Machine Quilting: Feathered Star #2

Here's another Feathered Star by Judy Niemeyer that I was able to quilt:

 It looks just a bit different from the other Feathered Star I quilted...

 Marge asked for "just enough" quilting, but something to make it look it's best. Going off of her fabric choices, I chose many rustic type patterns and textures.

 I tried another new design for the center snowflake of the quilt and I love how it is similar enough to tie into the rest of the design, but is unique enough to stand on it's own.

Marge chose this wonderful Jo Morton print for the backing and when you look straight on, you can't see any of the quilting. Heck, you can barely see it in this picture. This just goes to show you what the difference will be when you choose a back if you want the quilting to show or not.

Thanks, Marge! I hope you enjoy your quilt! It looks fantastic!

Machine Quilting: Mom's Glacier Star

So, early last week I worked on Mom's sample of the Glacier Star pattern by Judy Niemeyer. Mom's been busy teaching these classes and starting on two more versions of this quilt (I think that's all she's started). I honestly don't know how the other versions are going to top the looks of this first one...

This quilt is gorgeous and the colors are simply amazing. The crazy thing is... these are NOT Mom's normal colors. She's never played with these before really. She's more of an earth tone kinda gal, but we love the results!!!

With some of Mom's quilts, I really get to try out new ideas and patterns. I played with an adaptation of an oldie-but-goodie pattern and used it for some of the darker areas and the center. 

I used several types of either pointy or swirly designs and used them in a way to break up areas of the quilt. 

 It's hard to see the quilting in certain areas due to the thread choices and pattern of the fabrics themselves, but this outer fabric was a huge inspiration for the quilting designs.

 Here you can see a little better how I changed it up from pointy to swirly designs and back.

 With the centers of many Judy patterns, I spend a ton of time thinking about how to quilt them as they are complex and similar from one pattern to the next. This is the area I try to link many of the other designs going on in the quilt and tie them all together, even if it's just a loop or small detail.

 One of my favorite moments after finished a quilt is flipping it over and if the light is just right, you can really see the quilting details. The lighting on this particular day was just right!

 Here you can see the center and how the quilting looks on the backside.

 It's funny with this backing, we chose it due to it's busy texture (busy backs are best if you ask me!) and looking straight on, you can't see any of the quilting, but turn just a bit and the details come to life.

Mom's currently making other versions of this quilt as I mentioned before and if you sign up for one of her classes, I'm sure you'll see those in progress too. Oh, and if you're in Big Rapids, MI this weekend for the One Stop Shop Hop, we'll be there with this quilt and many others too! Stop by and see us!

Reunion, already?!

I'm getting together tonight to help plan my High School Reunion. I made a suggestion of what to do and somehow that landed me on the organizing committee...

But alas, we're planning on several things like a family day maybe at a park, an adults night at a local winery and an epic rat ball game...

So in lies the question. Growing up we had three main choices of what to do each day in gym class - kickball, dodgeball, or rat ball. Rat ball basically is a combination of the other two. We're having fun remembering the rules and planning this game, but we came to the conclusion nobody besides people that went to our school know what it is!

So, do you know of or have you heard of rat ball before? We think our gym teacher may have made it up.

I can't believe it's been 10 years and as much as this game excites me, I'm also afraid it's been 10 years and we're not as young as we once were. Paramedics better be on hand. Guess it's a good thing so many alumni are nurses!

This should be interesting :)

Guild Visit

Last week or so, Mom and I loaded up the van with all sorts of goodies to visit the Lorain County Piecemakers Guild on the west side of Cleveland.

 This great group of ladies made us feel so welcome. They even helped us carry in our stuff (little did I know it was so they got the first peek into our boxes so they could claim fabric and other goodies we brought before anyone else had a chance!)

 MaryAnn is the president of the guild and just beyond her you can see our stuff all packed up and ready to go. I brought many of the quilts from my book, Seamingly Scrappy, and Mom brought several of her Quiltworx patterns to show.

Are you interested in having us come and either speak or teach to your guild or group? For more information, you can either e-mail me at rubybluequilts@gmail.com or view the Workshops & Lecture page by clicking on the tab above. We'd love to come see you!

Binding & Workshops

Just spending my morning finishing up the binding on a new quilt for Spring Market and thought I'd pop in real quick to let you know I've added a page with workshops and lectures if you'd like me to come visit your guild or group. It's a start and I'll be adding to it over time so check back often for more updates, but for now this is where I'll be...

April 20

Ben was thinking he might mow the lawn for the first time this year later today... No, it will not be this day...

Podcast Posted

So sorry for the delay, I was waiting on pins and needles...

The podcast for the Mark Lipinski Creative Mojo Radio Show I was on earlier this week is finally up and running. If you'd like to listen to the entire show, kudos to you, but if you'd like to hear my half hour-ish interview, it starts around minute 18. You can listen to the radio show by clicking here. You can find the link to listen on the top right hand side of the page, just click on the 4/17 show and you're all set.

I listened to it myself last night and it's always interesting to hear yourself. I think the most interesting detail of this all is when I hear myself in the podcast, I think I sound like my Hubbin's step-sister. Granted it could be because I'm on the phone with the radio station who's on the phone with Nessa, the host. It's like a double phone thing, but I don't think I sound like me when I talk...

But alas, the post is up and I need to go bundle up today. The weather has been really weird here the last few days... Thursday we reached a high of 84 degrees followed by the temperatures plummeting all day Friday into the 30's and today they're calling for a rain/snow mix all day. Gotta love spring in NE Ohio! I'm just hoping my flowers will be fine...

Creative Chatting

Tune in tomorrow (Wednesday, April 17th) between 3-5 pm to the Creative Mojo Radio Show and you can hear my interview with Nessa!

Normally this is Mark Lipinski's radio show, but since he's recovering from a kidney transplant, I'll be speaking with Nessa.

The show airs from 3-5 pm EST, but if you can't listen then, you can still hear the podcast by going to the radio station link below and choosing the show date on the right hand side.

I hope you'll listen! I'm super excited about it!

Here's the link to the website for the show:
http://toginet.com/shows/creativemojo

Hyper Crazy Puppy

My dog, Duncan, lately has been deciding to be super hyper and play with his squeaky chicken toy (or toys) for about an hour or so each night. Some nights it's so ridiculously funny I can't help but laugh and I decided to share it with you.

I have to say, my heart goes out to those in Boston today. I can't fathom such a senseless act at such an inspiring event. I hope this video is one of those happy stories to share and lift your spirits in such a tragic moment.

Saturday Stitching

This is how I plan on spending a large chunk of my weekend. What are your plans?

Machine Quilting: Ocean Babies

Gail brought me these quilts that she's making for a friend's growing family. She did a great job and used amazing fabrics in each quilt.

 This first quilt is proof that you don't need to be complex to look good. This quilt is simple and lets the fun fabrics take the main stage. This is a great pattern for a great focus fabric if you can find one in the right theme for the nursery.

 With the ocean theme of the fabrics, I quilted waves all over and decided to use a white thread since the majority of the quilt was light.

 I love how when the light hits the quilt from the side, you can really see the definition in the design.

 Gail also made this version of Tiny Bits from my book, Seamingly Scrappy! I love her choice of fabrics! She used some of the same fabrics from the first quilt and added in some other prints including a University of Texas print (the mommy-to-be works at UT).

 I used the same quilting design on this quilt as well since the majority of fabrics had the ocean theme to them.

Gail had these amazing flannels to add to the back and this particular one showed of the quilting quite well!

Thanks, Gail! You did an amazing job and I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Shop Hop Anyone?

Today begins the Quilter's Fling Shop Hop in the Northeast Ohio area! There are nine shops participating and the theme this time around is Strips & Dips. With each stop you can purchase a kit to make a block for each shop and if you stop at all of the shops you'll have collected enough strips to create a whole jelly roll!

Also, if you know you cannot make it to each shop, you will still be entered into individual baskets of the shops you did stop at so there are prizes to still be had. But, if you make it to all of the shops, you will be entered into the Grand Prize drawings which includes Gift Certificates for each shop and many more prizes. Oh, and you get a free book when you visit all 9 shops!

 I was lucky enough to quilt one of the Shop Hop samples. Each Shop takes the same blocks and laid them out differently. Some are quite unique and if you like one of the shop's samples, they'll have kits and instructions for you too!

The nicest thing about this Shop Hop is it runs from now until April 20th (next Saturday) so you have 10 days to enjoy and hit the shops at your leisure. Each shop will be open Monday - Saturday from 10am - 5pm atleast (they may have normal shop hours that may be longer or different).

For more information about the Shop Hop, visit their website by clicking here. There's a list of all of the shops including their full addresses and contact information, and a printable map. Did I mention there are dip recipes to try at each shop too? Yay for snacks. You'll need the energy to hit all of the shops.

Anyone feel like a little retail therapy???

Bing Bing Bing Bing Bing

That's how I feel my days have been lately. I've been super bust prepping new patterns and quilting and getting ready for upcoming shows and Spring Market and and and...

There's been lots of late nights and spring allergies along with that which has been depleting my energy levels just a smidge so unfortunately I don't have anything to share with you today.

It's weird here in Ohio, we had one warm weekend followed by a couple cold ones with snow followed by another warm one. It's nice to have those warm days and the sun that comes along with it, but that also means allergies run rampant and there's lots of sick people around. I'm going to do my best to hibernate and work into the wee hours of the morning so I have things to share. But until then, here's what I'm hoping to see in the coming weeks:

Is anything blooming yet in your neck of the woods? These tulips (yes, they're tulips) are slowly making their appearance, but have a while before they look like this.

Machine Quilting: OHO

Melanie made this quilt out of her stash and brought it to me for quilting:

 This pattern is called OHO and can be found in the March/April 2013 Issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine.

Melanie asked for a fun all over pattern so we used these waves. Also, she asked for a thicker loft batting so we decided to use the Dream Puff. It was the first time I had used this batting and it definitely won't be the last!

Thanks, Melanie! You did a great job!

Machine Quilting: Monster Babies!

I love the fact that there are so many different themes for nurseries these days and this monster quilt is one of the cutest ideas I have seen recently!

 I love the colors and the little monsters that aren't scary at all.

Not to take away from the little guys, we decided to quilt around the monsters and just fill in the remaining area with bubbles. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Thanks, Darlene!

New Version of Snow In June

I completely forgot about this version of Snow In June and we rediscovered it last week so I decided to quilt it up.

I found it somewhat ironic that this is how it looked outside on the day I was quilting this version of Snow In June (from my book Seamingly Scrappy). It was snow in late March, but not truly snow in June. Luckily it did stop and warm up just enough that I was able to wear a cute Easter dress yesterday, granted I also had on boots and a sweater and a coat, but it wasn't snowing!

 My Mom actually made this version and had this pattern in the works as I was trying to finalize the last few patterns to "make the cut" for the book. We talked about it and looked it over and I figured out how to get this pattern out of precuts and my version (the one in the book) was in the works shortly afterwards too.

 This version was made with the Curio line by Basic Grey for Moda (gotta love anything from Basic Grey!) We found the top the other day and I tried a new quilting design on this one. I blended a couple of my latest favorite designs and I really like how it turned out.

I actually quilted this with a lime green thread, but it blends in so well with the fabrics, it doesn't overpower the quilt at all! I'm working on stitching the binding down now and I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this quilt in the coming months.