Machine Quilting: Christmas Runners

Carlynn had a few more runners in that box of goodies she brought me and these were so fun to quilt!

 These are the same pattern as the runners in this post, but I believe these were thinner and longer than the others.

 I quilted these both the same and just decided to have fun with it. The pebbles reminded me of either garland or Christmas lights, and the rest was just fillers to enhance the different areas.

 On a project like this it's all about picking your battles. Why put a ton of detail in the busier fabrics where the quilting won't show anyway? That is why the pebbles are in the lighter fabric so they can be seen. The rest of the quilting is pretty, but functionality was the main concern there. The quilting had to fill the areas well and tack it down.

I don't often get to quilt two items the same, but runners are great just for that. Or to play and make them all different. I guess it depends on what my client is looking for and what kind of mood I am in. These were so fun I didn't mind repeating myself.

As always, Carlynn, it was a pleasure!

Blue Pine Tree Ridge Quilt

And as promised, here is the second version of the Pine Tree Ridge quilt Bobette made. It's very similar to the green one I shared yesterday, and similar to the one Linda Hrcka did originally (check it out here), but with a little twist here or there to keep them both unique.

 So as you can see it's mainly the same feel, just more blue. I'm going to take a back seat today and let this quilt do the talking.

 I LOVE this angel block. The feathers were a bit tricky to figure out at first, but I'm so happy with how they turned out. Oh, and if I remember correctly there were about 6 different thread colors used on this quilt to blend in with the fabrics here and there.

 One block I really followed the cues from the fabric was the red with stars. It was so much fun and I think it turned out great!

 Once again I left the wool alone in spots and quilted it "just enough" in other areas to tack it down for functionality and give it a little personality. I really like quilting wool applique quilts although the thickness and weave of the wool can be a bit tricky to work around if it's layered up.

 This border was my favorite and my worst nightmare at the same time. Here's why:

 This was a super teeny tiny stripe and this was my angle while quilting. The more I quilted these feathers and put some curved stitching over the fabric, it made this optical illusion that was really messing with my eyes.

Here you can see the stripe better. This is a straight on view and the lines still give it a goofy look, but it's so pretty, I just needed to take a few more visual breaks than normal and get it done as quickly as possible.

I LOVED working on these quilts! It was a major challenge that had me a bit terrified at first, but I felt I grew as a quilter so much with new designs and fillers and trusting my instincts. This goes back to the post I had earlier this week about trusting your quilter and allowing them to get more creative if they have guidelines and an imagination. Bobette knew I couldn't do it exactly like Linda did, but trusted my quilting to have the same effect, but be personalized to her quilts. It really was a win-win for us both!

It's a Green Christmas Quilt

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas! Really, here it is. It's still snowing and yes, I'm over it.

But in my quest to catch up on sharing quilting pictures, we're going to start with some Christmas quilts!

p.s. I'm going through and sharing a majority of quilts I've working on these past six months or so, if I quilted for you and you don't want pictures of your quilt shared, please email me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com, but I'd love to share them if I can!

Alrighty, back to the good stuff. Get ready for picture overload!

 Bobette made two of these Pine Tree Ridge quilt patterns (you'll see this one today and another tomorrow) and she wanted it quilted like Linda Hrcka at The Quilted Pineapple did on this post... Needless to say I was a little more than nervous to fill those large shoes! But I couldn't be happier with the results and I didn't want to give the quilts back! That's always a good sign I feel like I did my job to the best of my ability!

 Some of the details we kept the same, but Linda followed some fabric patterns in areas with her quilting and without the same fabric I couldn't make it exact, so we matched the feel of her quilt and improvised here and there while keeping the same charm.

 This quilt was probably one of the densest quilting jobs I had completed up to this point. I worked on this quilt for a few days and it's basically a lap size... But I'm so happy with the results who cares how long it took?!

 I was able to quilt over some of the wool applique and left some as is - it depended on how thick the wool was and whether it needed a quilting foundation or not due to the size of the pieces. I tried my best and made it count where it was needed.

Isn't it just magical? I had so much fun with this and you'll see the blue version tomorrow. It was a toss up of which quilt was the favorite. One was supposed to be a present and one was supposed to be a gift. I'm not sure if she was able to part with one!

Stop back tomorrow for more pictures!

Ask and you shall receive...

I have been absolutely inundated with questions about Bobette's Christmas sampler so here you go:

I had sooooo many questions flooding in, so I searched online to no avail and then I had to contact Bobette for the info...

This pattern is called Be Merry and it's by the folks at Bits 'n Pieces.

It comes in several size options, however...

Bobette made the largest size but made it wider by adding in an extra snowman, snowflake and tree she told me. Now, this was made from Bobette's stash, so you're going to have to either ask the nice people at Bits 'n Pieces to make you a kit, or you can raid your own stash. I can tell you many of these prints were basics like the Moda Crackle and some Kansas Troubles basics, but there were a few Christmas-y prints thrown in here and there.

For better pictures of Bobette's quilt, you can visit the original post about her quilt here.

Now mind you, if you choose to make one of these quilts after seeing it here, don't forget that I would love to quilt it for you!!! Have a great weekend!!!

Machine Quilting: Christmas Sampler

There are very few quilts that I see that get me thinking, I NEED TO DROP EVERYTHING AND MAKE ONE OF THESE RIGHT AWAY... Well, Bobette was at it again and she's adding way too many projects to my to-do list...

 Now, being a quilter can be rough sometimes... I see quilts like this every so often and I know I don't have the time to make one (but I want to) and I know I have no fabrics in my stash that would look this cool (but I want them now) and do I really need a Christmas quilt (for Heaven's sake, I didn't even put up a tree this year, but I still have to take down those ribbons outside if the snow melts off of them) but I want to make this quilt just so I can quilt it like I did for Bobette. Simple as that. This quilt (or a version close it it) has made it's way onto my list, and it's near the top, it's that good.

 This sampler was unlike any other that I've seen... It had trees and a church...

 And presents, and squares, and wool snowflake appliques...

 And I could go on forever, but I'll just let you take a look for yourself...

 Even the back of this quilt looked amazing. I love how you can see the stars and the trees and the houses... I quilted my little heart out on this quilt and it was so much fun (not that I don't on other quilts, but you know what I mean)

 I honestly was not in the holiday spirit until I worked on this quilt... Then I became a raging lunatic and was trying to make and create new decorations and drug my Hubby to the crazy stores with a gazillion other raged crazy holiday people for things we didn't need because I thought it would be fun...

 Yeah, then I got in those stores, and didn't find what I wanted and then got the heck out of dodge and came back to my comfy cozy house to get away from all of those holiday lunatics and their crappy driving... Just saying... But isn't this quilt just GORGEOUS?! Supposedly this was a block of the month... And if I can come up with one, I may just have to host a little non-holiday sampler here because Lord knows I am not going to want to quilt a Christmas quilt in July... Would you like that? Would you want to play along?

 Now, I can only try to make it as awesome and glorious as this... But I can dream, and so can you. I will get to work and see what I come up with.

But then again, who am I kidding? I may just have to make a quilt like this to hang up around the holidays... What'dya think?

Anywho... when I finished this quilt I let Bobette know it was done and that I was keeping it... FOREVER... Yeah... that didn't work. Luckily she played along with me and then grabbed her quilt and ran for the hills before it disappeared into my stash, but I still have pictures to oogle over and share with you. Oh, and I have another quilt to share that made me bust into my stash and get to planning a quilt that I don't need to make (but I want to) and I think it will be fabulous!

Be back soon with more awesome stuff to share!

Weekend Sewing

Well, I think I'm that much closer to being ready for Christmas with a little sewing I just finished this morning. I did a bit of long arm quilting on Saturday with a little break that night to celebrate our anniversary. It was wonderful!

Then yesterday I was able to finish the top for my Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap:

I love it soooo much and many people on Instagram do too! I may cut out another one just for me later this week! 

Granted since I combined patterns and wasn't all that awake while putting the top together, it required a bit of un-sewing and some try try try agains, but now that I've worked out the kinks, just time to layer and quilt and choose a binding. 

Then last night I cut out and prepped pieces to make my niece a stocking to match the stockings I made the rest of the family four years ago. 

It turned out well and wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Since it had been so long since I made stockings last and since I didn't keep any that I made, I had to research my own pictures and luckily I kept a computer file with the original templates and was able to fudge the rest. Hopefully it doesn't look too different than the others, but I think it will do. 

And with that last stocking complete, I think I'm ready for the holidays minus some cooking, but I will do that as we go. Are you ready? I hope so!!!

Clarence the Christmas Goose (free printable)

Now, some of may know, many may not, but I used to draw... A LOT. I took every art class offered at my school (which wasn't much, it's a small school) and I went to college for graphic design. Well, i still dabble from time to time with some sketches and a few years ago it dawned on me as we were pulling out Christmas decorations, that I didn't have a stocking... My hubby had 5...

Now, I have stockings at other houses where we do get togethers at the holidays, but I didn't have one at home and it was about time I changed that, so I came up with Clarence the Christmas Goose!

He's pretty darn cute if I do say so myself and I decided to put him on a stocking for myself... Well, there was one slight issue... Now that he's done and finished, that stocking is the smallest one by a long shot! Oh well, it's one of those things when you're in the heat of the design and it looks great on the computer...Then in real life it's dwarfed from the idea you had in mind...

Well, Clarence is actual sized in the printout below to the stocking I made. Feel free to increase or reduce his size to fit your needs. I also included the design for the berry branch on the cuff of the stocking.

For the design I only used black and red threads, black for the main areas (I did a backstitch, it's my go-to stitch) and where you see a little "o" I made a french knot with the red thread for the berries. Oh, I lied, there's a bit of green for the holly leaves! If you don't like french knots you can do whatever you'd like instead like add buttons or use another stitch.

I did not include the stocking in the printable as I said, it's just too small and to get it to a decent size, I'd have to break it up into four pages or so, so instead I'd recommend tracing a stocking you already own or free handing your own to get the size you prefer.

Alrighty, to get to the printable design, click here. Now, I've had some questions with the other printouts I've had in the past... When you click on the link. You can either click the printer at the top center of the page to print the design, or click the arrow to download it. It's that easy.

Well, I hope you like Clarence as much as I do and I'd love to see what you plan on making with his little sweet self on it! I have another pillow I made with a saying on it, but I have no clue where it is and it's still not stuffed... So if I find it, I'll show it some day.

Maybe some of you with the fast fingers will have your own Clarence in time for Christmas... I'll be lucky to get all of my presents wrapped in an orderly fashion at this point! Have a great weekend (or what's left of it) and I'll be back with more posts soon!

TIme to Celebrate Christmas with That Patchwork Place

I think I have come to the conclusion that the holidays are truly a year-round event for quilters. Think about it - at the beginning of the year there are those people that didn't get their projects done in time so they're going to finish them in the first few months of the year to be really ahead of schedule for the next season. Then when the weather warms up and the novelty of finishing those projects wears off, the new fabrics arrive in stores between May & July. Then you buy the new fabrics and come up with a new plan and set them aside until the weather gets cold again, when you decide to pull out that stack of UFOs and want to finish gifts for everyone you know in a unrealistic matter of time. Sound familiar to any of you? Can I get an Amen?Granted, if you're south of the equator the temperatures might be a bit different, but it's the same schedule all the same.

Well, with that in mind, the staff at Martingale came out with an amazing new book full of all sorts of projects that you could get started on now and have time to finish them before the holiday season is upon us. Sounds great right? Well, stay tuned and you could win an eBook to get your crafting in high gear.

 Celebrate Christmas with That Patchwork Place is a wonderful book full of 22 projects, large and small, that feature a variety of styles and fabrics with a project for everyone. I went through the book and picked out a few of my favorite projects that I'm sure I'm going to have to make before the holidays this year.

 I cannot get over how adorable this O Christmas Tree Wall Hanging is! I have a tree but I don't really have the right space to put one up in my house, so this may be my go-to decoration this year. Plus I know several people with the same spacial issue that I have and I think I could mass produce these cuties to grace several homes this year. I'm trying to decide which fabrics to use, but if I make a bunch, I can try several combinations and choose the right tree to fit each person on my list!

 Also, this Diamond Mantel Cover is so adorable and even though I don't have a mantel, I know some people who do and I could make a few of these for gifts too. Anything that combines different shapes like diamonds with just a touch of embroidery is right in my book!

And finally I NEED to make this stocking. The Naturally Neutral Stocking is just the project I need to grace my home this year. Sadly, each year my Husband pulls out his 5 stockings to decorate my home and I had none... So I made myself one and I wasn't thinking and made the smallest stocking known to man. It gets dwarfed by his gigantic stockings and I have been on the hunt ever since to find a stocking that I could make for me that "felt right". This is it! I may even make one to match for my Hubby, that is if I can select which stockings get hung up this year... We'll see!

So do any of these projects interest you? Do you have a stash of holiday fabrics waiting to be used? Well, I seriously recommend that you check out this book and find a project or three to make!

Oh, and getting to that giveaway - I'm curious to know - what is your favorite holiday tradition? We have several crazy traditions in our family, some that I don't think any other family does. For instance, when we open presents, you have to say "Thank you" to the giver of the gift before you begin to unwrap it. Failure to do so - no gift. Also, if you shake a package before you open it, you have to guess the contents. If you guess wrong - no gift. And never EVER shall scissors, knives or other sharp utensils be used to open a gift. EVER. It's goofy and fun and it's our thing.

So again, what's your thing? What is your favorite holiday tradition? Leave me a comment below with the answer to enter for a chance to win an eBook of Celebrate Christmas with That Patchwork Place. I will choose a random winner next Monday, so please remember to leave me your e-mail address so we can contact you when you win!

And don't forget this isn't your only chance to win, there is a blog to visit each day to enter for a chance to win. Check out the schedule below:

Thursday, June 26th - Stitch This! (Martingale)

Friday, June 27th - Pat Wys at Silver Thimble Talk

Saturday, June 28th - Kim Brackett at Magnolia Bay Quilts

Monday, June 30th - That's me at Ruby Blue Quilts

Tuesday, July 1st - SewCalGal

Wednesday, July 2nd - Cindy Lammon at Hyacinth Quilt Designs

Thursday, July 3rd - GenQ

Saturday, July 5th - Cheryl Brown at Quilter Chic

Monday, July 7th - Jen Eskridge at Reanna Lily Designs

Tuesday, July 8th - Kathy Brown at The Teacher's Pet

Wednesday, July 9th - Amy Ellis at Amy's Creative Side

That's a bunch of chances to win so hop on over and enter! Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays!!!

p.s. If you don't have the patience to wait to see if you win an eBook copy and you want this book in your hot little hands much much sooner, you can also purchase a copy from either Martingale or Amazon now!

Shipshewana samples

Last week Mom and I made the trip over to Shipshewana to show off some of the new Christmas fabrics with Moda. 

I know, I know... We just had Christmas and it's still cold with some snow on the ground, but the quilt shops are looking at the future fabrics to come out this Spring, which includes Christmas and some Halloween. 

I made this simple HST quilt with Laundry Basket's (Edyta Sitar) new Snowbird prints. This line also features batiks, but I only had the prints to work with this early. I did add in the darker brown and tan to even out the lights and darks, but this line is gorgeous! It's very elegant and says 'winter', not 'Christmas'. 

I also made this little one out of Solstice by Kate Spain. I wish the green sashing was a bit smaller now that it's done, but I still like it. This is my alter-ego of Christmas. I love the fun and bright prints that are more playful. 

This week we are gearing up for the vendor weekend at the Lake Farmpark show. I will be out there with Mom all weekend so stop by and say hi!

In the meantime I have been working steadily behind the scenes and sadly can't share much of that right now. Once I have more to share I will. Toodles!

Machine Quilting: Christmas Tree Panel

Darlene was at it again (or still) and she's putting me to shame in the amount of projects she has been finishing. I swear, I just need a month of weekends to get everything done!

 Now, it is still cold here. It is after Christmas. I haven't seen grass in weeks or months (it's been so long I can't remember!). Not that I didn't want to do this quilt, but it did feel a bit like salt in an open wound kinda. No offense, but the last thing I want to see now is Christmas and snowflakes. I want bright and tropical, but I digress.

Anywho, Darlene combined this Christmas Tree panel from Northcott with some snowflake blocks using her Marti Michell templates. I think it worked out quite well.

 I used a couple different threads for this quilt, a blue to blend in certain areas and a grey for others.

 Darlene asked for more snowflakes to be quilted in the plain blocks in the borders...

 And I just quilted in and around the star blocks to enhance those a bit more.

This panel is designed to have lights in the bright white circles after quilting. I personally don't know how you'd feel cutting holes into your finished quilt to add lights, but after getting the lights in hand, Darlene opted to add crystals to those areas and others rather than the lights. Wise choice I think.

Darlene, great job once again and now I'm going to have to get sewing to catch up with all of your UFO finishes!