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!

Machine Quilting: Interlocking Hexagons

The GIVEAWAY is still going on through 1/12/13 11:59 p.m., to enter for a chance to win, click here!

Now, take a look at this quilt and let me know your first initial thought:

 Oh, and a small little note - this customer wanted the sashing to be the focal point. Honestly, at first I was dumbfounded. There's no squares! The colors are absolutely amazing and I was super excited to work on this quilt but it took a good while of thinking to come up with the appropriate plan.

 I started out by quilting the "blocks" and borders both with a tight woodgrain effect. To distinguish the two I quilted the blocks vertically and the borders horizontally overall. This type of quilting then lends itself as a texture to let the sashing show later on.

 Then we had to fill in the brown border and Jeanne suggested pebbling to fill in the weird sizes and shapes of this border. I used a matching thread so it didn't take away from the sashing either.

 Did I ever mention I LOVE my new camera??? I love being able to take pics like this one!

And then I moved onto quilting the sashing. After much brainstorming I rattled my brain over this idea and that. One night after perusing some ideas I typed in honeycombs into an image search engine and the best idea ever came to me. Bees! This design reminds me so much of a bee hive so why not try to incorporate a bee-like shape into the sashing. And that's what I did. 

 This quilt was so challenging to me on soooo many levels. Not only is it "modern-ish" in shape, but the colors are rustic. This quilt was such a juxtaposition of sorts that I had to really ponder on the design to get the right balance of organic, modern and rustic and I think I did it!

 I just love it when a plan comes together, don't you?

 As with many quilts that I have shown you, this is Jeanne's entry into the Quilts 2013 Show at Lake Farmpark starting next month. I'm really excited to see this one hanging in the show because depending on where it hangs and how the lighting hits the quilt you'll see different things.

If you couldn't tell from the slight change in the colors of the pictures, I started this during the day with lots of sun and finished up at night in the dark. The best part about my quilting room is the light and the worst thing about my quilting room is the light...

Alas, Jeanne did a wonderful job with this quilt and her fabric choices were spot on! This quilt is absolutely amazing in person and I swear these pictures do not do it justice at all. Come see it at the Farmpark Show!

If you're wondering what pattern this is, this is actually one of the patterns from the Marti & Me Club offered at Cottonpickers I've been telling you about. This is called the Interlocking Hexagons and uses Marti's Hexagon Ruler. If you're in the Marti & Me Club and haven't made this pattern yet, this is in the third or fourth session.

If you've never heard of the Marti & Me Club or ever used these amazing templates designed by the Marti Michell, you should try them out. They take all of the guesswork out of the cutting process making the piecing process soooo much more simple. In essence, they make you a better quilter - simple as that. Ask about them at your LQS if you're not in the Northeast Ohio area.

Maybe I can convince Miss Gayle to do a small demonstration video for you... Maybe :)

So sorry for the rambling, not enough coffee yet today. But here's a recap of this posting for you:
* Amazing quilt - give Jeanne some love, leave a comment!
* Interlocking Hexagons pattern by Marti Michell from the Marti & Me Club (uses the Hexagon Ruler template)
* Lake Farmpark Quilts 2013 Show - Over 200 quilts hanging in one building and there will be around 15 vendors also in the building March 1-3 (Friday - Sunday) for your shopping pleasure. Also, there will be demonstrations going on all day, each day of the Vendor Weekend. And I will be there signing books all weekend! Say what?! For more info on the show, click here.

That should do it. What a fun filled rambling that was! Well, I'll be back with more posts in the near future. Stay tuned!

Machine Quilting: Lazy Afternoon

First off, there's a giveaway going on here. Jump on over an enter for your chance to win. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. 1/12/13 EST.

Aside from that, we have this amazing group at Cottonpickers Quilt Shop called the Marti & Me Club. Miss Gayle runs it and once a month ladies meet to learn about a new template designed by Marti Michell, they show off what they've made with their other templates and they get a new pattern to go with the template being demonstrated. The best part of it all, you just come, get chocolate, relax, shop and go home. There's no actual sewing done in the meeting so you don't have to drag anything to the group besides yourself! Oh, and your show and tell, but that's minor.

Linda is a fairly new member to the Marti & Me Club, but she was so happy with how well her Lazy Afternoon quilt came out, that she decided to enter this into the Lake Farmpark Quilts 2013 Show this year!

 Linda made this with French General fabrics by Moda and the color placement is incredible. There are just slight variations of tones within the "red" fabrics which really makes this quilt "pop".

 There are three different blocks that make up this quilt so each one got a different style of quilting.

 I know some of the details are a bit hard to see, I finished this quilt late at night and the lighting wasn't the greatest...

To emphasize the fabrics, in each corner I quilted a fleur de lis. Otherwise, most of the quilting was kept simple to allow the quilt to do the talking, not the quilting. 

Linda did a great job on this quilt and I'm so proud of her. Her piecing is spot on and she should be happy with the end result. Thanks for letting me quilt this for you!

You can see this quilt and about 200 others beginning next month at the Lake Farmparks Quilts 2013 Show in Kirtland, OH.

If you'd like to learn more about the Marti & Me Club at Cottonpickers, please contact Beth at cottonpickersquiltshop(at)gmail(dot)com.

More quilting and other topics to come in the near future! Toodles!

Mixed Feelings

Today is a day for me with mixed feelings as I'm sure many of you can relate. 10 years ago today I was in High School, the entire school was in the gym listening to a presentation by grandparents of one of the victims of the Columbine shooting (off to an eerie start)... Then one of the teachers runs into the gym and announces to the whole school, "The World Trade Center just got bombed, the US is under attack!"

Needless to say, the rest of the day no classes were taught. No lesson plans were followed. Every single classroom was watching in awe as part of our country began to crumble in front of us. There were fears that the draft would be reinstated and many of our friends would soon be off. Several parents came to the school to collect their children early in fear of an attack on our school.

Today I watched much of the coverage of the 10th anniversary of this somber day and reflect on where we are today. I am thankful for the country we live in and the sacrifices many people have made, civilian or enlisted. I am honored to know several members of our armed forces that have served. I am grateful that many friends have gone into battle and returned home. All but one have returned home unharmed (physically at least...)

I am also thrilled to have my Father-In-Law home after he voluntarily worked in the Green Zone in Iraq for five and a half years. It was a lllooooooonnngg period of unknowing and fear that I will never forget. It is truly a blessing to have him home with us....

But - today I am happy that my beloved Browns are playing the Home Opener (and leading at the moment :] ). I have been able to quilt and finish a project and start another. I am home safe and got to spend it watching football with my husband...and quilting... What more could a girl ask for?

So, without further ado, here's the quilting on the Wonky Triple Rail quilt I just finished:

 I quilted free-form swirls all over this one for a lighter/fun feeling. This quilt is just so cheery swirls seemed perfect for it.

 By the time I added borders the top measured approx 34" x 42". Not knowing how large this quilt would be I got a yard of the backing fabric and would go from there. I wanted the pattern on the back to run up and down (I didn't want to the animals to look like they were tipsy or anything) so I was about 6" short on my backing length. I took a few strips of coordinating fabrics and added them to the back. I think it turned out pretty cute!

AND here's my Challenge Quilt for our Guild!!! Don't you just love it?! I have been seeing a gazillion spiderweb/kaleidoscope variations on the Internet and thought that would be a fun block for this challenge. I was originally thinking of doing more of a string version of a spiderweb block, then my Mom and I were searching a few blogs the one day and I noticed this by Cindy (also a Chef on the Moda Bake Shop) and I knew I had to make it...

The only thing was her blocks originally were made out of 6" and 4" strips. I only had a Fat Eighth of my challenge fabric to use and I had to use all of it. The solution - I thought to get the most out of my challenge fabric I would place it in the corners. There was NO WAY there would be enough to use it as one of the main fabrics. So I started with those pieces being cut from a 4.5" strip. I would cut as many as I could and go from there...

So, with a bit of new math and equipped with my trusty Kaleidoscope Ruler by Marti Michell I started cutting. I had this quilt together in no time. I honestly think it took about as long to lay out the quilt to arrange the colors as it did to piece it together. Quick! I like it!

It's still not quilted but it was too stinkin' cute not to show it off. I have to prepare the backing still (all 10 fabrics added to the Challenge fabric have to be on the back of the quilt) and I will quilt it simply this week.

Let's see, this weekend I finished a top, a quilt and put borders on another to get quilted this week AND I started another top... Productive week if I do say so myself.

So, now that I'm done blabbing, how are you spending your day? What projects are you working on?

Breathing...

Do you ever feel so excited about something you've been looking forward to for a long time that the closer it comes it feels to good to be true and then you stress over the small stuff and drive yourself insane in the process? I say this because my hubbin and I are this close to our first official vacation in the six and a half years we've been married and I'm so excited about it I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. The only thing is the grown up in me is slowly taking over thinking about all of the things that I want/need to get done before we go as well as stressing over all sorts of small things. I think what I'm saying is I really need to learn to relax and a week in utter paradise should do the trick.

Well, I hope you all could make it to the Lake Farmpark Quilts 2010 show. Here's a couple pictures of From Grammy With Love hanging at the show. My hubbin, momma and nana went with me to the opening. Mom had a quilt in the show as well and it was a fun night seeing all of the quilts and our friends.

Last weekend Mom and I took a class from Marti Michell herself! It was a blast. We learned her Sunburst technique using her pretty darn awesome templates that you can actually rotary cut around. Not only that but there's no 'dog ears' so the pieces line up perfectly every time. She's incredible. I don't know exactly how she figured it all out, but I'm definitely thinking about trying some of her other templates.

What else is going on in the world of Ruby Blue? Oh, that's right breathing. Why I say that, I am a little stressed over vacation ( I find it very ironic since vacation is supposed to be relaxing, haha ) so what better to do than finish up a quilt project to some extent. Why not relax and enjoy my time and slowly ease into my vacation. I couldn't stand to leave before finishing this quilt top and you know what, I'm enjoying it so much.

Here's the other thing. A few months ago I sprained my foot and my ankle both while exercising with my Wii. I know, another Wii injury. Well, since I have torn muscles in my foot and have to keep it elevated much longer than usually thought. It's not the most comfortable to try and elevate it and sew so I have been working on other hand projects for now. I got my sewing machine fixed, feel much better and finally got back into sewing. I just finished all of the blocks and laid them out on the floor and should be putting the top together tomorrow! I love it and am now thinking of how to quilt it and the top's not even done yet! Crazy, but that's how it goes some days!

The next pattern named Skip To My Lou should be getting printed shortly and then who knows what's next in store. I can tell you this much - I have way too many quilt tops done that need quilted so I know how I'm going to be spending a bunch of my time here shortly. Once the pattern heads off to the printers I will show you a little peek as usual. It'll be perfect timing for spring and all the beautiful flowers we should be seeing soon. I might be jumping the gun a little, I mean it is still March and all but a girl can dream! I'm ready for warmer weather and sun. Lots and lots of sun!

I should go work on finishing that top and maybe tie up a few other loose ends in the process so until next time....