Market Schedule

Well, I'm checking my lists and packing my bags and hoping I have everything I need. Hope to see you all at Market so I wanted to post my schedule so you know where to find me :)

I have a Schoolhouse on Thursday showing off my quilts from my new book, Seems Like Scrappy in room #211D at 3:45 - 4:15. 

I also have a few booksignings going on. You can find me:

Friday at Martingale's booth #325 at 11:30

Saturday you can find me at:

Brewer #1919 at 11:00 and

E.E. Schenck #1023 at 3:00

Some booksignings may have reservations or advanced tickets to get a book, please check with each vendor to see if you need to make a reservation. 

See you soon!

Last Market Post & Feathered Star

I almost forgot to write this post! How possibly could I? This is the last post I will write about Spring Market and then I will move on. I think. No guarantees at this point. I think I need more coffee.

Oh, and I almost forgot - there's still time to enter in my latest giveaway. Remember you can enter up to once a day, it's really simple - just click here to head on over and enter to win!

Anywho, my Mom made this quilt to hang in the Timeless Treasures booth and I had the pleasure of quilting it:

 This is the Feathered Star pattern by Judy Niemeyer (Quiltworx). This is the smaller size, but there is a version in a queen size. I also quilted a queen size version not too long ago and you can see it here.

 This quilt features the new Tonga Punch line of fabrics that should be coming out in stores later this year.

 I loved seeing how the lighting in their booth showed off the quilting details.

 And here's some pictures I took when I finished quilting it. This quilt had tons of texture.

 I find that quilts of ours that are going to travel around a bunch, and possibly will live folded up in boxes or suitcases hang much better if they are densely quilted. I think I went a little overboard with this quilt...

 Maybe not, I tried to keep the range of motifs simple and tried to tie in all of the quilt elements together.

I really like how this center turned out. I tried to combine the straight lines and swirls to fill the space and mirror the other spaces in the quilt.

I've been quilting up a storm and I will try to share more of those pictures with you all. Until then, gotta get back to the machine!

My booth at Market...

I know Market was awhile ago and I've gotten behind again on my blog. Sorry about that. When Market time rolls around you truly forget how much is involved and I've been working diligently on my new manuscript as well as a whole slew of other things and before you know it, I pass out on the couch and no blogging... Not cool!

So, I know it's a tad late, but I wanted to share pictures from my home away from home for a few days during Market.

 Here it is! My little piece of the Market puzzle. And puzzle it was! I along with a bunch of other Martingale Authors participated in the Author Hop. It's pretty neat, you get a passport and go around to all of the booths listed, collect a stamp and get entered into a drawing for books and other prizes. People kept getting lost finding me but the crazy thing was I WAS RIGHT ACROSS THE AISLE from Martingale. I could see the basket the Grand Prize Winner would get... Oh well.

 I brought out many of the quilts from Seamingly Scrappy to show off and they got a ton of love during Market.

 I also got a preview of a fun new book I'm in coming out next month... More on that later though... :)

 My little table was so full of stuff! Most importantly was the Jolly Ranchers and chocolates which sadly were breakfast and lunch most days. Not joking... We were slap happy by the end of the day on Sunday, probably due to the mass amounts of candy in our systems!

 I absolutely LOVE the Pittsburgh Convention Center due to this natural light that streams in all day long. This was my view from my booth and it was so nice to see clouds and sun and something outside while we were inside. Many convention centers are drab and dark and no windows... How boring!

 We also were showing the new Heritage BOM that will be released shortly. I'll do a whole post later to show off this gem!

And because I could... Talk about sunlight!!! How many places can you say this was your booth inside? I snapped a picture or two.

But that was it, we did it, we ended up carrying everything out to the car afterwards (not fun, you can read why here) and aside from the one wrong turn out of the city, we made it home and still do not have a new coffee table yet. I may just keep this broken one forever until it meets it's match. Or I find a replacement. I'm not searching too hard right now, I have other fish to fry. Speaking of which, gotta go quilt!

PreQuilt Market Recap

So this time around to market, my Hubby was with me for the first time to set up the booth. We had a plan. It was going to be great. 

I live so close to Pittsburgh we drove and he did great through the wind and rain driving a much larger vehicle than we are used to (I would have been white-knuckling it the whole way) and all was good. We got there in good time, we found where we were supposed to be quite easily and we started unloading. 

This is where it started going south. Someone told me about this great idea to put casters under the table you plan to use in your booth, load everything on top of it, roll it in and set up. Sounded great. We made to just the other side of the booth next to us when I heard it - CRACK!!!!!

Now mind you this is my coffee table from home... Ooooppppssss. The leg had barely any support and we didn't know it until it broke off. So like any prepared woman, I brought duct tape :)

It held it on just enough to keep the table functional and useful throughout the show and you could barely see it. See:

You can just barely see the tape under the left leg. No biggie. It's actually back home still taped up until we can find a replacement. We didn't know the mainframe of the sides were constructed of MDF with veneer until it broke so there's basically nothing left to connect it back to. Oh well. 

Luckily we made it almost to the booth and that was the big hurdle during set up. It made tearing down more adventurous because we has to carry everything out and we were both sweaty beasts in no time. The loading dock was on the opposite wall from where my booth was and it was an adventure. But we survived. 

The only other pitfall we encountered was right before leaving for the first day of market, I was all ready to go. Hair and make up done, I just had to put on my dress and shoes and we were out the door. I went to go zip up my dress and the zipper broke. Quickly I changed into plan B and buzzed over to market and had some chocolate. It only seemed appropriate. 

I'll post actual good camera photos of the booth soon bathed in the natural sunlight we are lucky to get at Pittsburgh. Until then, gotta go sew!

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?

It's Market Time!!!

We made it. The booth is set up. I've just had a cup of coffee and we are getting ready to head over to the show. 

This was how we left the booth last night, the aisle carpet wasn't down yet. But anywho, come visit our booth #614! We can chat about my new BOM pattern (hanging to the right) that will be released next month, you can gain some energy from the candy buffet on my table (which I'll have to tell you about later), AND best of all, you can come meet Mr. Ruby Blue! My Hubby, Ben, is with me and it's gonna be a fun weekend. Hope to see you soon! 

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!

I'm blaming jet-lag...

So sorry for the delay, but I am soooo exhausted after market. It could be the fact that we landed in Cleveland after midnight on Tuesday and didn't go to bed until after 3am...

It also could be the fact that my crazy dog now feels the need to play with his squeaky chicken all hours of the day (including between 1-6am, just maybe)

But it also could be that I had an absolutely amazing time and met so many awesome people and chatted my little self out. (But I still have my voice!) That and all of the amazing ideas and inspiration I got while there are hoarding what little brain function I have left until I catch up on sleep.

This time around at Market was a bit different for me since it was the first Market since my book came out and I had some new responsibilities with that, but also since I had my first booth!

 I had to keep it simple since everything needed to be either packed in a suitcase or shipped across country so I knew it would arrive safe and sound. I packed the booth full of quilts from my book, Seamingly Scrappy, and the two new Alphabet Stitchery patterns.

 On the other side of the booth I used some burlap ribbon and these colorful placemats (no I did not weave them myself and yes I was asked that several times) to showcase all of the other patterns that are currently on the market.

Now, with everything you do there is a learning curve. With writing my first book, there was a HUGE learning curve. With writing my first pattern to now my 20th, still a learning curve.

But with setting up a booth at Quilt Market, yet another HUGE learning curve. The things I learned included:

1. Pack lighter. I packed way too much stuff I didn't end up using and over estimated on certain things. I know better now and will use that knowledge in the future.

2. When you have a booth at Market, you don't get to "visit" as much as you'd like with other booths. I really thought I'd have more time to get out and see the show, but I didn't... And that's fine. It meant I was busy!

3. Bring help that isn't as excited about the show and fabrics as you are. I brought my Mom with me and she was a big help, but between the two of us, we now have a dream plan of making 150,000 quilts before the end of summer... My Hubby would have been a nice help in the booth to let me escape from time to time and he wouldn't have been distracted by all of the new wonderfulness that is Market. Hopefully next year he can come.

4. Expect the unexpected. Luckily the show was great, the people were wonderful and Portland was, well, interesting. I say luckily because with all of the insanity between book signings, Schoolhouse, the booth and just the world that is Market, Mom and I made it through the show just fine. On the way to the airport however, both of us at almost the same moment as we're hauling 4 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons, our purses and coats and things, both of us broke wheels on the largest bags at almost the exact same moment on the way to the train... So instead of us each pushing one bag and hauling one with a carry-on attached... we were pushing one bag and dragging the rest. We didn't have much further to go, but still. We were just grateful we were on the way home and not on the way to the show.

But anywho, we had a blast, would do it all again in a heartbeat and still need a bit of recovery time before I feel back up to normal. I'm so excited for next year since the show will be in Pittsburgh, PA! I can drive and bring much more fun stuff for the booth. We'll have to see what unfurls between now and then.

Before I go though, I had to show this booth. I'll admit that I just downloaded the pictures from my trip and sadly I took 4... You're seeing 3 of them in this post. How pathetic is that?! I did take some on my iPod, but they're not really great enough to show. More or less just scenery of the Portland area while on the train. Anywho (back to the subject), this booth was just down the aisle from us and everything in it was fuzzy in one way or another.

Not only did it mesmerize all of the attendees at Market, all of us vendors were in love with it too. I can't tell you how many people would just instinctively walk up and start petting the fabrics. Some were so in love with the fuzzy pink stuff covering the poles for the booth I watched a lady play with it for quite awhile!

But alas, I'm home and getting back to normal. Everything is unpacked, orders have been sent out and the Seamingly Scrappy Trunk Show is on the road (more on that later). I'm sorry I don't have more to share, but I'm not too worried because as I said, it means I was busy!

However, if you were at Market and have anything you'd like to share, please e-mail me at RubyBlueQuilts (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll be more than glad to share it on here!

Bags are packed!

We're currently sitting at the airport ready to go home. Portland was a great time and I'm so glad I made the decision to come. Right now however I am missing my bed something fierce (and my Hubbin too), but my bed and my pillow...

We've gotten our workouts hauling luggage to and from the show, setting up and tearing down, and I am one sore puppy.

Here's the booth torn down just one hour after the show closed. We meant business and it went so well. I'll post more goodies later as I can!

Ready to go!

Doors open in a few minutes! Ready to go here in the booth!

Almost Ready!

I'm almost finished packing for Spring Market and I'm super excited!

This year I will have my first booth and have a jam-packed schedule I wanted to share with you:

Thursday you can find me at Room B110/111 from 4:55-5:25 for a Schoolhouse Session. It should be an energy packed fun experience to learn more about my book, Seamingly Scrappy, and the Seamingly Scrappy Technique.

Friday you can find me at Brewer's booth #2214 at 11am for a book signing.

Sunday you can find me at Martingale's booth #1536 at 11:30am for a book signing.

Otherwise, you can always find me at my booth #2949 where I'll have several of the quilts from the book and a couple new stitchery patterns (I'll show those later this week).

I'm getting to that stage where I feel like I'm forgetting something and it's so sad because I haven't even finished packing yet...

Wish me luck and stop on by and say hi if you're coming to Spring Market!!! I can't wait!

Shipshewana 2012 (the duo)/Trunk Show

So, last week Mom and I headed over to Shipshewana to work with Moda at the Regional Fabric Show. We do this a few times a year and this was our second time this year out to Indiana.

 The day started out a bit sunny... as you can see. Poor Mark opted to switch places and sit where the customers normally do so they weren't blind by the time they left...

 This was the beginnings of the Ruby Blue/ Moda area. Doesn't it look cozy?

 We had all sorts of quilt in the booth this time around. More than usual, that's for sue. Most of them were straight from Market.

 We also had a display of the latest Sewline products and Ruby Blue Patterns.

 I got to show off some of the latest Moda Bake Shop quilts and the Alphabet Stitcheries.

 Here's how the back of the booth looked. There's so many good lines this time around (as usual) and some new designers too. I love them all, don't you?

And, Mark had the newest Bella Solids card which now includes 220 colors! 220! That's crazy, but it also makes life so much easier! The greatest part is there's always something to match the Moda lines... Easy Peasy!

Oh, and on a side note, if any of you are planning on attending the Shipshewana Quilt Festival here in another week or so be sure to stop by Yoder's Department Store. Not only are they the hub basically for all things Quilt Festival related (and the fact they expanded the store and it's even bigger now than it was), but - they have some of my quilts and will be doing a trunk show during Quilt Festival!!! I'm so excited and cannot thank Dawn enough for this opportunity!

Let me know if you're going to Quilt Festival, I'd love to hear what you think. Unfortunately I cannot attend this year, but I will be there in spirit.

5, 4, 3, 6, 2, 1 (Market Recap)

So why all these numbers for a Market Recap? And why in that order?

Because in 5 days, this girl

was on 4 planes

stayed in 3 hotel rooms

set foot in 6 states

on my 2 feet

which resulted in 1 tired girl!

And downloading the pictures from my camera, I'm even more ashamed than I thought I should have been. I swear I only took about 6 pictures total during my trip, but can think of all the pictures I should have taken. The worst part is I had the camera with me the WHOLE TIME!!! I have no excuses besides the awe of Market (yeah, that sounds good, right?!)

 So, this was the main entry to the lobby...

 Just beyond that was the escalators. You couldn't get into the show until 9:30 on the dot and then it was a mad dash to get up into the show.

 This was day two, on day one I didn't have my camera out for this experience and I was afraid to pull it out, get pushed or trip, get run over by the stampede of quilters and have a bad Market, so I opted to wait until day two.

This is a view from the 5th row of booths towards the back of the convention. Just a little big, don't ya think?! Well, unfortunately that's it. I wish I had more to show, but like I said. I saw and met soooo many amazing people, the camera wasn't even on my mind half the time.

So, what'd you think?!

Back from Market...

I'm home, and I think I'm in one piece...

We traveled and walked and walked and walked - I think I walked more over the weekend than I have in the last month! But it was sooooo worth it!

Sad to say I didn't take many pictures while I was gone. I guess since I hadn't been at a Market in a while I was so taken back by the sights I neglected my camera, I do have some pictures however and I will post them later.

And sorry for not posting sooner. It's so hard to get back in the swing of things:
- work is busier than when I left (I was only gone 2 days, but it feels like I have a month's worth of work waiting for me!)
- I had to grocery shop by myself last night (Ben and I usually go together or he does it, I think it's been years since I did it myself!)
- my poor feet and hips and shins need some rest - my shin splints today are killing me!
-and I started reading the Hunger Games books the night we left... I finished the second one last night and think I should have the last one done some time this weekend. Hence why I didn't blog last night like I planned... (really they are THAT GOOD, no joke, I highly recommend them!)

So all that aside my brain is still sorting out all of the things we saw and admired and I'm trying to get back into quilting mode. I'll probably be long arm quilting a bunch this weekend so hopefully I'll have plenty of goodies to show you!

I'll be back to post the pictures I did get at Market very soon!

When in Rome...

Or Kansas City...

BBQ is a must, so we tried Gates & Sons that was highly recommended. It was good and waaaaayyyyy too much food!

Show starts tomorrow, no sneak peeks yet, not even for me :(

But I can't wait til tomorrow!!!

We've arrived!!!

Kansas City, get ready for Spring Market! Lots of quilters are coming along too!

We pulled in the parking garage of our hotel to see a car with a license plate that said MAKAQLT, hehehe.

We're going to go explore and get some lunch. Show starts tomorrow, be back with more later!

Packing my bags!

Tonight I will be packing my bags, after doing some last minute laundry and getting ready to head off to SPRING MARKET!!!!!

I'm soooo totally excited (can you tell?) This is Ben's first time going to Market of any kind, my second time only!

I went to Spring Market a few years ago in Pittsburgh tagging along with my Mom. It was right when I started toying with the idea of starting Ruby Blue, but wasn't quite sure exactly was I was getting into. I had an idea, but going to Market puts it all into perspective.

I thought I would walk in,
see what everyone else was doing,
and then turn and run the other way as fast as possible...

But I was wrong, I loved it and couldn't wait to go home and get the business up and running. Everyday after walking the show floor I'd go back to the hotel room and draw up new designs.

Now I get to go back with both my Husband and my Mom, to Kansas City where I'm hoping to have some life changing BBQ and get to put names and faces with all of the other quilters I've met through this blog, the Moda Bake Shop or wherever.

That and I get to see all the newest, latest and greatest of everything. Quilts. Notions. Gadgets. AND FABRIC!!! I love fabric - Ben even yelled at me last week to stop petting my one quilt I just finished (anyone else mindlessly find themselves petting the quilts? or is it just me?)

So, currently the plan is to do what laundry is at home, figure out what to pack and get it all ready because as soon as I get home from work tomorrow I'm basically changing my clothes, grabbing my bags and out the door. I'm going to do a couple little posts if I can while I'm gone, but next week I'll be back with all sorts of updates and pictures I'm sure - which reminds me I should charge my camera once I get home too. I'd hate to get there with a dead battery!

Spring Market, here I come!

New MBS Recipe

It's been such a crazy hectic week I almost forgot this  morning I have a new recipe on the Moda Bake Shop!!!

If you've been following my blog, you know what I'm talking about. If you're new to my blog, WELCOME!!! and to follow the chaos including my first trip to Shipshewana, my quilt showing up in a Moda Bake Shop Ad and how one of my quilts will be traveling to Spring Market look at my past posts. It's been a crazy week.

The Moda Bake Shop has been a wonderful adventure for many people including both designers and quilters. I have to say as a "chef" it definitely gets the creative juices going since the main principle of the designs is based upon the various precuts. Trying to design using these precuts poses a creative challenge that I welcome greatly. It forces creativity and sometimes I even surprise myself with new ideas.

But on the flipside it's great for quilters of all styles and levels. Sometimes you're shopping in your LQS and you see a precut bundle...a Charm Pack, a Jelly Roll, what not. And it just calls out your name so you buy it and take it home. Then you realize that you have absolutely no clue what to do with your latest purchase. (Not that I'm speaking from experience here, no no, never have I bought fabric on impulse :) ).

So the great tool you now have is the Moda Bake Shop, hop on over look at all of the awesome recipes and I'm sure you'll find something to make with your precuts. There's projects of all levels from beginner to a bit more advanced and all sizes from small pincushions to large quilts.

I am so blessed to be a part of the Moda Bake Shop and I really hope you like the new recipe. This was a fun one!!! Here's a picture since I've been rambling on:

Well, let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! Please, leave a comment to tell me your thoughts on both the Moda Bake Shop and my latest recipe. And as always, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com with pictures of valances you've made with my tutorial and I'd be more than glad to share the photos here too!!!

So, I'm going to go grab some breakfast and get to a day filled with quilting. Stay tuned as I'm sure there's many more wonderful things to come in the future!!!

Also, one other little tidbit before I go, Moda has been so gracious to pick up the entire Ruby Blue Pattern Line!!! So, if you see any of my patterns that you would like, ask your LQS to order them in or ask them to order directly from me! I'm working on the next pattern and it should be ready in a few weeks. I'll keep you updated.

So exciting, but still coffee is needed, must get coffee. Take care and we'll chat later!!!