Items Added

I've just added the two newest Stitchery patterns to the Ruby Blue Shop! Now you can shop anytime and purchase Alphabet Stitchery: Dinosaurs and Alphabet Stitchery: Outer Space! Also, be sure to check for them at your LQS (local quilt shop).

New Stitchery Patterns!!!

With Market in full swing today, it's time to release the new Stitchery designs!!!

 I love drawing these designs and the dinosaurs were so much fun. To come up with the different designs I actually consulted my nephew and played around with fun bright colors. There's a flying pterodactyl, a T-Rex, a stegosaurus and many many more!

Sometimes it's a bit more fun to find the right fabrics to match the stitchery designs. This was one of them. Luckily my friend Dottie had a ton of these fabrics at her shop and I added in a few more to get the colors just right. This theme was tough coming up with different designs that would look right. In this stitchery you will find some planets among the stars, an exploring astronaut, an alien and his spaceship, and a few other neat things.

Remember that each design contains 10 stitchery blocks and 14 pieced blocks to finish at 40" x 48". To make the quilt a bit larger, just add borders! Each design will be printed full size on an individual sheet as clear as day. Most designs can be used as a stitchery as I've done or as applique!

Also, you may find it fun to try out some fabric pencils or paints to color in the designs to make them stand out a bit more. The options are endless.

These designs join the Alphabet Stitchery line already including:

Bugs Bugs Bugs

Bundle of Joy

Farm Animals

Jungle Animals

Noah's Ark

Sea Creatures

So which one will you make first?

The best laid plans...

You want to know how to make God laugh? Make plans.

I had the best intentions of taking better pictures of the new stitchery patterns but was just waiting for the perfect lighting to come along. And so did the clouds and rain and storms.

Granted for the perfect outdoor photos you want a hazy overcast day, but not like the week we've been having here. However I did manage to take these yesterday in the small window of opportunity between full sun and rain.

 The lighting wasn't exactly perfect as the ground is a bit under-exposed, but I'll take what I can get. This one above is the new Sea Creatures pattern.

And this one here is the Bundle of Joy pattern featuring everything baby. These patterns should be available in another week or so. I'll let you know when they will be available for purchase.

Back soon with more new patterns!

The Wonderful World of Quilting Retreats!

So I was finally able to attend my first ever quilt retreat last week. We had a group of 24 women that all went up to the Riverside Inn in Cambridge Springs, PA for a few days. We arrived Sunday afternoon and stayed through Wednesday morning and sewed until our little hearts were content.

 The Riverside Inn was built back in the 1800's and features over 70 guest rooms I believe that are all decorated with glamorous quilts and lovely furniture. There are several lamps that hang on the lower levels and many of them are different.

 Outside there are lush gardens and this wonderful porch.

 This is the ballroom where we held our Retreat. This is how it would be set up for weddings or parties, but imagine this with cutting tables in the middle, sewing machine and ironing boards set up along the outer perimeter, and plenty of room to lay out quilts. (This picture was borrowed from their website because I was working so hard I forgot to take pictures... Ooops!)

 I did take these though! Our friend Judy and her Mom had a party while we were there. It was Mom's 89th birthday and she had a wonderful day including this wonderful cake, flowers and a tiara!

 Here's some really bad, but sufficient enough for sneak peek, pictures of the newest stitchery patterns. Look for a feature with good pictures later this week! The one above is the Baby themed stitchery.

 This pattern features Sea Creatures.

And another pattern due out in the near future would be Prima. I'm working on the quilting now and this should be on the market very very soon.

So, besides finishing these quilt tops and half of my rings for my Bali Wedding Star, I also started some charity quilts as side projects too. Hence why the photos aren't the greatest and they are the only ones that I took while we were there.

We had girls doing all sorts of things from pillowcases to table toppers, lap quilts, paper piecing, large grandiose things and I didn't get a picture of any of them... Dang! Guess that means we have to do it again! Well, speaking of quilting, I better get moving if I'm going to get that finished today!

Shipshewana, IN

So, last Tuesday Mom and I hopped in the car and headed up to Shipshewana, IN for another fabric show!

I love doing these shows - you get to meet awesome people, see all the new goodies, and be around other quilty people and talk quilts all day - how cool is that?

 So I was set up in the corner there, I had my table with the new Stitchery designs...

 I also brought both of my Dueling Personalities quilts (on the bench to the left) which paired nicely with the quilt Joseph brought, made of the same collection. I made two quilts and split the line into neutrals and brights where his quilt combined them all!

Also on the table to the right we were featuring the new line by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts called Over the Rainbow (more on that later).

 Here's a shot of the back of the booth. We were still showing the Christmas and Seasonal collections, I can't wait to start making quilts with these!

 We also featured the new birthday collections found in the Moda Home department. It also happened to be the 15th anniversary of this show, so Mark had wonderful cupcakes there as well! But isn't this bunting adorable?!

 Back to that Over the Rainbow collection... Here's a shot of the Fat 8th bundle... There's 50 batiks in the line including:

 10 Neutrals and...

40 colors! Also Edyta designed a new product called Silhouettes which are laser cut applique pieces with Steam a Seam II already on the back! All you have to do is peel the paper off the back, iron them onto the fabric and stitch them down!

To learn more watch the video where Edyta explains all the details for you by clicking here.

Sorry it's taken me a while to post about Shipshewana, we got home from the show late Wednesday night and immediately turned around and had the vendor's weekend at the Lake Farmpark show. Two shows back to back! Whew! Now to get back to the grind. The show was so busy I wasn't able to take any new photos, but I may try to go out there one last time.

Today I'm off to start a quilting blitz. I have several quilts to work on and I hope to show you pictures of those as I work on them. Off to quilt, be back soon!

New Arrivals!!!

The two newest patterns in the Alphabet Stitchery Line are now available!!!

 Bugs Bugs Bugs, doesn't that just say it all? There's all sorts of bugs from a snail to a spider, lady bugs, a lightning bug and everything in between - but these are cute, not creepy bugs... I promise.

On this quilt I used a fabric line called Little Critters and it had this adorable border print, so I just had to use it as a border on this quilt. (To date this is the only one with a border out of the 4)

And the Jungle Animals! There's a buck-toothed crocodile, a zebra, a monkey, a hippo in the water, all sorts of creatures! Go for a walk on "the wild side" and stitch up some of these adorable critters for the little one in your life.

Now, I don't think I've mentioned before another idea for the stitchery blocks... Have you ever done or have you seen the method of coloring fabrics with crayons and heat setting the color? Have a grown-up coloring book day and color in these critters for a little extra pop of color if you'd like!

As with the other quilts, the stats stay the same:

Finished size: 40" x 48"

24 Blocks (10 Stitchery & 14 Pieced)

Finished block size: 10" x 8"

 

These patterns are now ready to ship, so if you're interested in stocking them in your shop, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com to place an order.

 

If you would like to purchase this pattern, but your LQS doesn't carry it, please either ask them if they would like to or e-mail me at the address listed above and I can direct you to a shop where you can purchase the pattern.

 

I also heard from a little bird that Cottonpicker's Quilt Shop has some bundles of the fabric used in the Bugs Bugs Bugs quilt available. If you would like to purchase a bundle, call Beth at 440.279.0610 and she can drop it in the mail to you. She also has some of the border print left, but not much, so if you want that too, let her know.

 

So, do you have a current favorite theme in the Alphabet Stitchery line? I can't choose, that's like deciding which kid you love the most - just not possible.

 

I'll be back with more updates from the studio soon. Oh, and by the way it's snowing again... And again, and again... But it's Winter, so let's get through it and move onto Spring! Who's with me?

 

 

Alphabet Stitchery: Noah's Ark

I'm trying to keep the themes of these quilts on a trend that will grow with the little ones (if they get them when they're brand new!) Little ones aren't little for very long and this quilt offers a size that they can play on, learn to crawl on, drool on, carry around when they walk, and sleep with in their big kid beds!

Noah and his Ark are accompanied by all sorts of animals - all two by two in this quilt. There's camels and elephants, donkeys and lions and many many more!

I had so much fun drawing out these guys and trying to decide how each animal would interact with it's partner, where to put them all in the design, and what colors of thread to use!

As with the other quilts, the stats stay the same:

Finished size: 40" x 48"

24 Blocks (10 Stitchery & 14 Pieced)

Finished block size: 10" x 8"

Now some of you may be asking why use a non-square block? My initial reaction to this is why not? But also it offers possibilities that you just can't get with only square blocks.

A great idea just popped into my head - wouldn't this be a darling donation to a church raffle??? I'm thinking YES!

One more thing - I actually used a layer cake for this design and had plenty left over to make at least one more quilt! But it gave me an exceptionally scrappy look. This is the debut fabric line from Malka Dubrawsky for Moda called A Stitch in Color! I got the idea for the quilting from once of the fabrics - see the gray with yellow in the bottom right? Yeah, that one! You can find this fabric in stores now.

Alright, so I hope you enjoy this quilt and if you have any questions or own a shop and would like to place an order, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com. Be back soon with more (;

Alphabet Stitchery: Farm Animals

I have to say, this was the design that started this whole craze. My best friend was pregnant with her first and we grew up "in the country", so she grew up on a farm. Literally, right now her house is part of a barn - with animals. Animals including her first ever cow she had as a 4H project when we were in 3rd grade. I think Blossom (the cow) will live forever at this point! But, we love her and the goats, horses, pigs, dogs, and whatever else you might find at Katti's house over the years.

So, back to topic - since Katti was pregnant I wanted to make her a quilt with farm animals. I looked and looked, but there weren't that many patterns to choose from and frankly some of the fabric looked a bit creepy if you ask me... So, I made a quilt out of 1930's prints with some applique.

Then this adorable stitchery pattern came into my hands a little later (I will keep this one nameless for reasons below). The blocks were cute but the construction and the quilt itself was horrendous!!! My Mom really wanted to have a cute sample so she asked me to design some blocks for it. We loved it so much that we thought I should draw my own stitchery to go with the blocks and here we are today!

Soooooo, here's the stats (this quilt is a smidge different, but that's why I love it):

Finished size: 40"x48"

Blocks: 24 (10 Stitchery & 14 Pieced)

Finished block size: 10" x 8" (See what I mean?)

Oh, and if I didn't mention it before - all the animals have their own names which are listed in the pattern. Kinda weird, but it was fun! Also, if you are a fan of applique - this pattern already has the pieces set up for use as an applique pattern too! Just think - you could mix and match the two for a really adorable quilt!

All I can say is too stinkin' cute! I kinda want to make another with the applique, but I have all winter to work on that (; Be back soon with more pictures!

p.s. If you have any questions at all or own a shop and are interested in the Alphabet Stitchery patterns, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks!

S.N.T. (Show N Tell!)

You've all been quite patient with me and I appreciate it greatly. I had so much fun making these next batch of patterns that I got a bit carried away and instead of releasing 2 patterns initially - you got a bonus with the third.

I was just stitching and stitching and couldn't stop!!!

So, do you remember when I showed you this picture back when?

Well, this is the new Alphabet Stitchery line. When I showed this shot to you previously I only had a few designs I was planning on... but they're too cute and I kept drawing.

I now have 6 designs which include Farm:

 Bugs:

Noah's Ark:

AND soon to come - Baby, Jungle & Aquatic! Each quilt has the same pieced blocks featuring different fabrics and 10 different stitchery blocks per quilt.

I'm working on the finishing touches to these quilts as we speak and the patterns should be ready in a couple weeks! The second batch should be ready next month!

I don't know about you but I have a TON of friends that are expecting and everyone's nursery theme is different. It was hard trying to come up with either fabric or a pattern (or both!) that reflected each theme, so I hope to ease the search with these fun designs!

Also the nice thing is that each quilt without borders measures 40" x 50" so it's small enough to snuggle with a newborn, yet big enough to grow with them throughout the toddler and little one years! They're not little for long, that's for sure!!!

I will be doing a post on each theme in the future to show off the fun characters in each quilt. I hope you enjoy theses as much as I have enjoyed creating them!

So my question for you is which one so far is your favorite and who would you make it for? Be back soon with more photos!!!

Preview...

So, here's your hint:

Here's another hint... this is only the first of many more to come!

So, was it what you thought it would be?

They are all turning out so cute... I'm working diligently trying to get them all done so I can get the quilts done very very soon! I'll keep you updated!