The Recap...

Is anyone else completely baffled that tonight is the end of 2011? This year was wonderful and more than I ever could have imagined, but even though I'm sad to see it go, I'm excited for 2012 to come.

So, this year was full of wonerful things, here's a list of highlights:

I started off the year posting on the Moda Bake Shop with a recipe for scarves, and added a few more tutorials later on.

Sew As You Go Scarves

 Layered Valance

Dueling Personalities

I went to some new places:

Ben and I went to Paris for the first time!

 I went to Shipshewana a time or two

 I went to the NQA Show for the first time

 Ben and I went to the Western Caribbean with some friends!

And Mom and I made the trek to Holmes County, Ohio for a couple days

I was featured in a couple magazines:

 June 2011 Issue - turn it over to find:

 My quilt!!!!!

And the back cover of Perfect for Precuts had the Moda Bake Shop ad that included my quilt!

I made some new quilt patterns:

 Charmed Living Casaba

 Charmed Living Tote

 Sciuridae

 Cake Topper

 Alphabet Stitchery: Farm Animals

 Alphabet Stitchery: Bugs Bugs Bugs

Alphabet Stitchery: Noah's Ark

I was entertained by some critters in my tree:

Even these three little ones
Currently nobody is residing in the tree, but winter hasn't truly hit yet...

I did some quilting:

 And I started a new feature to the blog:

Back to Basics!!!

So, whew, I'm exhausted. Looking back I can't believe I got all that accomplished!

I'm looking forward to some exciting things in 2012 including more topics in the Back to Basics tutorials, a new Moda Bake Shop recipe (coming very soon!), more travels, new patterns, and who knows what else!

But I could not have done it without all of you. The encouragement and support I get from all of those that comment, e-mail, follow my blog, or I meet when I'm out and about make this so much more rewarding than I ever thought possible! THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!

So here's a farewell to 2011 and hello to 2012! See you in the new year!

Alphabet Stitchery: Noah's Ark

I'm trying to keep the themes of these quilts on a trend that will grow with the little ones (if they get them when they're brand new!) Little ones aren't little for very long and this quilt offers a size that they can play on, learn to crawl on, drool on, carry around when they walk, and sleep with in their big kid beds!

Noah and his Ark are accompanied by all sorts of animals - all two by two in this quilt. There's camels and elephants, donkeys and lions and many many more!

I had so much fun drawing out these guys and trying to decide how each animal would interact with it's partner, where to put them all in the design, and what colors of thread to use!

As with the other quilts, the stats stay the same:

Finished size: 40" x 48"

24 Blocks (10 Stitchery & 14 Pieced)

Finished block size: 10" x 8"

Now some of you may be asking why use a non-square block? My initial reaction to this is why not? But also it offers possibilities that you just can't get with only square blocks.

A great idea just popped into my head - wouldn't this be a darling donation to a church raffle??? I'm thinking YES!

One more thing - I actually used a layer cake for this design and had plenty left over to make at least one more quilt! But it gave me an exceptionally scrappy look. This is the debut fabric line from Malka Dubrawsky for Moda called A Stitch in Color! I got the idea for the quilting from once of the fabrics - see the gray with yellow in the bottom right? Yeah, that one! You can find this fabric in stores now.

Alright, so I hope you enjoy this quilt and if you have any questions or own a shop and would like to place an order, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com. Be back soon with more (;

Alphabet Stitchery: Farm Animals

I have to say, this was the design that started this whole craze. My best friend was pregnant with her first and we grew up "in the country", so she grew up on a farm. Literally, right now her house is part of a barn - with animals. Animals including her first ever cow she had as a 4H project when we were in 3rd grade. I think Blossom (the cow) will live forever at this point! But, we love her and the goats, horses, pigs, dogs, and whatever else you might find at Katti's house over the years.

So, back to topic - since Katti was pregnant I wanted to make her a quilt with farm animals. I looked and looked, but there weren't that many patterns to choose from and frankly some of the fabric looked a bit creepy if you ask me... So, I made a quilt out of 1930's prints with some applique.

Then this adorable stitchery pattern came into my hands a little later (I will keep this one nameless for reasons below). The blocks were cute but the construction and the quilt itself was horrendous!!! My Mom really wanted to have a cute sample so she asked me to design some blocks for it. We loved it so much that we thought I should draw my own stitchery to go with the blocks and here we are today!

Soooooo, here's the stats (this quilt is a smidge different, but that's why I love it):

Finished size: 40"x48"

Blocks: 24 (10 Stitchery & 14 Pieced)

Finished block size: 10" x 8" (See what I mean?)

Oh, and if I didn't mention it before - all the animals have their own names which are listed in the pattern. Kinda weird, but it was fun! Also, if you are a fan of applique - this pattern already has the pieces set up for use as an applique pattern too! Just think - you could mix and match the two for a really adorable quilt!

All I can say is too stinkin' cute! I kinda want to make another with the applique, but I have all winter to work on that (; Be back soon with more pictures!

p.s. If you have any questions at all or own a shop and are interested in the Alphabet Stitchery patterns, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks!

Merry Christmas!!!

I know I'm a little behind on this one, but I took off a couple days to spend with family and family alone. It was WONDERFUL!!! No computer, no e-mail, nothing... Just family and good times.

So, from my family to yours, I hope you had a wonderul Christmas and look forward to an amazing New Year!!!

Sincerely,
The Silbaughs

It's Bath Day!!!

It's me, I showered... just kidding (well, I did shower but this IS NOT a video of that!)

I know you all LOVED the video I posted before of my water-loving critter, Duncan. So, bath day was upon us and I wanted to capture on video how excited he gets for this moment EVERY SINGLE TIME!

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but he LOVES this so much that he could care less what else is going on in the house. If I know I'll have a repairman or someone like that coming to the house where they might be in and out, carrying all sorts of tools and things - I'll put an inch or two of water in the tub and Duncan could care less who might be here... Dead serious. Like serial. Like Man Bear Pig. (sorry, inside joke, but if my Hubbin reads this or if you watch South Park you'll get it!)

Oh, and yes Duncan does hit his head occassionally on the side of the tub when he's playing and spinning and too excited. He's like a toddler, just cuddlier and fuzzier! He's fine I swear. After this video was taken I think he payed in the tub for another hour and a half before it turned from play time to bath time, and that is the part he does NOT like! I get those looks and noises like "Mom, you're ruining everything!" hehehehe

Does anyone else's animals act as crazy as mine? Hopefully we'll be getting snow soon and he loves that as much if not more, so I'll be sure to get pictures of that too!

Have a great day, hope this made you smile!

8 years ago today...

I said I do!

 Look at us back then!!! hehehehe

(this one's a bit fuzzy, but one of my favorites!!! The look of a Mom proud of her Son!!!)

Gotta love this boy (I mean man!) I can't believe it's been that long already, but it sure has been wonderful!

Love you Hunny!!!

S.N.T. (Show N Tell!)

You've all been quite patient with me and I appreciate it greatly. I had so much fun making these next batch of patterns that I got a bit carried away and instead of releasing 2 patterns initially - you got a bonus with the third.

I was just stitching and stitching and couldn't stop!!!

So, do you remember when I showed you this picture back when?

Well, this is the new Alphabet Stitchery line. When I showed this shot to you previously I only had a few designs I was planning on... but they're too cute and I kept drawing.

I now have 6 designs which include Farm:

 Bugs:

Noah's Ark:

AND soon to come - Baby, Jungle & Aquatic! Each quilt has the same pieced blocks featuring different fabrics and 10 different stitchery blocks per quilt.

I'm working on the finishing touches to these quilts as we speak and the patterns should be ready in a couple weeks! The second batch should be ready next month!

I don't know about you but I have a TON of friends that are expecting and everyone's nursery theme is different. It was hard trying to come up with either fabric or a pattern (or both!) that reflected each theme, so I hope to ease the search with these fun designs!

Also the nice thing is that each quilt without borders measures 40" x 50" so it's small enough to snuggle with a newborn, yet big enough to grow with them throughout the toddler and little one years! They're not little for long, that's for sure!!!

I will be doing a post on each theme in the future to show off the fun characters in each quilt. I hope you enjoy theses as much as I have enjoyed creating them!

So my question for you is which one so far is your favorite and who would you make it for? Be back soon with more photos!!!

He's back!!!

It's been quite a while, but the squirrels have returned and if you ask me - they're well on their way to being ready for winter. Just look:

I still love watching these critters when they come to visit/snack. Looks like I need more ears of corn too! I've been quilting like crazy and I have some show and tell finally for you, but you'll have to wait til tomorrow!!! Come back then and I'm sure you won't be disappointed!!!

Twilight anyone?

I can't show you much of what I've been working on lately, since most of them are Christmas presents that I've been machine quilting for others...

The other day as I was driving to Mom's house to use the long arm machine, the fog was sooooo thick it was really hard to see more than about 100 feet or so in spots. It was a little less dense at the house (yes, the picture above was an improvement over some of the areas I drove through!), but the way the fog enveloped the woods and hid the large barns close to the house, it reminded me of the new movies...

I'm heading back out to the house today after I work at the quilt shop this morning and I'm hoping to get a couple more quilts done today. Wish me luck!