Market Booksigning Recap

When I was at Quilt Market I had a couple of book signings and one of my friends showed up at the first one and snapped this picture:

I knew she did it when all I could see was this iPad out of the corner of my eye followed by a smile. She just emailed it my way and I wanted to share it with you all! 

The book signings were a great experience and I was able to meet some amazing people. 

Mom and I have one last day at the NQA Show tomorrow, it's been busy and I haven't been able to get out and see much of the show, but maybe tomorrow I  will have more time, maybe...

All Set!

Mom and I are all set up and ready for the NQA Show in Columbus. 

Come visit us at booth #422! We have several Judy Niemeyer patterns as well as my patterns to sell and many copies of my book, Seamingly Scrappy. I will be signing books all weekend, even if you bring your copy that you've already purchased. Come stop by and say hi!!!

Retreat Recap

Sorry for the delay in this post. I swear time is flying by at warp speed and I'm already packing for the next show. I just got home, but this should be the last travel plans for awhile.

 These are some of the projects I finished while at retreat. What I will show you here are the projects I can show now, the others will have to wait. This first one was a side project from a few of the Moda Candy Bars. This box contained three or four lines (I think, it's been awhile) and I just added some white on white paisleys that I had in my stash for this simple pattern. It's a decent size and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with this one.

 If three wasn't enough, a fourth Aura should do the trick. This quilt is completely scrappy and reversed in color. I used a mixture of shirtings for the blocks and various Civil War red-ish prints for the background. I'm thinking I may try to hand quilt this one, but we'll see. (See the other versions of Aura by clicking here)

 This last quilt is a more primitive version of Roll of Stamps, also from my book, Seamingly Scrappy. I used a jelly roll of Harvest Moon by Kansas Troubles and some of the new Primitive Muslins for the sashing. I know it's kinda weird, but I have this cowboy print in my stash that will work great for the backing. My Mom got it when I got my horse, and we never got around to making anything out of it. It'll be a fun little surprise on the back.

Now I did finish these three tops as well as two other tops and their coordinating backings and bindings while at retreat. Now, I did have some of the blocks premade before I left. No tops were together, but I had an amazing time and still was able to work on my Bali Wedding Star too! I still have a long way to go, but I'm getting closer!

Now, it's the last time I have to say bye to this little guy and his chickens (which he waits to play with until I get home!), but if you're in the area, come see Mom and I at our booth at the NQA Show in Columbus this weekend. I'll take pictures and try to post when I can!

I've made the switch

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I've made the switch to Bloglovin seeing as how Google Reader is going away. I hope this is a seamless process and you'll continue to follow me along in my journey!

Scenic Route Home

We took a detour or two stopping first at Gramma Fannie's Quilt Barn where I walked in to find this right up front:

Then we headed over to Miller's Dry Goods in Charm where they have this:

And then we stopped by the brand new David Warther Carving Museum where David carves ships from history out of ivory and ebony like this:

I'm now home for a few days before we head to the NQA Show in Columbus next week. Time to do some laundry and unpack!

Retreat over

All packed up and heading home!

Retreat Update, Last Day!

My current status is:

5 tops pieced

2 backings pieced

2 bindings cut and made

AND

1 cone of thread killed...

Not bad for a few days of sewing!

Retreat Update

Working today on some more new things, but we just got back from our lunch/dinner break over in Berlin. (I say lunch/dinner because we have a big breakfast and a late lunch so we can sew more!)

The weather here is wonderful and these clouds are amazing. It made the drive to Berlin so nice. We ate at Boyd & Wurthman (which I highly recommend) and after dinner we walked a couple doors down to the Country Craft Cupboard where I saw this:

It's the first time I have seen my book in another quilt shop! We have been traveling so much that we haven't had much fun shopping time, but we made time for it today! It made my day! Well that and the amazing food in this region, but I digress...

I'll show you my projects later!

Good start to retreat!

We're here in Amish country once again and I am feeling so awesome with what I've accomplished do far. This is s stack of 4 (yes, FOUR) tops that I finished so far. 

We got here yesterday afternoon! How awesome is that?! I'll post more when I get more done!

NY Trip Day 2

So the second day was my class for the Aura pattern from my book, Seamingly Scrappy. The girls were so excited and it was good because we had an early start to the day (atleast for me it was early)!

 There were a few different stations of girls and for this class, it's pretty easy to travel at your own pace. No completed quilt tops were done, which is perfectly par for the course, but many blocks were made and it was a good day of just plain fun.

 Once again, many of the ladies chose different fabrics and it was so neat to see them all come to life.

 Look how organized they were!

 And here's a sampling of how some of the blocks were coming along!

It was so neat to see how some girls were using up their stash or a charm pack from their stash. That is completely the reason I created the book and it was so nice to see it in action.

If you are interested in having my Mom and I come and do either a trunk show or workshop (or both) for your guild or group, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com. There are several different options to choose from on the Workshop & Lecture page listed above. I will be adding to it in the future, so check back often!

New York Travel Time

Over the weekend, Mom and I packed up the car and headed to the Jamestown, NY area (near Chautauqua). We were invited to come and do a couple workshops with one of the local guilds and have a little trunk show too!

 On the first day, we started with Mom teaching the Cactus Flower Tablerunner by Judy Niemeyer. The girls did an amazing job learning the paper piecing technique!

You can see the evidence by the organized piles and the intent concentration. :)

Progress was being made by all!

It was a nice sized group and everyone was using completely different fabrics. 

 Here's a little more evidence to prove how much work was accomplished!

 And here's some sample blocks that were made at the end of the day. This one was bright batiks...

 There were some primitive Civil War type prints.

And even a Christmas version!

 Kim was our wonderful host and at the meeting that night she showed off her blocks and the pattern that we made.

  The girls that made it to the meeting after class showed off their blocks too!

It was so neat to see them all come together and how different all of the fabrics were.

This is a great group and we had a fun time. Later that night we headed over to the B&B to crash before my class the next day. I'll be back tomorrow to post pictures!

Items Added

I've just added the two newest Stitchery patterns to the Ruby Blue Shop! Now you can shop anytime and purchase Alphabet Stitchery: Dinosaurs and Alphabet Stitchery: Outer Space! Also, be sure to check for them at your LQS (local quilt shop).

Machine Quilting: Wild Quilt

Cathy brought this wild quilt to me to quilt for a young man as a graduation present (pretty nice present, huh?)

 I don't remember the exact relationship (maybe Godson???) and the whole story, but I can tell you that the recipient of this quilt is aspiring to be a Wildlife Photographer for National Geographic (I'm pretty sure).

(between the traveling and lack of sleep I can tell you my memory is not back up to full speed quite yet...)

 We chose to quilt this with a "manly" design and I used a brown thread. Why brown you ask? Normally with this much white and black prints, I would choose one of those colors, but with the hints of orange and brown, the brown worked well with those and wouldn't stand out too much on the black and white prints.

 Some of the fabrics were a bit hard to see where I had been, where I was and were I needed to go like this one...

But it wasn't nearly as bad as this one. With fabrics like this I find these quilts are best to quilt on a cloudy semi dark day and I usually darken the room a bit too. Depending on the shadows you can create, it really helps to see the quilting, but it's still hard on the eyes so if you plan on quilting something like this, take lots and lots of visual breaks.

I think Cathy did a great job on this quilt and I hope the young man will love it and be inspired!

I'll be back with updates from our most recent travels soon!

Machine Quilting: Firetrucks

My Nana is a machine at making quilts. Not only that, but she is the best at personalizing a design and choosing just the right fabrics to make people feel special.

Many of her close friends either are, are related to, or are close friends with someone who is a Firefighter. Both of my grandparents like to help out at local fundraisers for the Fire Department and anything else they can do. What can I say, they're the sweetest people I know!

 I'm not sure who the intended recipient of this first quilt is, but I can almost bet their daddy is a Firefighter... (and yes I know it's sideways...)

 I played with the square swirls design I don't get to use too often and it worked perfectly for this quilt.

This cute little quilt is going to one Aiden Joseph. It's nice to see a simple design with just a couple colors and one focal fabric work so well together. It's simple but does have an impact. 

And Aiden's name stitched in above and below the center block are like the icing on the cake! With the softer focal fabric, I quilted plain swirls on this one and it worked out quite well.

I know Nana's working on some other quilts for gifts later this year and I'm always intrigued to see what she comes up with next!

Shipshewana Fabric Show

Earlier this week Mom and I traveled over to Shipshewana, IN (one of my favorite places!) to take part in the Shipshewana Fabric Show.

We travel to work this show three times a year, two of which happen to fall almost immediately after Quilt Market. This show serves as a mini-Market for those shops who either couldn't make it out to Quilt Market or made it and couldn't make up their minds on which fabrics to purchase :)

This was my little corner of the room. I had a few of the quilts hanging from my book, Seamingly Scrappy, and a whole bunch of other quilts from my patterns too!

 Each time we set up we try to do it a little different and see what we have on hand for that show. I really like how this section turned out and...

I think the rocking chair was one of my favorite aspects. It honestly just worked it's way out when I was folding up the quilts, they naturally staggered like that. I was trying not to blend similar fabrics and maybe start with bigger quilts, but the rest was just luck!

Next to my corner was the beginning of the new lines from Quilt Market. The hotel has these awesome tall backed benches that work great to show off little quilts like these. 

 Then the larger quilts start (and I apologize for the sun glare in the quilts and the bad lighting, this side of the room has the most windows and doors and depending on what Mother Nature has up her sleeve, the quilts are either lit up or not) Oh, and there's the infamous Moda Mark!

On the other side of Moda Mark was my Mom and Brian both working hard. Mom and I are so lucky to get to work these shows and do demos and whatnot a few times a year. We have a great time helping out shops and we really like helping new shops since we've been in their shoes and can give them some advice or tips.

We got home from New York early this week, then headed to Indiana and we're heading back to New York today too for another little event. And then next week I am finally looking forward to sleeping in one of these days :) I love being able to do this, but I'm starting to wonder how much caffeine one person really can handle...

I'll be back with some machine quilting and some updates from the latest trip to New York!

Shipshewana Fabric Show

We're here in sunny gorgeous Shipshewana taking part in the Fabric Show today. This show is basically like a mini-market for all of the regional shops that weren't able to travel to Portland (or couldn't decide on what lines to bring into their shops just yet). 

I'm spending my day working with the Moda Booth and attempting not to drool on all of the new fabrics :)

Here's a shot of the booth, maybe one or two of these quilts will come home with me, probably not but a girl can dream!!!

Gotta love the panoramic option, it's a bit weird, but this is the whole booth!