Since that seemed to go so well...

I'm entering another quilt!!! Please take the time if you can to join the Blogger's Quilt Festival and share what you've made. It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to be grandiose, it has to be something you enjoy. Really that is all a quilt show should be (even an online show) is sharing what you've done with people. Yes there are prizes to be had, but if you win, it's just icing on the cake, don't you agree?

So for more information on the Blogger's Quilt Festival put on by the amazing Amy Ellis, you can find all of the information needed to enter or to vote (voting begins this weekend!) by clicking here. 

For my second quilt, I am digging out one of my most nostalgic quilts that I've made to enter into the Hand Quilted Category.

 This is an older pattern of mine called From Grammy With Love. I made this quilt very traditionally with 1930's reproduction fabrics and I used solid white as both the border and backing.

 I quilted simple lines withing each of the pieces and then I quilted butterflies into the border. It's simple but sweet. As soon as the binding was done, I washed and dried this quilt and now it really has that crinkly vintage vibe to it.

 Here's how the quilt looks overall, it's been a fun small quilt to make.

I actually have had several people ask where I got this antique quilt from. They cannot believe that I actually made it myself with how it turned out! I think that is one of the biggest compliments for a quilt like this. It makes me think that all of those hours of quilting were worth it. This was my first hand quilted quilt and it was a doosy. I used Warm & White batting (not knowing any better) and it killed my fingers (and a few thimbles) to finish this quilt. It wasn't the batting I should have used, but now I know.

I'm glad they kept the hand quilting category in this years Blogger's Quilt Festival and I love the other entries thus far. Remember you too can enter your own quilt into one of the many categories through tomorrow, Oct. 31st! Voting begins Nov. 1st and I'd love to see your quilts entered! For more information about how to enter or how to vote, visit Amy's blog post here. Otherwise, if you'd just like some inspiration, head on over and take a gander at all of the quilts entered! There's so much to see, there's something for everyone!

Have a great weekend and a Happy Halloween!!!

Trying something new

I am entering the Blogger's Quilt Festival for the first time! I'm super excited and you should join too! For more information about the festival, visit Amy's page here for all of the details you'll need to either enter, get inspired, or vote for your favorites (voting starts this weekend!)

 When I started thinking about entering the Blogger's Quilt Festival this year, I was in the midst of working on this quilt. Little did I know at the time it would soon become one of my favorite quilts ever and so much more than I ever imagined!

 It's hard to believe, but this is how it started. I cut up a bunch of pieces from my stash and added in a few colors here or there to get a nice mix. I liked it but I wasn't in love. When I paused to grab a drink and was glancing at the quilt, I got this crazy idea to shift the colors within the quilt and fade from one to the next. Keeping 98% of the original fabrics and adding in minimal pieces to blend the colors well, I ended up with this:

 As soon as it started to come together, I knew I was on the right track! Granted there are a few places that I wish the transition was a bit smoother, but it still works well for me.

Also, if you're a regular reader of my blog and you're sick of seeing this quilt, I swear after this it will go away, but I'm still in love, so....eh. If you're new to the blog, welcome and it's good to have you! Alrighty, back to the quilt.

So then it was time to quilt it. I only knew when I got started that I wanted to quilt paisley feathers somewhat down the middle-ish and then have it branch off from there to both sides of the quilt. I was just going to echo around it to fill in the remainder of the quilt... But then I got bored. Quick.

So that's when I started adding in pebbles and alternating the direction of the echo.

When that got boring I added in some traditional feathers and swirls, and why not - I added in some woodgrain. There's so much quilting going on but it works. The colors make your eye move around the quilt and the quilting keeps it interesting as you look.

 So then in a weak moment of insomnia I stayed up waaaaayyyyy too late to create a scrappy binding to match the colors of the quilt... It was the most complex binding I've ever created, but my favorite! Oh, and all of the binding pieces came from my binding stash (in the egg basket to the left of the quilt in the above photo).

And then before you knew it, it was done and quilted and bound and washed and crinkly and I love it. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do and if you like it enough that you'd like to make your own, I have created a tutorial for the quilt complete with printable instructions, just click here to go to that post.

So, that's my quilt I'm entering into the ROYGBIV category. Even though it's scrappy, I think it fits here the best. I hope you all like it and I can't wait to see what everyone else has entered. Remember to head over to amyscreativeside.com for all of the information on the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Instagram Me

I did it. I gave in to the forces of peer pressure :) Not that it was that hard, but now you can find me over on Instagram! You can find me at rubybluequilts and I will be posting all sorts of random stuff over there too.

I found myself surrounded by really awesome people at one point in my booth and everyone was chatting about Instagram and they convinced me to give it a try. So far so good and I think it will be fun. So stop on by later on.

Also, I will be doing an after market post shortly, but I'm still trying to get back in the groove and settled in and trying to find a new coffee table :/ Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you about that. If you saw it on Facebook, you know what happened, otherwise I'll tell you about it here soon.

In the meantime however, if you haven't entered, you still have time - the talented and awesome Amy Ellis is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival! You can enter up to two finished quilts per person and enter into several categories for your chance to win a ton of prizes. If you don't have a quilt or two to enter, stay tuned for the voting to open up and you can help to choose the winners! It's really fun to see what everyone has been creating lately.

So to recap, Instagram me, hop over to Amy's blog, and stay tuned for market stuff! Sound good?