Crickets

Sorry I haven't posted, it's been a crazy week around here and as much as I love chatting with you all, I just haven't had enough energy at the end of the day, but don't worry; I have plenty more to share in the near future!

So, did you listen to Pat Sloan's Radio show earlier this week? I had such a nice time chatting with her, but I always do!

If you listened to the beginning of the show, for some weird reason my phone kept echoing everything Pat was saying. Right in the middle of the show instead of chatting with Pat, I'm instead talking with the technical guy at the radio station trying to figure out what's going on and testing my phones. We ended up having to switch phones completely and I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get it working so I can get back to chatting with Pat. I'm not going to lie, it was kinda stressful, but it's one of those situations where now looking back I can laugh and listening to the show afterward, Pat did a wonderful job "covering" me.

If you haven't listened to the show, you can listen to it on iTunes if you search for American Patchwork & Quilting Radio or you can visit Pat's website and scroll through the shows each week and listen to them right on your computer. She also has links on her website to download the shows onto your Android device and much much more for other players and devices too.

Head on over and get a chuckle if you haven't listened yet but now know the backstory.

Pat and I talked about:

My little cheat sheet for Precuts, you can find the original post here.

My newest book, Seems Like Scrappy.

And how I organize my stash, you can read more and see pictures here.

Have a great weekend, I'm off to get some quilting done and I will be back soon with more to share!

-Rebecca

Too much credit...

You all are soooooo sweet! Thank you so much for the nice comments about my organized stash. Now, just to be clear I am a human and I'm not THAT organized. That's just one little area of my sewing room. And to prove it, here:

Here's how it looks right when you walk in...

And this is the other wall waiting to be organized. It's not as much of a hot mess as it's been In the past, but this area needs an update and the smaller dresser will be moving to the other bedroom and I have this awesome table to take its place. Maybe I'll work on that today since it looks like this out at the moment:

It's a mix between monster flakes of snow and this lighter fast falling stuff. So, I'm staying in at the moment and doing laundry and cleaning and then sewing!!! 

Have a great weekend!!!

Stash Overload

I know I've said it before, but when it comes to my stash I am either super organized, or its a huge disaster. Here's what I did recently:

The bins to the bottom and right of the shelves are separated into color groups or themes like Civil War, batiks, novelty, etc. 

The other bins with the numbers have my precut scraps that are too small to be "scraps" but I didn't want to toss them and I'm finding it is really helpful to have these pieces organized and grouped by size. I can't tell you how many quilts I've started by going into a size bun and grabbing a stack of already cut squares or strips that saves me a ton of time!

Each bin has squares and strips. This is my 2" bin and this one has room for further organizing so the pieces are also sorted into cottons, batiks, and Civil War. 

It took a bit of time to get organized and get everything just so, but I can tell you it's sooooooo worth it! I have been cutting out some new quilts as well, so I have this stack of "leftovers" that have been trimmed to size and just need to be sorted in the bins, but the last time I did it, I took over my wonky coffee table and it looked like this:

So for now, until I have a moment to take over the living room again, I have this amazing little pile:

The other half of my sewing room still looks like a fabric explosion that I need to tackle, but this is a marathon, not a sprint, so I'm working slow and methodical. I know my stash will be an ever evolving process, and I'm good with that because there may always be a new idea or a different fabric I'm into, so it makes me evaluate my stash and use it and that's the main thing! 

What does your stash look like? Is it organized or a disaster?

Kitchen Stitches Blog Hop & A Giveaway!!!

This giveaway is now closed, come back for future chances to win!

If you are new to my little corner of the blog community, Welcome!!! I'm super excited to be a part of this blog hop featuring the new book, Kitchen Stitches, that so many of us worked on. It's been great to collaborate with so many creative women and now we've swapped projects and it's even better! Plus, you can enter to win a copy of Kitchen Stitches, entry details are at the bottom of this post!

 When I got the request to come up with a project for the kitchen from Karen at Martingale, it got my brain working and you can read more about my project here. I was so excited to see all of the projects and was already adding some to my future projects list when I got word the girls wanted to do this blog hop. I had a hard time narrowing it down to just one! Look at the choices I had:

 I finally picked one and got to work with impending snow on it's way. I shared this preview last weekend and now I can share even more about this darling quilt.

 I chose to make the Cartwheels Table Runner designed by the talented Amy Ellis (by the way, hop on over to Amy's blog to see the Pillow Collective she has going on!) I immediately fell in love with this runner and headed to my stash.

 As I said, we had some nasty weather heading our way, so I raided my stash and improvised with what I had on hand. No trips to the quilt shop were in my future. Since we are all making our projects Valentine's themed, I first ran to my reds. Then I grabbed some pinks and as you may know, you never have what you need. My pinks were fighting. I have a mix of dusty and bubblegum and it was a mess.

So then I looked over and spotted this charm pack of Birds and Berries by Lauren & Jessie Jung and it was awesome. Plus I'm not the hearts and rainbows type of girl anyway. The mixture of the red, pink and yellow for the outer pieces worked well with the balance of blues and greens for the centers. (p.s. Wouldn't this be absolutely ADORABLE colored like peppermints for winter?!)

I planned mine out a bit more than Amy's version, but like I said... when raiding the stash and improvising, I dealt with what I had on hand. Including using copy paper. If you're planning on making this, please please please use a good paper made for paper piecing that can be found at most quilt shops (or ask for them to order you some). It makes a HUGE difference! Also, the table runner as Amy made it was 12" x 60" finished which is fine, but none of my tables are that long... so I just doubled it up and mine now finished at 24" x 30". 

The paper piecing makes it so simple to make and it went really quick. This is a great project to try if you've wanted to try paper piecing but haven't mustered up the confidence to dive in just yet. 

 Here you can see my Chihuahua, Paco, eyeing it up for his own. Too bad he's not getting this one.

To finish it off, I first machine quilted the background quite densely and then hand quilted each of the cartwheel rings with a pale yellow pearl cotton. I LOVE how it turned out. I just adore mixing quilting techniques like this!

This was a bunch of fun to make and I kinda want to make another (or three!). Now, don't forget that there are several other ladies on this blog hop showing off their projects this week (and if you've missed some, feel free to jump on back to the posts and catch up and enter some of their giveaways too):

2/3  Heather at The Sewing Loft
2/4  Becky at the Patchwork Posse and  Kim at My Go-Go life
2/5  Amy at FormWork Design and  Deby at So Sew Easy
2/6  Rebecca at Ruby Blue Quilts (that's me!)  and Jackie at Jabot Quilts
2/7  Melissa at Happy Melissa Quilting
2/8  Kari at Fresh Cut Quilts

Now for the giveaway... Just leave me a comment between now and Saturday night at midnight (Feb. 8 EST) to enter. It's that easy. Please be sure to leave your e-mail address if it's not attached to your profile so I can get in touch with you when you win! I will choose a winner at random and a copy of Kitchen Stitches will be on it's way to you soon.

It's done!

I was planning to return to long arming yesterday, but Mother Nature had other plans...

This was a hip deep snow drift outside my back door. There wasn't anything that had to be done that couldn't wait til today, so I finished up my Tone It Down quilt!

Now the debate is to try and quilt it to enter it in a local show in a few weeks or relax and move onto other projects and quilt it when I'm good and ready (and not rushed). 

I also got some shelves and new bins for my stash and reorganized this space. It's better but still needs improvement. I realize I still need more bins and space for all of this:

These are my cut scraps organized by size... And the other small pieces I unearthed yesterday that need a home. So even though it wasn't what I planned, it was a pretty successful day!

Machine Quilting: Juxtaposition Quilt

My friend Leslie is awesome. I'm just saying that first and foremost. She is such an overachiever with her quilts and I LOVE IT!!!

When my book came out, she was shocked and amazed (as many people were) that one of her favorite quilts in the book, Woodland Sunset, combined batiks and Civil War fabrics. Actually, at this point she had hardly dealt with batiks but was intrigued. After her first quilt she was hooked and never looked back. Little did I know, later on she would come up with this:

 Leslie mixed batiks and Civil War fabrics from her stash and used her Marti Michell (From Marti) Log Cabin Ruler to create these offset Log Cabin blocks. Hence the juxtaposition part. It's traditional, but not. It's modern, but not. It's circles... It's a conundrum! But I thought extra long and hard on this one and I LOVE the end results, so here's your fair warning - THERE'S TONS OF PICTURES!!!

 I started off with using Dream Puff batting to give the circles a trapunto-ish feeling and it worked wonderfully. Now, to make the circles stand out more, I quilted the background really dense with a modern geometric type design. This squishes the batting down and makes it not so puffy. Then the fun started - each block was quilted different!

 Each circle had it's own personality with the fabrics and colors chosen, so to keep it traditional-ish, I quilted a circle and feathered the outside of it. Then the center was open for each color. This one was a bit more traditional...

 And this one went totally modern. I LOVE IT!!!

 A little traditional...

 And a little modern...

 You get the idea... I'll just let you take a look at the rest...

 Alright, I thought this one would be super easy to see the quilting with the black fabrics (I was quilting in a medium brown), but with some of the patterns, you really can't see it. I have a better picture further on down to show the details in this one, promise.

 Tada! 12 blocks, each a bit different!

 This quilt was amazing and I had a blast working on it.

 Here's the detail in that one block you really couldn't see earlier.

 I love how the puff batting did it's job perfectly to make the feathers pop a bit more than the rest of the quilt. I love this batting for this result and plan on using it a bunch more in the future. But wait there's more! I said Leslie is an overachiever... Yeah, she pieced the back too using the same scraps from her stash but mixing them up a bit more:

 Isn't it amazing!!! It has so much personality and dang it, now I need to make one!

Here's how the quilting looks on the back of the quilt. I love how even the personality of each blocks comes through on the back!

Wasn't this quilt fun?! Now, it was a process and a half to do and many of the techniques I used on this quilt were new to me. Tomorrow I will be back with how exactly planned the quilt and completed the blocks. It was really neat and like most quilty things, not that bad once it was broken up into smaller chunks.

So how do you think I did? It's still a juxtaposition, and it's traditional, but it's not. It's modern, but it's not. It has circles, but now they have personality... If you couldn't tell, I LOVE THIS QUILT!!! And now I have to go play in my stash... :) Which circle is your favorite or do you love them all like me? Come back tomorrow for part 2!

Machine Quilting: Log Cabins

Bobette has this amazing use of color and she put it to good use with this log cabin quilt from Kim Diehl's Simple Comforts book:

 This quilt perplexed me at first. The borders were broken up with the small border being in the middle and running through the blocks in the corners... And the background areas were more like offset ovals and they had that blasted red dot in the middle. What was a girl to do?!

 I thought on this one long and hard and finally came up with a plan. I quilted up the bear paws, I did an overall design in the log cabins (because you wouldn't see any detail due to the fabrics anyway) and emphasised the background areas.

 This design in the background areas was my little spark of genius while working on this quilt. I think it came to me about 2 in the morning when I couldn't sleep.

 I played up each bear paw just enough to make it different, but not enough to stand out. This is one of those elements in a quilt that should be a supporting role.

 Now back to those borders... I decided to feather the borders from the inside out and criss-cross them at the corners where it runs through the blocks. Then the inside border got straight lines while the outside got an orange peel type design.

All in all, the designs all worked well with each other and the quilt turned out pretty awesome (if I do say so myself). I had more fun too looking at all of the fabrics Bobette used and thinking of whether I had it, wanted it, or could still find it if needed. Her color choices and mine are so similar on quilts like this, it makes it much easier for me to envision how to quilt it, I just pretend it's mine (if even for a short while) :)

Thanks, Bobette! This one was awesome, just like the rest of yours!

Quilt Along Progress

I'm not nearly as far as I wanted to be right now, but I'm not doing too shabby either.

 Now, for this as well as any quilt I plan to make using my stash (or not using the fabric requirements given) I grab my pad of paper and figure out exactly how many pieces I need.

 Then as I'm cutting I mark them off (it takes a bit more time, but it helps to keep it organized and keeps from having too few pieces when I'm nearing the end of the quilt. That is not when you want to cut more).

 Since i had so many of these and they're so small, all of the 1-1/2" squares went into these bins...

And the rest of the fabrics got stacked onto my handy dandy cork board. Seriously. Got get yourself one. Like yesterday. We got this for who knows what reason and instead of throwing it away, I took the hardware off the back and started using it to take my pieces from the machine to the ironing board. They don't slip, it's a nice size (probably 12" x 18") and if I ever need to mark anything, it's big enough that I can sit in the chair and watch TV while marking and the pieces stay right where they need to be.

I've gotten some of the four patches made, the nine patches are next and soon I should have pieces to make a block or 20! I'm loving the colors and had a blast going through my stash to add character to this quilt. I'll keep you updated as I get more done!

Fabrics Chosen!

I have to say, honestly, I am suffering right now from burn out. It does seem to happen this time of year because:

1. It's cold and dark out and I don't want to leave me bed, let alone my house, and my pjs are so comfy.
2. I've been quilting like a maniac and my back and chest need a rest.
3. I've quilted so many Christmas gifts for my customers, I don't have time or energy to make my own.
4. My brain just needs a reset.

But I think I've found the cure! I was cleaning my house last week and decided to treat myself to a few "me" minutes and sit down and read the new APQ magazine...

That's when I saw it! Have you seen it? If not, check it out here!

I cannot tell you the last time I made a quilt just to make it. (Now I know this is my job and all, but lately it's been turning into work and less fun, so I'm sorry if I sound like I'm complaining) When I saw Moda Lissa's quilt I immediately had to jump into my stash and make this quilt, like YESTERDAY.

Well, reality hit and there were still Christmas quilts to finish, so I kinda put this project on the back burner and moved on.

A couple days later, much quilting progress was made and I happened to have to go to the quilt shop while running errands. (I swear I did, I had things to drop off and pick up for customers, pinky promise) I was chatting and decided I had a few minutes to spare and then I got in trouble... I came home with these and a plan:

 Sorry for the slightly over exposed pictures... You see Ben gets up at 5, which means I'm usually up at 5 and I couldn't wait long enough for the sun to come out before I could get better photos. I was a woman on a mission! Plus it's NE Ohio in winter, we really don't get sun this time of year, more gray than anything.

 I will definitely add to this with some of my stash (like the two upper left pieces) but this is what I picked for the chains... I'm planning to mix them all up and have the chains super scrappy.

 These will be the accent fabrics for the surrounds...

 And this is the start of the backgrounds. With another small pile from my stash started (not pictured).

I think it looks very Ruby Blue and bright and refreshing. Just what I need. I really only went to get more backgrounds (You never seem to have enough in your stash) but then the new Jinny Beyer batiks were there and then wouldn't this look good too and I was done for. I was planning to start cutting yesterday but I had to organize my stash and sewing room a bit before I felt I could add to the mess.

I'm all in that clear out the bad and deal with what needs dealt with before starting something new phase. I just feel cluttered and out of sorts and I did pretty good so I think if I still feel perky after quilting today I might start cutting. Or if not a hand quilting project is still calling my name.

I've been hand quilting for an hour or so each day, but when it's dark it gets hard to see on some of the fabrics and I have to try again. It's been nice to have that as something to do and look forward to as well.

I'm so excited to start this quilt and hopefully by next week I will have a block or two done. I'm debating on doing one block at a time, or all the pieces first, or I dunno. I'll see what happens when I get there!

So do you like my colors? Have any suggestions on how to proceed? Any relaxing tips to share? I'm all ears!

If you're interested in making this quilt, be sure to check out the Feb. 2014 Issue of American Patchwork & Quilting (on newsstands now) and all of the information is in there! Otherwise, you can check it all out here on Moda Lissa's blog!