I hope no one’s been waiting too long for this! Thanks to Morgan, I (finally!) created a downloadable PDF for you which shows the chart I used to create my Ruby Strings quilt (or ‘Ruby’s All Strung Out’, as I’ve been referring to it lately…memorable, but maybe not the best blog title!)

Download: Ruby Strings Chart

For this quilt, I used 11″ square blocks – 6 blocks by 7 blocks, which results in a quilt that measures about 63.5″ x 74″– a generous throw. I used Bonnie and Camille’s lovely Ruby fabrics, and by my estimates, you’ll need about 40 fat eighths (I had a 40 FQ bundle, and have about half left over). I’d guess that you’d also need around 4 yards of solid white (or your solid of choice).

These blocks use the same technique as described in my String Block tutorial, so I’m not going to recreate that here for you. Just check over here for the instructions for creating string blocks.

Each block starts with a 1″ strip of white (or your solid of choice) running diagonally through the block. Then you can refer to the PDF chart for the width of the print and solid for each block. (Please note that you will always start with a printed fabric on either side of the diagonal 1″ white strip). Continue adding prints and solids of the called for width until you’ve covered one side of the block.

Unlike the scrappy version of the string quilt, the goal with this quilt design is to get the strips to line up. This can be kind of a challenge, especially with those really narrow strips! Tips? Make sure your 1″ white strip is centered diagonally through the block, be sure to maintain the same seam allowance throughout, and be sure to iron (or finger press) each strip well (and consistently!). That being said, I wouldn’t worry too much if things are a bit off – there are many strings in my quilt which aren’t perfectly aligned, but I don’t think anyone would notice!

I hope you’ll find this chart helpful! I found it useful to cross off each block on the chart as I made them, so I’d know which blocks I still needed to make. If you make a similar quilt, be sure to add it to my Flickr group – I’d love to see it! And as always, feel free to ask any questions here. I’ll answer in the comments!

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post! I had fun looking back at the things I made in 2011, but now I’ve already started looking ahead and working on some new projects for 2012. For my first quilt of 2012, I decided to go with January flowers – specifically these awesome retro vintagey florals which are part of Melody Miller’s latest line, Ruby Star Shining.

I started by pairing them with a few other solids and prints from my stash – some Art Gallery solids, a bit of Essex linen, and even a little voile. Sometimes I start out knowing what type of pattern I want to use, and other times I start by just pulling out fabrics and then deciding on a pattern. I went with the latter this time, so after deciding on my fabrics, I browsed though my quilting Pinterest board.

Once I saw this quilt by Denyse Schmidt on my pinboard, I knew these fabrics would be perfect. I usually like to switch up a design a bit, but I love this one just as it is, so I went with it. I’m not sure how Denyse put her quilt together, but I decided to go with foundation piecing for mine – it’s certainly not necessary, but I just find it easier to know what area I need to cover when I can use the paper as a guide. I used the floral Melody Miller print for the center of each block, then a couple of the lighter prints, ending with the darker purples.

Unfortunately, as much as I loved the quilt top when it was finished, I’m not totally happy with how the quilting came out – I went with wavy, intersecting horizontal lines, which I like. I just had some trouble finding a thread color that would work on both the very dark purples as well as the lighter cream colors. [This has always been a dilemma for me - I'm not much for light thread on dark fabrics, or for dark thread on light fabrics - so what to do when you're using both light and dark?!] Anyway, I did have to rip out quite a bit of stitching, then settled (though not totally happily) on this variegated thread for the purple sections, with cream thread for the lighter floral sections. It’s ok, but still not my favorite!

But maybe I can overlook that when there’s a cute baby hiding underneath!

Anyway, do you remember my Rubik’s Crush quilt? It was included in 101 Patchwork Projects + Quilts (great gift ideas in there, in case you’re like me and slow in getting to your holiday making!). I was so happy to hear that it was also just included in a free Quilting Daily eBook! So in case you wanted to add another quilt to your list, head over here to download the free eBook with complete instructions for putting together the Rubik’s Crush quilt. It’s a relatively quick quilt to make, so you might be able to squeeze one in before Christmas, just in case there’s someone on your list who needs a handmade quilt!

Oh yes, I felt the urge for another string quilt! They’ve always been a favorite of mine, and I’m loving how this one looks with the lovely Ruby by Bonnie and Camille.

I changed it up a bit this time, altering the widths of the printed and white solid. Of course, this way requires a bit more planning – I even had to make myself a little chart so I’d know which block to make next!

I have several more blocks to make in order to turn this one into a nice large throw. I think it’ll be quite the perfect quilt for the holiday season – just Christmas-y enough, but not so much that it wouldn’t be perfect for the rest of the year too.

I’m so excited about this new collection, Echo, by Lotta Jansdotter! I received a charm pack a couple months ago and immediately wanted to use the prints in a quilt.

Of course, a charm pack doesn’t provide too much fabric, so my goal was to use the few charms yet still create a decent sized quilt top.

I added in a few solids and some coordinating prints and made up some wonky blocks featuring the Echo charms.

I’ve been waiting for yardage of this line to come out, and when it did, I snagged some extra for backing and binding so I could finish up this little quilt.

I love this print, and knew that I’d love to see a large piece of it on the back. The quilt is a bit wider than the width of fabric, so I had to add in a little strip of another favorite print.

And for the quilting… some more straight lines. I do love this look!

I quilted most of it with lines about 1/2″ apart. Then I was inspired by some quilting shown in Yoshiko Jinzenji’s Quilting Line + Color book, so I adjusted the needle position to add in some sections with lines closer together. You can kind of see it in the photo below.

I’m really happy with how this quilt turned out! And now I can’t wait to start another quilt with some more Echo!

I’m so thrilled to see this quilt finished! If you’ve been reading for a while, you might remember that the Block Party quilting bee was the first bee I was asked to be a part of. This bee was started by Alissa & Kristen (who then later worked together to write Block Party – The Modern Quilting Bee) and included so many fabulous quilters!

My month came around during the summer of 2009, and I decided to pull a variety of fabrics from my scrap bin. I sent a random selection to each bee member and asked them to create blocks in the style of Denyse Schmidt’s Drunk Love in a Log Cabin.

And wow, the blocks I received back are absolutely gorgeous! They are a riot of colors and patterns and it makes me smile to see all those happy colors side by side. I decided to sew up enough extra blocks to turn this into a queen sized quilt, wanting desperately to see this on my bed.

As so often goes, I got the blocks completed and sewn together into a quilt top, and then there was just one little extra step that caused me to procrastinate and to continue to put off finishing this quilt. In this case, the quilt needed just a little bit of extra length. When I finally pulled it back out (after more than a year!), it really only took a tiny bit of time to add a narrow pieced border to the top and bottom. I’ll never learn!

Anyway, back to the quilt… For the backing I used an Amy Butler solid in aqua and created a pieced column along one edge. It’s free motion quilted in a meandering pattern, and then bound with a pieced binding, made up primarily with a Lecien polka dot.

This quilt is now at home on my bed at long last, and I couldn’t be happier. An enormous thank you to all the wonderful ladies of Block Party (Alissa, Kristin, Jacquie, Elizabeth, Ashley, Sarah, Lisa, Rashida, Nettie, Josie & Megan) – this quilt is all the more special knowing how many had a hand in helping make it what it is!

If you don’t see me here this week, it’s because I’m buried under this big quilt!

I am so excited to finally be quilting this one (it’s been a long time coming!). I absolutely can’t wait to have it on my bed!

Here’s hoping Max will take some good naps so I can sneak in a little quilting time!

Are you tired of all these triangles yet? I hope not! This is obviously the scrappy version, and boy do I love it! All my favorite scraps together in one quilt.

It’s pretty fun to look at this quilt and pick out all my favorite fabrics from past projects.

This one feels very summery to me, what with all those bright cheerful prints paired with the bright white, so I was very happy to finish it up just in time for one last summer weekend.

A perfect quilt for the waterfront, wouldn’t you say?

One of my favorite parts is the straight line quilting. It’s a good thing this quilt is relatively small, since wow, those lines take a long time! For whatever reason, I always have second thoughts when I start straight line quilting like this, but in the end I always love it. This time around I used Quilters Dream Request batting, and I think it’s fabulous. It’s a really thin loft and I love the feel of it, especially with this dense quilting. Maybe not the best choice for cold Vermont winters, but very nice for a summer quilt!

The backing is a solid piece of one of my favorite Flea Market Fancy prints. Time to stop hoarding it and instead put it to use where I’ll be able to enjoy it!

Here’s hoping we have at least one more warm weekend to enjoy this one!

I’m so happy with how this little quilt turned out! As I mentioned previously, most of these fabrics are the wonderful designs of Shannon Lamden, of Aunty Cookie fame.

She put together this lovely color palette, and it’s truly gorgeous! I wanted her fabrics to stand out, so I did some dense straight line quilting in each of the solid white sections.

I love the way the straight line quilting looks!

I’m thinking about hanging this one as a little wall hanging, so I kept the backing simple, with a nice aqua solid and just one little block to echo the front design.

Now I just have to find a good wall in need of a quilt!

(I’ve never hung a quilt! For those of you who have, do you recommend washing it, or keeping it as is?)

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What do you get when you combine hot pink with large insects? Why, my newest finished quilt!

I fell in love with this large bee print fabric from Melody Miller’s latest line, Ruby Star Spring, when she first showed sneak peeks of it. I was thrilled when she sent along a bit of each of three prints, including the wonderful bee print.  I wanted to feature the bees, so I fussy cut two big bee blocks and used them as the starting point for these uneven stacked blocks.

I decided to quilt it with randomly-spaced horizontal straight lines. I used a great variegated Sulky thread that’s mostly pink, but also changes to purple, orange and yellow, and I think it works well to pick up some of the colors of the other great solids in this quilt.

I splurged and bought more of the bee print for the backing. I love that it’s 62″ wide so it fit this quilt without having to piece it. (I adore pieced backings, but occasionally it’s nice to use one solid piece, you know?) I used the same pink solid for the binding. I like how it blends in on the front, but provides a lovely border on the backing.

And can I tell you how lightweight and soft this is now that it’s finished? I hadn’t thought about it, but it seems that the combo of the lightweight Pure Elements fuchsia solid and the linen blend Ruby Star Rising prints makes for a quilt with a really great weight – just perfect for the end of summer!

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And speaking of this fabulous big bee print, don’t you think it would make a perfect skirt? If so, you’re in luck, because you can now find a free pattern (and video tutorial!) over at Whipstitch. Take a peek at this cute video Melody created!

I have my pattern printed out, and I’m hoping to run over to Nido tomorrow to pick up a bit more of the bee fabric…

Wishing you all a very happy weekend!