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.

River Rock BOM - Month Five

I just finished Month 5 of the River Rock BOM (Block of the Month).  I just love these blocks because they are large and made from batik fabrics.  I again apologize for the poor quality of the photographs.  I am not a photographer and I am trying to do by myself, without much success.  For some reason I can not make the batik blocks look better.  They just look "cartoon-like."

Block A - 20.5" x 20.5"

Block A - 13" x 13"

Spacer 7

The post that I last published, I neglected to post a photograph of the three border blocks from the Flock of Feathered Stars BOM.

Each block is 6" x 6" finished

Flock of Feathered Stars - Month 10

It took about two weeks to finish the "Feathered Star Variation" block for the month of May.  I have been working full time and so tired when I arrive at home at 4:15 PM, that I don't want to sew.  Can you imagine that I don't want to sew?!  I am exhausted so most of the time I nap and then I am woken up about 5:10 PM, when my husband calls me to let me know when he is coming home.

This is a beautiful block that I loved to sew together.  I enjoyed sewing it and love the end product----the block.  It is 12.5" unfinished.  I am hoping to finish the three border blocks tonight.  

Baby Quilt

I am making a baby quilt for a friend at the high school that I work.  I work part-time only but that changed two weeks ago.  The week before the incident, I was working a few hours every day proctoring the CAASPP tests at our local high school.  It was tiring but I forged on because the school needed my help and I really like working with high school aged people.  To make a long story short, an employee at the high school was caught doing an unacceptable act during school hours.  It wasn't anything sexual but very intolerable behavior coming from an adult.  Needless to say, she was dismissed and I was asked to work one week to help in the Attendance Office.  I accepted because I had the exact same job eight years ago.  I do sub in this office when needed so I did not hesitate to say "YES."  With only four weeks left in the school year, I volunteered to work full-time until the school year is over.  I don't really enjoy those long days.

I have had practically no time to sew.  I have to tell you that sewing is a relaxing hobby for me.  I find comfort when I sew and I have something to show for it.... quilts.  My friend at the high school just returned from maternity leave. With very little time to sew I finally finished the top this morning.  I have to add a backing and batting and quilt the three layers together.  I usually make smaller baby quilts but this time I didn't.  I used 10-inch squares and made half square triangles to make the blocks.  I really don't know why I made it large but I hope my friend will like this "very pink" quilt.  She had a baby girl.  

The quilt is 58" wide and 73" in length.  The photograph does not do the quilt justice.  The lighting wasn't great tonight so the photo isn't great either.