Little Ruby Quilt Along Part 1

Today is our first triple-digit temperature in the Sacramento area.  I think I will sew all day, turn the air conditioner on to a comfortable temperature and watch television all day while I sew.  The temperature is supposed to reach 100 degrees today by 3 PM.  Ugh!


I just wanted to show you what supplies you need to start this quilt:

I purchased: two jelly rolls of "Little Ruby;" 3 yards of the background fabric "Aqua Little Bliss Dots" and an extra yard of Bell bleached white fabric from my local quilt store.  Just in case I purchased the incorrect white jelly rolls.  I had two junior jelly rolls in my stash.  I love having the white as background.  It reminds of clean white laundry.

I purchased the two rulers from the Fat Quarter Shop:  a 4 1/2" Double Strip Ruler/Equilateral Triangle and a 4 1/2" Hexagon Trim Tool.  I hope to use them often in the future.  They are not cheap.

Little Ruby Quilt Along - Continuing - Part 2

I have a few notes to add to the completion of the "stars" from Part 2 of Little Ruby.

I forgot to mention that the makers of the colorful quilt (shown below on the left) added that another quilt can be made from the leftover fabric (quilt on the right).

The instructions want us to make only one top and one bottom of the star block. I easily made two tops and bottoms from the two strips.  I am thinking that I might be able to make two of the colorful quilts and maybe one large quilt with the lighter top and bottom star blocks along with the left over colorful blocks.

Additional tips:  I used the small rotary cutter, 28 mm to cut the triangles.  I felt like I had better control of the rotary cutter.  It was easier to trip around the template.

I also noticed that the fabrics used in colorful quilt were not the light blue or aqua fabric.  I just assumed that the aqua was too close to the background fabric.  In other words, there was no contrast between them.

My last tip is to heed Kimberly's advice: heavily starch the two pieces before you start cutting the parts for the star.  The bumps can make the fabric shift and cause inaccurate cutting.

I am almost done with the making of the tops and bottoms of the stars.  I will take photos of them this afternoon.

Little Ruby Quilt - Fat Quarter Shop Quilt Along

I subscribe to the Fat Quarter Shop's blog, the Jolly Jabber.  I read the blog and was immediately interested in one of the Quilt Along's:  Little Ruby.  The pattern was designed by Camille Roskelly.  The fabric used is called Little Ruby and was designed by Camille and her mother, Bonnie Olaveson.  They design fabric and are known as "Bonnie and Camille."  I always buy at least a layer cake or jelly roll, sometimes both of their just released fabrics.  I love almost all of their fabric lines!  Camile's patterns are sold under the name, "Thimble Blossoms" and Bonnie's are sold under the name, "The Cotton Way."  They are a very talented mother/daughter team.

Kimberly mentions that you are able to make two quilts with all of the fabric purchased.  I love that!  It just seems remarkable.

This quilt looks like fun and the instructions seem fairly easy too.  There are four parts to this quilt along:  
                Part 1 - Getting Started was released on 5/30/2016, 
                Part 2 - Star Blocks was released on 6/13/2016,
                Part 3 - Quilt Assembly will be released 6/27/2016, and
                Part 4 - Finished Quilts will be released 7/11/2016.
The two parts that were released has a printable instruction sheet and a YouTube video on the Fat Quarter Shop's channel.  I am assuming that the last two parts will have the same instruction sheet and video.

I ordered all of the supplies from the Fat Quarter Shop:  2 -Little Ruby Jelly Rolls (55130JR), Background and Binding - 3 yards of fabric (55134-12) and 1 - Creative Grids Hexagons Trim Tool (CGRJAW4) and 1-Creative Grids 60 degree Double Strip Rules (CGRDBS60).  I already had two White Bella Solids Jelly Rolls (9900JR-98) in my stash.  The white jelly rolls were Junior sized and I noticed that Kimberly had two regular sized rolls on the video (I purchased two junior rolls from the instructions on the supply list) so I went to my local fabric shop and purchased one yard of White Bella Solids yardage just in case I did not have enough white. 

Most of the items arrived while we were in San Diego.  I had to do my BOM's, Flock of Feathered Stars and River Rock first.  So now I will start following the instructions from The Jolly Jabber blog.  I could post photos but you can watch the YouTube videos because they will show a better quality of photos/videos than I can produce.

          Part 1 - Little Ruby YouTube Video:
                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpUeziqCF0U
          Part 2 - Little Ruby YouTube Video:  
                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WQCMrunOmI

River Rock - Month 6

I have been sewing the two BOM's that I committed to finish for months now, the Flock of Feathered Stars and River Rock.  I am close to the end of River Rock so I want to keep up and not fall behind.

I finished the current month of River Rock.  It is a fun quilt with large blocks and very colorful batiks, which I love.  

Block A
13" x 13" (unfinished)

Block B
20" x 20" un(finished)

Spacer Block
8" x 13" (unfinished)

The final part of the instructions is that I am to sew the spacer block onto the top of Block A.

Flock of Feathered Stars - Month 11

I finished the latest Flock of Feathered Stars BOM, month 11.  I can't believe that I have kept up on the eleven installments of this BOM from my local quilt store, the Fabric Garden.  I have made 11 blocks and 33 blocks of the border. This is an 18-month class in which we make 17 blocks and 48 smaller blocks for the border.  Each month we make 1 large center block and 3 small border blocks.

This month's block is called "Feathered Star No. 3."

12" x 12" (finished)

6" x 6" (finished)

by Carolyn Cullinan McCormick

"STARS of the NIGHT"
by Carolyn Cullinan McCormick
Quilted by Carol Willey
84" Square

Reorganizing and a trip to San Diego

Ooops!  My last post was almost a month ago.  I have many excuses for neglecting this blog:  I decided to organize my stash, my youngest daughter graduated from college and I was working full-time.  If you didn't know, I had to work at our local high school because one of clerical people in the Attendance Office was fired.  I worked there seven years ago and I am called when a sub is needed to work the desk.  That job ended with the last day of school, June 2. Approximately two weeks before June 2, I decided I had to reorganize my sewing space.  I had jelly rolls and layer cakes all over the place!  If I needed to find one, forget it.  I would never find it without going through everything and making a bigger mess than I thought I could ever make.  

During the second week of June, our entire family went down to watch my youngest daughter graduate from UC San Diego with a BS in Structural Engineering.  We were so proud of her.  She looked great and happy that all of the studying was ending for now.  She also has a job!  WOO HOO!  It is with a small Structural Engineering firm in San Diego to gain experience.  She will not earn much money but enough to live with our financial help.  San Diego is not a cheap place to live.  

Before Graduation 1

Before Graduation - 2
Love the sign on her cap!

Procession

Caroline and Cindy
Freshman Suite-mate

Caroline, Emily and Nikki
Current Room-mates

Our Family
Tommy, Erin, Caroline, Liz and Dermet

I have a photo with Tommy and Erin's significant others (Jocelyn and August) but I can't find it.  I will post it when I do.

Another highlight of the San Diego trip was going to Rosie's Calico Cupboard.  I do find it difficult to purchase fabric there because I am always overwhelmed with the amount of fabric even though the fabric is sold at a discount.  There are great notions which I spend a significant amount of time looking at.  I especially love their shelves of Kaffe Fasset fabrics!  Rosie's is also a Janome sewing machine dealer and that is where I made my large purchase.  I have a Janome-New Home-Memory Craft 7700 QCP.  It has dual feed capabilities.  I have a dual feed foot but I have been frustrated with it because it does not have a quarter inch seam guide.  I use it when I paper piece because it really saves time going over the thick places where there are seams with fabric and paper.

Dual Feed Foot
Included with machine

New Dual Feed Foot with
the seam guide.

Both Dual Feed Feet and
Regular quarter inch seam guide

The Dual Feed feet are so much larger then the regular feet.  It is amazing how I don't have to worry about the threads going through the layers of fabric.  I also use it to quilt through the back, batting and top.  It is very versatile.  

When you use the Dual Feed Foot with the seam guide you have to move the needle to the right.  I think there are many Janome dual feed machines out there so moving the needle is essential to get that accurate quarter-inch seam for your machine. I put a ruler down next to the flange and moved the needle from 3.5 to 6.0.  It worked out well.