing Projects:

Dayton's (My brother) Queen Sized Rag Quilt. I have sewed together 10 rows long 14 wide (view-able block) about 7 1/2 inches so 105 inches wide by 75 Inches long. I am running out of my 9 yards of material and realizing that um the with is too wide and the length is to um short. He wanted a extra large queen size and I think I went a tad too wide. I might have material for 2 more rows which would put me at 12 by 14 blocks (its going to be flipped on its side)

Man Quilts 2-3 more like Dad's Zag Zag and Paisley Parade I have enough X's sewed for 2 and half of these.

Tosha's Quilt (wife's sister) this is being mostly worked on by my wife. This is now sewn together just waiting for wife to finish cutting it. The flannel on the back will be the same as which is on Hearts and Flowers 2 Hum never took a picture of the back of that quilt interesting.

3 Secret Giveaway Quilt - Giveaway is not a secret but the quilt my wife is working on is. You can enter now following the 2 links here make a separate guess for b-day and weight. http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/p/guess-julia-dawns-b-day.html and http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/p/guess-julia-dawns-birth-weight.html

Tanya's Heart Quilt - This will be a queen size quilt and we have started making blocks but don't have a clear plan on a finish for it.

Jared's Levi Quilt - Jeans for Jared I am still shy material to finish have a couple people that said they would send me some to add too it and my mother just gave me a pile of my dads old levi's and then told me that I should make my dad a lap quilt out of them also. So not sure on this one.

Planned Quilts:

2 John Deer Rag Lap Quilts one for a brother in law and one for my father in law.

1 Case Machinery Lap Quilt for a brother in law.

2 Bug Jar Quilts for nephews.
1 Granny Square quilt (one block made a million to go)
1 5x5 by color block quilt 3 squares made

Totals:
Finished: 9 February, 7 January 16 total for year
On Going Projects: 4-6
Planned: 7 (though I keep thinking i am missing a couple)

Biggest change for this week Is that I have started on my Granny Square quilt I really love these blocks.

Orange Blocks and More Hot Pads with a little extra

2012-02-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

Today starts with 2 more of my Hot Pad Finishes these we will call Hearts and Stripes (only for lack of a better name) They will be for a gift to a family that I know from church. My son and I are their home teachers and I have not visited recently and these and a cookie mix should make up for it a little. The hot pads were a lot of fun and I am glad they are done. This holiday weekend also gave me a chance to let Rebecca my daughter spend some time quilting and she has finished sewing her first baby quilt. It is a lap quilt I will not show a full shot so that she can show it off more when she is done cutting it and washing it.
She was so excited that I finally allowed her to use my sewing machine. This is a classic reason why I need to buy my self a second sewing machine. One of the big reasons I started to quilt is so that she could learn to sew. She will be starting High School next year and plans to take a sewing class my hope is that before it starts she can have at least some skill in it. In all of the quilts I have seen on the we their is 2 types that really stand out to me. One of them is one that uses I believe its called the Granny Square blocks.

Linked To
http://quiltstory.blogspot.com/2012/02/fat-quarter-shops-series.html
http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2012/02/stitch-in-time-february-finishes-linky.html
http://southernlovely.blogspot.com/2012/02/show-share-28.html

Sweet Dreams - A Giveaway Quilt

2012-02-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

My wife is not so impressed with my pictures of this quilt. It does look a lot prettier then the picture makes it out to look. This quilt was made for the Quilt giveaway (links found on my main page for the giveaway on the top right) This quilt is a striped Rag quilt with a cupcake applique with Rick-Rack around it. This was designed by my wife and I sewed it together. The plan for our giveaway is to make 4 diffident quilts and then let the 2 winners each pick the one they want. Any way I think this quilt turned out wonderful now I have 3 more choices to finish up before the baby is born. The full quilt and more closeups show below.

Linking Too
http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/
http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/
http://gapquilter.blogspot.com.au/
http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/
http://quiltedeuphoria.blogspot.com/

Tanya's Choice and Post 50!

2012-02-20T00:08:00.001-07:00

Today (Yesterday by the time most will read this) I finally sat down after church and sewed together all of my hot pads. I had made 12 (ok I could not count so actually made a bakers dozen) of these. I created them so that I could practice Machine Quilting (wanted to try FMQ and also straight line or not so straitgh line machine quilting). They are about 8 inches square I will show them all 2 at a time (ok 1 day 3 at a time) You have have to wait a week or 2 on some depending on what other things I end up showing.

But want to spread out the love so that you get some time to look at each of them. These 2 out of the 12 that are still in my possession (I sent one to my swap partner Ank in The Netherlands) I am curious to see what she thinks of her crazy hot pad. The other 12 I plan to give away 2 by 2 to 6 Lucky people. That will first be my wife Tanya. She gets to pick her 2 and here they are.

Along with these I did get other things done and will give you a sneak peak at what I will show off more in the morning when I have some more time to write it up but here is the cupcake quilt that will be one of 4 choices for my quilt giveaway. (Picking Julia's B-day and Birth weight links below)

2 Lucky people will get to chose from 4 quilts. To enter to win please make sure that you get your guesses in. You can make 4 total guesses if you follow the extra guess rules. Here are the 2 links again for any one that has yet to guess.

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/p/guess-julia-dawns-birth-weight.html
http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/p/guess-julia-dawns-b-day.html

Oh one last note this is my 50th post what a great month and a half of quilting I have had. In the last 50 posts I have gotten 92 blog followers and had over 473 comments made and 19,622 page views. That just boggles my mind. I have enjoyed this a lot and here is too another 50 posts.

Linking too
http://piecefullife-elizabeth.blogspot.com/2012/02/little-quilt-mondayfinished-pinwheel.html
http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2012/02/stitch-in-time-february-finishes-linky.html
http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2012/02/take-look-tuesday_20.html

Fug Runner And a New Star

2012-02-19T00:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Fugly Post I showed the Fugly Fabric I won from In the Boon Docks and I showed how I had chopped it up into strips for a quilt. No the strips were not created to be used in this Runner but this runner was the leftover scraps from the quilt top that I made. Below you can see the quilt top I made it is finished. I still need to cut the back, Quilt and Bind it, but the top is finished. Being the crazy quilter that I have become, I needed to have a Finish so I created this runner. It will either go under the plants that I have on my desk at work (moving offices next week, so depends if it fits on the new desk where I am thinking) or it will go on top the washing machine to set all the crap that gathers.

If you look at the top of the picture on the right or the bottom of the picture on the left those bunched up lines are the tops of all the blocks I made for the quilt top that I cut off to square up my 12 1/2 inch blocks. And all the stuff on the bottom or top of picture on the left is the odd edges left over when I cut the 3 1/2 inch strips from my Fugly fat quarters.

If you look too close at the back, you will see that not even one of my straightt lines are straight. Remind me that any important quilting should not be done at 11:45 at night as I can' sew straight when my eyes are half closed. On a good not,e my binding looks FANTASTIC. I have totally got the binding thing down. I ordered a 1/4 inch foot today and a new walking foot (I refuse to use the one I have, as it gets jammed and stuck and makes too much noise for me to watch TV haha).

The new foot that I ordered has the ability to connect a seam guide, which I also ordered so that I can attempt to sew straight-er quilt lines in the future.

The quilt top here on the right you can see the sash on the bottom the top also has one, I sorta stuffed it into the top of the cupboards to take the picture. This quilt idea was taken from a picture my wife saw of a quilt made out of a layer cake. She had me get a huge fat quarter bundle last week with the $50 I won from The Fat Quarter Shop and wants a quilt made that looks like this also. So when she saw the fugly quilt she knew exactly what I was going to make.

Last, but not least, I got the first block swap block today I joined the http://quiltingblockswapsaustralia.blogspot.com/ which is a 12 1/2 inch block swap. My first partner Ank from The Netherlands sent me this block. She sent me a email after saying she did not like the block she sent me and will be sending me another. If this she considers bad, I want to see what wonderful looks like because I love the block. Rebecca came and grabbed it screaming MINE! so I think it passes her muster too, you can't see the color well but its purple and other pastels on a white background. I can't seem to get good lighting today to take pictures. It is way past bed time, so will see all the happy quilters in the morning. Night!

Linking too.
http://piecefullife-elizabeth.blogspot.com/2012/02/little-quilt-mondayfinished-pinwheel.html
http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2012/02/stitch-in-time-february-finishes-linky.html
http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/2012/02/20/manic-monday-linky-party-and-do-you-want-to-learn-to-knit/
http://conniekresin.blogspot.com/2012/02/welcome-to-another-linky-party-tuesday.html
http://gapquilter.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/f-word.html

Not So Fugly, Linky fails, and Quilts in progress.

2012-02-18T11:13:00.002-07:00

The Fugly party is over. But was some of the most fun I have had in a while the Fugly Party was put on by Charmed About You. 70 diffident sites ended up linking up and giving away the fuglys. I was lucky enough to win a handful of fuglys. 2 of them have shown up so far the set from the right from http://www.intheboondocks.blogspot.com/ which was funny when my wife saw it she pipped in that those are not fugly and then proceeded to tell me the project I will make out of them.

The second set of fuglys I received on the left are Christmas prints which my wife also could not believe some one called fugly came from Ella at http://throwawenchintheworks.blogspot.com Thank you both for these. I believe that I won 3-4 more and will write more about those when they show up.

My son Jared (7 years old) cat Cubby Wubby I found sitting on one of my newest quilts Flight of the Dragonfly and just had to take a picture of it as she is just a cute cat and she just will not approve any quilt so it must be pretty good.

Speaking of Finishes my Linky failed yesterday (I guess I was using a free Linky trial and it expired) its now up and working again please go link up your finishes for this last week mine will be linked up some time later today I have a couple blog posts for my various blogs to make first.
Link A Finish Friday #4

This item to the left is a sneak peak of the center of one of the quilts we plan to offer for the Guess Julia's B-day and Birth weight giveaway. My wife designed this quilt and created the center piece and I sewed it all together last night (it is a rag quilt and still needs to be cut up) will post a complete when its all washed up. The plan as of right now is to make 3-4 quilts and then let the 2 winners pick the quilt they want as their win so that if you want a baby blanket you can have one if you would rather a lap quilt you can. This quilt will be one of the choices. I plan to make one of my Man Quilts as one choice also. And possibly the quilt that I will be making the top today made from some of the Fugly wins above. I have cut strips out and will be sewing them into blocks wife also designed this quilt and you will see more of it in a day or so.

Add your B-Day Guess for Julia here
Add your Birth Weight Guess for Julia here

To the right is my Fugly win stripped up my wife saw a quilt made out of a layer cake on The Fat Quarter Shop while she was buying her fat quarters last week. I am taking loosely from that design and making a lap quilt out of these today.

Last but not least I posted a new entry today on my little girls blog. BeccaCooks - Dutch Oven BBQ Chicken and Rice Scouting Style Please if you have time go check it out. I created that blog so that my little girl could inspire and be inspired by others. She would like to grow up and be a cook.

Link A Finish Friday #4

2012-02-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

Being over ambitious as a new quilter and blogger, I have set a goal to finish at least 1 something a week. Be that a quilt, a mug rug or if all else fails a good sandwich. Wait that won't work. Lets try it again. 1 quilt, a mug rug, a um well something sewn. Any way that will be 52 finishes for the year. My 2012 Finishes will be where I list them all. But what I want to know is how many of you can keep up the pace with me and finish 52 things for the year. What better way to keep up then to 1 work on your quilts, and 2 share those with others. Being a web developer by trade, I know how important a link to another blog is (hint linking to me makes me happy) and I want you all to make sure you have at least 1 person look at your finish. (that's me). I will make a honorable attempt to look at every finish added to my list and try to make a comment on most of them. At the very least I will follow the blog of every one that links a finish.

So for the rules.

1) Who likes rules. Toss them out.
2) Add a link to your finish (blog, http://pinterest.com/, Pisca web album) or where every you store your pictures.
3) Visit a few of the finishes and comment or encourage them on.

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.

Flight of the Dragonfly

2012-02-16T23:46:00.002-07:00

I have now completed my 2nd and last Dragonfly quilt. Flight of the Dragonfly sister quilt to Dance of the Dragonfly These quilts are for my Niece and Daughter. For Christmas this year if your related your most likely getting a quilt. I have done a mix of Rag Quilts and Pieced quilts. The more Pieced quilts I make the more I love them.

It was funny yesterday I was showing my brother the progress I have made so far on his queen sized rag quilt and I was also showing him this quilt that I was getting ready to quilt (though he can not believe I stopped working on his quilt to work on this quilt. Oh well his loss and my gain. Any way he made the comment that he could afford more material and that he might want me to make him yet another quilt. LOL I think I will make every one in the family's Christmas this year as we have not had new quilts in the family in years.

Today will also be one one the first times that I will have more then one post for the day I wanted to get this quilt in for my Friday Link up can not let you all think that I can go a week and only finish one quilt. So here you have it I am not totally slacking for the week. Don't look too close at my quilting the lines are not straight, but the puckering was less this time around. I am learning each and every quilt what not too do and basting the quilt (yes trying to use the cool new words I have been learning) is not yet my specialty.

Linking too
http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2012/02/finish-it-up-friday-week-15.html
http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2012/02/stitch-in-time-february-finishes-linky.html
http://www.amylouwhosews.com/2012/02/sew-tell-v319-scrappy-fish-quilt.html

What I do while I Quilt

2012-02-16T20:03:00.002-07:00

For any one that does not know, my name is Richard Healey. I am by day a Programmer and by night a Quilter. My favorite thing to do is program, I know I should not admit that on a quilting blog but it is.

I have created dozens of websites and one of them I would like to show off a little tonight. (To shamelessly convince you to try it) Today I am working on my 2nd Dragonfly quilt and while I was watching TV (yes the site I want to tell you about is about TV Tracking, my 2nd favorite hobby next to quilting is watching TV) I have created a site called http://trackmyshows.com/

It is a free website designed for you, can guess it, tracking the shows that you watch. The first and most important thing to do is on the top right of the main page is the Login page and for any one new to the site is the "Register" Link. This will create you a account to track your own shows. You can do some things on the site without this account ,but with it you can do so many more things. When logged in you can use the "Set Following" page to list and set shows you like. You can also mark a show to follow from the show pages.

There are many ways to get to those show pages, the simplest of which is the "Show Search" Link. Once on the show search page put in any text you want and search for a show you can see. I did a search for quilt and found a quilting show. One of the neat things about my site is if it does not already have the show in the database, it will auto add it if the show already exists it will say go to show.

Once you have shows in your listing (when logged in) you will see some of the images below. You can see what shows you have not seen yet in a series when that show next shows. There is a quick list that will show you shows for the last week or 2 that are on your follow list, but not marked off yet. It also has a calendar of when the next showing should be.

Any way when I quilt I watch TV. Because I don't watch the same shows over and over, I track them. Any way I hope that this is of some use to you all and if you give it a try and like it, hate it or other wise let me know. I want to improve it and need input. Any way here I go back to quilting my Dragonfly quilt. (Yes I know my pictures look like crap that's what you get with the snippet tool).

WIP Wednesday

2012-02-15T13:35:00.001-07:00

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

OK this is my first WIP so I am looking at Freshly Pieced listing for some good advice.

Completed Projects:

Dad's Zag Zag
Another Hot Pad Day
Dance of the Dragonfly
Green Quilt of Awesomeness!

Ongoing Projects:

Man Quilts 1-2 more like Dad's Zag Zag and Paisley Parade I have enough X's sewed for 1 and half of these.

Tosha's Quilt (wife's sister) this is being mostly worked on by my wife. She has sewed all of the x's any way. It will have material from Dance of the dragonfly and also from my man quilts. The flannel on the back will be the same as which is on Hearts and Flowers 2 Hum never took a picture of the back of that quilt interesting.

2 Secret Giveaway Quilt - Giveaway is not a secret but the quilt my wife is working on is. You can enter now following the 2 links here make a separate guess for b-day and weight. http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/p/guess-julia-dawns-b-day.html and http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/p/guess-julia-dawns-birth-weight.html

Awaiting Quilting:

Flight Of the Dragonfly - This is a lap quilt the sister quilt to Dance of the Dragonfly I have decided that I need to unpin it and re-pin it a lot better then I had originally done the first one as I made some ugly bunches on it.

Tanya's Heart Quilt - This will be a queen size blanket and we have started making blocks but don't have a clear plan on a finish for it.

Jared's Levi Quilt - Jeans for Jared I am still shy material to finish have a couple people that said they would send me some to add too it and my mother just gave me a pile of my dads old levi's and then told me that I should make my dad a lap quilt out of them also. So not sure on this one.

Planned Quilts:

2 John Deer Rag Lap Quilts one for a brother in law and one for my father in law.

1 Case Machinery Lap Quilt for a brother in law.

2 Bug Jar Quilts for nephews.

Totals:
Finished: 4 (ok the Green Quilt of Awesomeness! was actually done last Tuesday but this is my first WIP wed so I am cheating)
On Going Projects: 4-6
Awaiting Quilting: 1
Planned: 5 (though I keep thinking i am missing a couple)

Dads Zag Zag and a Broken Heart

2012-02-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

My wife made me do it. She forced me Saturday to finish my quilt. I have been collecting Blacks, grays, and black on whites to make some quilts for my brother in laws and friends. Paisley Parade was the first of those quilts completed. Now mine is done. I am sure there are some that look at my name and want to know if I typoed and No I didn't. I dreamed up the pattern while dreaming one night and decided to go with a Zag and then another Zag for some reason it made a lot of sense while I was sleeping. If you look at the quilt (Yes worst picture I have taken, but I have a cold and just not up to taking more. I will take more photos later and post more. ) If you look at all the rows going at a diagonal to the right it goes down 4 blocks and then Zags to the left. Then it goes down 5 blocks to the left and Zags again to the right. This is I guess my gift from wife to me for Valentines. She actually sewed the X's in a few of the blocks. Any way one thing of note is on all the Zags that as colors come in from right and left none of the rows are repeated. In total I believe their was 15 or 16 total blocks. Quilt is 50 inches by 70 inches. And will make me a great lap blanket.

But all was not grand when it came to my quilts existence. It has as of yet, only been washed once. It really needs a 2nd time to make it shine. Last night I had my son throw the quilt in the wash. He asked if he could put any thing else in with it, wife said yes and off he went. About 10 pm I went to put it in the dryer and the washing machine was not working, it was displaying a error code. I am sure their are many out there saying I told you so. Don't wash rag quilts in your own machine. Any way I was up until after 2 am trying to figure out how and why it was not working and then ended up calling into work to get it repaired.

My wife stressed that the rag quilt broke the machine. When the repair guy got here he told me the pump was broken and that he needed to replace it. So he went back to his shop got the pump and came back. After hours of stewing about it, he pulled the machine apart. I expected to find parts of my quilt clogging up the machine. But instead what I find is a broken heart. Such a appropriate thing to do on the day before valentines. So the machine died of a broken heart. (For those that are not yet understanding the reference) in the picture above you can see the pump and the Heart found in it that tore its heart out.

Linking to
http://quiltstory.blogspot.com/2012/02/fabric-tuesday-is-now-on-come-link-up.html
http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2012/02/finish-it-up-friday-week-15.html
http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2012/02/stitch-in-time-february-finishes-linky.html
http://www.amylouwhosews.com/2012/02/sew-tell-v319-scrappy-fish-quilt.html
http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/2012/02/20/manic-monday-linky-party-and-do-you-want-to-learn-to-knit/

Just another Monday Picture #3

2012-02-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

All gummed up, HELP!

2012-02-12T00:29:00.001-07:00

I did it. I sewed too much and got it all gummed up. It started sputtering and kicking and rocking and then it stopped. Hum my new best friend died on me. Not being one that is feint of heart I opened her up and did some doctoring. I do not know how or why but my thread decided to stop sewing into my quilt and started wrapping up into a knot inside my machine. You can see on the right here I pulled her apart and looked inside. I was not smart enough to record what I did, but in the second shot below I showed you where. In my picture the red arrow is pointing at where it all went wrong. That arm attaches to that other arm thingy, but because thread wound up on the right side it pushed the arm right off the side.

Once I got it all out and attached the arm back on (which was no easy feat she was again alive) That was a week ago. Sure why do I bring it up now? My wife has been telling me that the reason that she can't sew is that she breaks sewing machines. While I was off running honey do's today (which included buying material for my son more on that later) my wife calls all in a panic and says she killed my sewing machine. To prove it she holds the phone up to the machine and lets me her it crying in pain.

Needless to say my wife managed to do the same thing I did. I showed her how to pull it apart and fix it and walked into the other room. 10 min later she tells me she broke it again? OK maybe she is a little rough on it. I come in the room to her showing me how the bobbin case is springing out of the machine and attacking her. After 20 min of checking and playing and fussing with the machine, I realize that one big problem is that the needle is bent. I look around and to my surprise I can't find any more needles. So off to the store I go (Late at night this time) and luck has it Walmart is open and surprise it has this generic needle thing and it seems to work.

My slave driving wife, made me start this morning on my rag quilt and it was her mission in life that I had to complete it today. (Being Saturday) and I am proud to say after all that blocked me, I have it sewed together now being 12:22 in the morning I am tired. So its sewed I need to cut it up (rag quilt) and then wash it a couple times and then I will show it off (most likely Tuesday) maybe Monday.

So here I am new and dumb. I busted (not the wife) my machine a couple times. In pulling it apart today, I cleaned out a ton of crap in the bobbin area and picked out tons of loose and wild thread ,but there was lint dust bunny's every where. What is the proper way of taking care of my baby? The bobbin that we were using that bent the needle kept jamming up the machine (it might have been too full?) Any way it came out and the thread came out and new thread and new bobbin and its now working.

I need to be educated on proper care of my machine. Do I need to pet it just right? Does it need a bath once a week? What do I do to keep it from screaming in pain. Why does my thread get all wadded up (yes this is now the 3rd time that arm thingy came off) HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I WON, the Wife won more

2012-02-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

Today I would like to start out and say "I WON!!" On February 2nd on this post you can read ffmq-winners " Prize #4, Fat Quarter Shop $50 Gift Certificate goes to #1, Richard of Richard Quilts" I was so excited and yet so unsure of what to get. My wife is finally getting more excited about this quilting and I told her to look around and find what she wanted and that she could pick what we got. She picked this Fat Quarter bundle called Twirl. My wife is so funny, she spent $120 on this bundle so I ended up paying about $70. So not only I won, but she won from me. I took 2 pictures of the bundle one with my cutting blade so you could see how huge this stack is. We definitely have a little material to make her a quilt.

One good note in this is I was able to get 2 more black prints in this bundle that I chopped up Thursday night for my Rag Quilt that my wife insists I make next. Something about I need something for myself, before I make something for someone else. After cutting up the blocks and not sewing x's in the ones she pinned she sat down for the first time and sewed. Yes my wife has finally caught the bug and turned into a quilter. YEA!

Besides what my wife sewed, Thursday I spent the night making the first "Swap" Block I have ever made. I stressed over this a little too much I think. I have not mailed it yet, going to do that tonight after work. Or during lunch. I have joined 2 swaps. One here in the USA and one in Australia http://quiltingblockswapsaustralia.blogspot.com/ My USA swap will start next month but I was lucky enough to make it into this months swap on the Australia one my first swap I get to do this month. Any way the last picture of today is my sneak peak for the block I completed. Off to The Netherlands it will go. I cant wait to see what shows up for me.

Addition to original post so one more picture. While the last day has been busy while waiting for Friday to pass with my Link A Finish Friday I got a package in the mail. I was excited to win a new Quilting Book "Loose Change". Which gives many neat ideas to make quilts from Nickels, Dimes, and Fat Quarters. From what I have read so far its got some great ideas. I was able to get this book from winning a Giveaway here http://simplifyandquilt.blogspot.com/2012/01/300th-post-giveaway.html I enjoy reading all of the blogs, I now have on my blog list and would suggest if you have never been over to Andra's blog that you stop by and check it out she has made some marvelous quilts.

Link A Finish Friday #3

2012-02-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

Being over ambitious as a new quilter and blogger, I have set a goal to finish at least 1 something a week. Be that a quilt, a mug rug or if all else fails a good sandwich. Wait that won't work. Lets try it again. 1 quilt, a mug rug, a um well something sewn. Any way that will be 52 finishes for the year. My 2012 Finishes will be where I list them all. But what I want to know is how many of you can keep up the pace with me and finish 52 things for the year. What better way to keep up then to 1 work on your quilts, and 2 share those with others. Being a web developer by trade, I know how important a link to another blog is (hint linking to me makes me happy) and I want you all to make sure you have at least 1 person look at your finish. (that's me). I will make a honorable attempt to look at every finish added to my list and try to make a comment on most of them. At the very least I will follow the blog of every one that links a finish.

So for the rules.

1) Who likes rules. Toss them out.
2) Add a link to your blog or where every you store your pictures.
3) Visit a few of the finishes and comment or encourage them on.

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.

Another Hot Pad day! -N- Giveaway Reminder!

2012-02-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

Before doing the binding on the flight of the dragonfly quilt I did 2 more hot pad bindings. I did such a crappy job of it, I finally realized what I was doing wrong. Flight of the Dragonfly benefited well from this disaster.

As you can see in the pictures, I did not even mange to keep them the same size. I cant quite figure out what I did to make the one so much smaller then the other. I guess they will work out well for lopsided pots.

On a good note I only have like 8 or so more hot pads to bind which means they should look a lot better then these 2 worked out. I am giving them away as gifts (hum who too?) So I labeled them with my new boring label. Tonight my wife had a stack of my black and white rag quilt blocks so I sewed them up. At the same time I noticed she is stealing some of my blocks and putting them aside to make a lap quilt for her sister. So yet another project is started I think that's like 10 irons in the fire. This quilting is serious to the addicting point.

Please do not forget if you have not yet, please use the 2 buttons on the top right of the blog to register you guesses for Julia's B-day and Birth Weight. There are 4 diffident ways to get a guess so you can make 4 different predictions. Please get them in. I am quite enjoying them. I do prefer to be done with the delivery in the morning or early afternoon so all this guessing to have it like 3am is just plain bad luck. Any way, don't hesitate you never know when this contest will end. Though you can definitely make a guess or 3 of when that will be.

Linking too.
http://piecefullife-elizabeth.blogspot.com/2012/02/little-quilt-mondayclamshell-mini-quilt.html

Dance of the Dragonfly

2012-02-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last night I completed my biggest pieced project yet. Dance of the dragonfly, I have talked about this quilt before it is for either Rebecca my daughter or Samantha her cousin. I told Rebecca she can pick between the 2 when they are done. This is the first quilt that I have stressed over. I have created a lot of Rag Quilts and they do not stress me in the least. When you screw up a edge on them you just fray it and wash it. On this quilt, I had to machine sew it (and don't look at it up close its terrible). It has puckers bad down near one of the corners and there is a sizable overlap. Its not the best work ever, but I learned from it. I learned that the batting that I have been using stinks and I will never buy it again. I learned what the word basting is (sadly I machined quilted it before fully grasping the concept). I can proudly say though that the machine binding on it is FANTASTIC! OK maybe not that good but the best that I have done to date. You can see I zig zaged my label on it, not perfect but its mine. You can also see the mitered corners turned out well thank you to http://www.redpepperquilts.com/ where I found a great tutorial for binding (its on her right bar half way down, got distracted once when noticed it making a comment). Sunday my wife was kind enough to finally pose for a picture my first official picture of her (not censored) on the blog to date. I am sure I will get more as you can see she has caught the bug (literally) in the last picture of her tonight. I came home and she proudly showed off the bug material she bought today for her bug jar quilt. I found one I loved on a blog and pinned it on my pintrest quilt board http://pinterest.com/rhealey101/quilts/ where I have been pinning projects I want to try. She is catching the bug, still not willing to sew, but she is now cutting out stuff for 2 quilts she wants me to sew up for her. You will note from my tag that I had faith in her all along helping on our projects together. 18 years of marriage and we finally find a hobby we both can deal with.

http://conniekresin.blogspot.com/2012/02/linky-party-tuesday-early.html http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/2012/02/13/manic-monday-linky-party-can-you-help-looking-for-jenean-morrison-orange-fabric/

Green Quilt of Awesomeness!

2012-02-07T07:51:00.000-07:00

Awesomeness Jared's Lap quilt is done. I started a Large quilt for Jared in the post Jeans for Jared, it is far from complete. He not being the most patient child and wanting to cut every ones jeans up for his quilt. We decided to get him a lap quilt so that he would give dad just a little more time. I am sure by the quilt that no one could possibly guess what might be his favorite color?

Don't forget to put your guess in for our quilt giveaway. You have 2 separate guesses to make Guess Birth Day and Guess Birth Weight You can enter up to 4 guesses each by following the rules listed on the post. Make sure to let every one know I want to make it hard for me and the kids to sort out all the guesses.

http://www.familyeverafterblog.com/2012/02/once-upon-weekend-link-party-30-and.html http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/2012/02/13/manic-monday-linky-party-can-you-help-looking-for-jenean-morrison-orange-fabric/

Just another Monday Picture #2

2012-02-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Guess the Birth Date/Birth Weight Giveaway!

2012-02-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

My wife is pregnant with our 4th child, she is due March 29. Julia Dawn (that will be her name) is what got me so stir crazy to start this quilting stuff. My wife and I are both full into nesting mode, getting ready for the baby to come. To have some fun and to giveaway some love, I want to offer the chance for 2 lucky people to get something handmade by me (and wife will help some too I would guess). The exact item to win is not yet set in stone yet. We are thinking a Lap quilt for one prize and a baby quilt for the other but that could change (maybe a runner up prize?) Who knows, any way I am creating 2 pages on my blog, one page you can guess the Birth Date (and my wife thinks we should add time to narrow out the people) and the birth weight of the baby on the other page.

I should point out that the baby on the top right is mine. That is Rebecca Jean our first daughter, she is now 13 years old and you can see more of her on her blog http://blog.beccacooks.com All of our kids are excited about the baby joining us in our family. Once I get more on Julia's Blog page I will link that, but if your interested in knowing something about the family to make your guessing better you can check out Jared (7 now) website I created for his birth 7 years ago it is http://jared.richardhealey.com.

Please use these 2 links to post your guesses

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/p/guess-julia-dawns-b-day.html

http://richardquilts.blogspot.com/p/guess-julia-dawns-birth-weight.html

Remember you can comment here all you want, but to win the comments must be on the correct page. There are 4 ways to enter each (and yes that means 4 guesses so you can widen your odds of winning).

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