SUPER EXCITED!!!

So, I've been keeping a secret for awhile and now I can finally talk about it!!!

Want to know what it is? Are you in suspense?!

It's mean to keep going on like this, so I'll spill the news:

You MUST RUN to your LQS or nearest news stand (or wherever sells magazines) and pick up the June 2011 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting because...

 See that Bonus Gift Super Star Wall Hanging mentioned at the top:

When you flip over the magazine you'll see MY QUILT!!! But you'll only get this pattern if you buy a copy off of the news stands or store shelves. If you have a subscription it WILL NOT be with it...Sadly, but go buy another copy, it'll be worth it!!!

This quilt is 44"x44" square and is designed to use Fat Eighths or Fat Quarters... I LOVE this pattern and trust me this isn't the last you'll see if it by a long shot. Although as soon as we paint the accent wall in our house this baby is staying put for a while. Okay maybe a short while, but it has a home in our house and I intend for it to be there even for a brief stay, you get the idea...

So that's my big news of the day!!! Hope you like it and run out and get a copy for yourself. Let me know what you think... my head is spinning with many ideas for new projects, especially after being in Paris, so expect to see many wonderful things in the future.

The sites...

So, and last but not least, the sites of Paris. There's several but I'll try to hit on the main sites we saw - I don't want to give it all away if you're planning on going for a visit yourself!!!

So we started our trip by hopping on a tour bus that took us to all sorts of places like:

 Like the Opera House...

 And then a stroll down Champ Elysses to the Arc de Triumph where we made a not so wise decision... tell you more in a bit.

 It's huge!!! It doesn't look that big from a distance, but the view from the top is amazing. Yep all the way at the top!

 Of course Eiffel Tower or Tour Eiffel as it's referred to in Paris

 Notre Dame. I'm still mesmerized by the stature and detail of this building alone...

 The Army Museum and the Tomb of Napoleon.

 The Louvre, the pictures at night are the best...

 The Orsay Museum...

Okay, now here's where the not-so-wise decision was made. I think it might be the hours of travel and lack of sleep, but being naive surely had some part in it. When we got to the Arc de Triumph we knew you could go all the way to the top. Sooooo, we got in line where there was a sign that read 'The only way to the top is up 284 steps".

284 steps. No biggie, right?! That's where the naive part was. We got in line to go up these 284 steps and about 3/4 of the way up I thought I was going to die! It's so narrow you really can't pass anyone and you have about 80 people behind you pushing the pace the whole way so it's basically impossible to stop. But I did it, I survived. The view was totally worth it, just look:

So I took some pictures, took a breather and made the 284 step trek back down to the bottom. The sad thing was there was an older man at the top with a walker in better condition than me! I didn't think I was that out of shape. So, in a 4 post nut shell, that was our trip.

Will I go back? Definitely. Will I try to learn more French for next time? Absolutely! Will we find that restaurant and bakery and eat there again? Undoubtedly! Well, this week I need to finish adjusting back to "normal" and get some things finished.

Hope to show you updates real soon of the latest projects, but slight jetlag has a way of slowing me down. I'll get some news to you as soon as I have it. Hope you enjoyed these and I'm sure you'll be seeing some Paris inspired works soon!

Délicieux

Or Delicious for all of you who do not speak French - like me. This post will be about one of the things I love most - FOOD!!!

I'll admit, being our first trip to a country where neither my Hubbin or I speak the language, we did eat at a few familiar places. BUT, they are so different from our restaurants here, I really honestly don't consider them that similar.

We found this awsome little mom & pop pizza place at the end of our street that had the most phenominal food. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

 It had the best pizzas (which they call individual but they're as large as a medium pizza here), and my Hubbin got this sandwich for dinner one night:

 It said it was a Steak au hache (hamburger we later found out) sandwich with french fries. We didn't realize they were on the sandwich... but I had a wrap of the same thing and it was sooooo good.

 And the bakery across the street was so yummy with delights of all sorts. Like this:

 A Chocolate Banana Eclair. It's my new favorite flavor and you'll find out why soon.

 This was what they called an Opera. It's a ton of chocolate and coffee covered by the best ganache I've ever tried.

 This was another afternoon snack of pecan pie, apple crumble tart and chocolate tart. It's really hard ot walk into a Patisserie with a Sweet Tooth and not walk out without a small sampling...

 And this was my crepe cooking away soon to be covered in Nutella and Bananas. Yes, Nutella and Bananas. This is the one I heard the most about of all the fillings you can get with your crepe. I took one bite and was in heaven. So I had Nutella at home, we now have bananas and I will be having my own version of this tonight for dessert! Try it, you'll love it!

And we did eat a bunch of street food like the crepes and tarts. This was my lunch at the Louvre. For lunch a baguette sandwich (this one is Chicken and Spinach) with a pop and bag of chips can be bought just about anywhere. We had so much to see and so little time to see it, we ate on the run a bunch. This was also a tad interesting for a meal - the flavors of chips available are amazing. If you look closely the chips I had we Savory Roasted Chicken with Thyme! They tasted like Stove Top Stuffing, it was weird but good!

We had all sorts of goodies, but these were some of my favorites. What do you think of these flavors from France? Let me know what you think. More Paris to come soon!

Au revoir!!!

Elegance

Alright, remember all that gold I was mentioning in my last post? Well, there's a TON of it all over Paris. From doors and gates to statues and buildings and bridges. It's everywhere and it's very elegant. Not at all does it even remotely seem - dare I say - gaudy. It contrasts very well with the stone and iron and bronze. Well, why I don't I let you be the judge?

 This is a statue outside of the Opera entrance created specifically for Napoleon...

 This is the Dome Church where Napoleon's Tomb is located. That tower is covered in gold and stands tall overlooking a large part of the city.

 In the distance is the Grand Palais (or Grand Palace) and the bridge connecting the Grand Palais and the Dome Church is this bridge with 4 golden statues on pillars at each corner of the bridge.

 They're quite tall and large as you can see here.

 This is a detail on one side of the Louvre, just one of a gazillion and a half I swear...

 This is the Conciergerie I believe... either way it's in Paris and the gate is incredible!

 Many of the street lights are covered in gold details. This one is in the Place de la Concorde.

 Gold is everywhere, even in the Churches... this is in Notre Dame.

 A fountain also in Place de la Concorde, made famous by Marie Antionette.

 This is the Petite Palais (Small Palace) opposite the Grand Palais on the other side of the street.

 Bridges bridges bridges... the details. Sadly many details only seen by those on the river... If you go to Paris, definitely hop on a river cruise.

 The Opera House lit up at night... I love this building the most I think. It was so close to our hotel, it's so grand and yet I didn't know about it before we left. I think that's what drew me most to it was the fact it was unexpected...

And lastly (I know this has been long) a ceiling in the Louvre. Just one of many, like I said there's gold EVERYWHERE!!! But what do you think? Personally, not one bit gaudy. Oh, how Paris still amazes me!

Alright, two down, a few more to go. I hope you're enjoying this, I know I had a blast!

Double D's

And before you go on thinking you know the topic of this post - wrong!

This post is the first of pictures of Paris and I'm going to break them down into smaller segments. This one (Double D's) is for Details and Doors.

Kind of a weird combination you might be thinking, but when you see these photos, you'll know why I took so many pictures of doors with all of their detail:

(I will apologize now if this takes forever to load, but trust me it's worth it!)

 Most of these doors are right on the streets of Paris. The doors used to go in and out every single day... This one above however is in the Museum of Architecture....

 And this door here is the entrance to the Tomb of Napoleon. And yes that's gold, real gold. Below is the picture of the door itself.

 And both the photo above and below at at the Louvre. They're gorgeous as well, but in the eyes of Parisians, just the normal doors on the building.

What I got out of this and I hope you'll get a glimpse of as well is the details. And the fact that I feel that through the course of time we've lost sight of these details, figuratively and literally. Why is done just good enough? Why not strive to do your best and be your best? In everything we do? Will it be easy, no. Will it be rewarding, undoubtedly.

I hope to use many of these pictures as inspiration for future designs. I cannot tell you how gorgeous these were in person and if you couldn't tell by the pictures most of these doors are easily 10 feet high. love Love LOVE!!!!

Towards the end of the trip Hubbin was pointing out doors to me to see if I wanted to get pictures of them too. I know I went a little crazy, but how could you not love these?!

If you click on any of the photos it should make them larger so you can see all of the details. They're absolutely exquisite and I will treasure these photos for ages. I hope you liked them too!!!

Stay tuned for more Paris from the Sites to Food and Gold - lots of gold. It'll be a journey even if you never leave your computer!

Until next time!

Slight Delay

I just got back in town. From where you ask? PARIS!!! It was wonderful, but we were supposed to be home yesterday...

Well, our flight to Toronto from Paris was delayed 3 hours.

Which meant we missed our flight to Cleveland by half an hour.

Which meant we stayed an extra night in a hotel away from home...

But now we're home with the dogs trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. I thought I would post some of the 900+ pictures I took, but jetlag is starting to hit so I'll post more later, make that lots of laters. It's going to be a mini series of sorts.

Sorry for the rambling, let me get some sleep and we'll chat more later!!!

New MBS Recipe

It's been such a crazy hectic week I almost forgot this  morning I have a new recipe on the Moda Bake Shop!!!

If you've been following my blog, you know what I'm talking about. If you're new to my blog, WELCOME!!! and to follow the chaos including my first trip to Shipshewana, my quilt showing up in a Moda Bake Shop Ad and how one of my quilts will be traveling to Spring Market look at my past posts. It's been a crazy week.

The Moda Bake Shop has been a wonderful adventure for many people including both designers and quilters. I have to say as a "chef" it definitely gets the creative juices going since the main principle of the designs is based upon the various precuts. Trying to design using these precuts poses a creative challenge that I welcome greatly. It forces creativity and sometimes I even surprise myself with new ideas.

But on the flipside it's great for quilters of all styles and levels. Sometimes you're shopping in your LQS and you see a precut bundle...a Charm Pack, a Jelly Roll, what not. And it just calls out your name so you buy it and take it home. Then you realize that you have absolutely no clue what to do with your latest purchase. (Not that I'm speaking from experience here, no no, never have I bought fabric on impulse :) ).

So the great tool you now have is the Moda Bake Shop, hop on over look at all of the awesome recipes and I'm sure you'll find something to make with your precuts. There's projects of all levels from beginner to a bit more advanced and all sizes from small pincushions to large quilts.

I am so blessed to be a part of the Moda Bake Shop and I really hope you like the new recipe. This was a fun one!!! Here's a picture since I've been rambling on:

Well, let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! Please, leave a comment to tell me your thoughts on both the Moda Bake Shop and my latest recipe. And as always, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com with pictures of valances you've made with my tutorial and I'd be more than glad to share the photos here too!!!

So, I'm going to go grab some breakfast and get to a day filled with quilting. Stay tuned as I'm sure there's many more wonderful things to come in the future!!!

Also, one other little tidbit before I go, Moda has been so gracious to pick up the entire Ruby Blue Pattern Line!!! So, if you see any of my patterns that you would like, ask your LQS to order them in or ask them to order directly from me! I'm working on the next pattern and it should be ready in a few weeks. I'll keep you updated.

So exciting, but still coffee is needed, must get coffee. Take care and we'll chat later!!!

More Great News!!!!

Here's how my morning has gone so far:

Tried to go to work

Got about a mile from home and they closed down the road, so I turned around and went home.

Snowblowed the driveway and got my hair soaking wet in the process (wondered why I bothered drying it in the first place?)

Got back in the house and into warm dry clothes

Made a pot of coffee (yumminess)

Waited for Ben to get home from work

Checked my e-mails and that's when it happened:

My Charmed Living Casaba quilt will be hanging in the United Notions booth at Spring Market!!!!

So that's been my morning so far and it's only 8:40.

Can't wait to see how the rest of the day goes!!! Yipee!!!

Awesome & Rockin'

So, I know you're always supposed to save the best for last, but I can't wait that long!!! I had the most wonderful surprise today. There I am, reading one of my favorite blogs (Natalia Bonner at piecenquilt.com) and I see this picture of a magazine - mind you a magazine I held in my hands not 2 days ago - but I didn't turn it over!!! On the back of the magazine is an ad for the Moda Bake Shop complete with my Spun Sugar quilt on it!!!!!! Just looky here:

See my quilt?! It's the bottom row, second from the right!!! And to think I had the magazine in my precious paws but was trying to focus on all of the amazing fabrics at Lolly's that I just glimpsed and set it back down.

Worse part, I was going to take my own picture of it when I went to the store to get one...I went searching for it on my way home from work and no one in my town has it!!! How rude right?! But I digress, my LQS is ordering a bunch and they should be here soon, but if I find a copy beforehand I'm getting at least one of those too!! Okay, maybe really 5 or so, but you get the drift!!! This picture obviously has been borrowed by Natalia, head on over and say hi! to her.

So that was the rockin' part of my day which was completely unexpected because... I just got back into town late last night from SHIPSHEWANA!!! If you have heard about it, truly it is as adorable as it sounds. Each and every bit of it.

I had the awesome opportunity to travel out there with my incredible Momma to work at a Regional Fabric Show for Quilt Shop Owners. It was a blast and I had a ton of fun. Mom usually helps out with the fabric end at the glorious Moda booth, and I got to demo the awesome Sewline products. Plus I helped out with the United Notions (books and patterns), plus I got to promote the Moda Bake Shop and I had a bunch of my quilts there too!

Here's what my section of the space looked like:

So this is where I spent my day, my quilts and things in one corner and the United Notions things in the other.

The show was at the Farmstead Inn which is where we also stayed. It's a beautiful hotel, this wasn't the greatest picture but it was raining like a banshee!!!

The rooms are usually in the white areas you can see and are broken up by barns. The barn you see above is a dining area on one side and houses the pool on the other. The other barn is actually where the Convention Center is and where the show took place.

The nice things about charming little Amish communities like this is the atmosphere it creates, even on a blah rainy day. And the food couldn't get any better!!!

So preparing for the show, traveling, a little retail therapy, followed by the show and the drive home was pretty exhausting. I'm having flashbacks just typing about it now, so tonight I'm going to make some dinner, and then relax on my wonderful couch until I fall asleep which shouldn't take too long.

So that's how awesome and rockin' things have been around here. Tonight through tomorrow they're calling for 15+ inches of the white stuff, so even if the awesome and rockin' theme gets a little snow, I can stay in and quilt! Hope you have a wonderful day and let me know what you've been up to. I'd love to hear what makes your days awesome & rockin'!!!