ruby’s daughter

Our Piece Makers’ meeting this month was at Sarah Stine’s home. A stay-at-home mom, Sarah has an online fabric/pattern/accessory store in her basement for quilters. The bulk of her business is from eBay where her handle is Ruby’s Daughter.

After Story 1: Sarah has abandoned eBay and now sells her fabric and merchandise on Etsy under rubysdaughter.
After Story 2: Sarah opened a store in Magnolia named Fabric Crush.
After Story 3: Sarah secured space in the Wallingford Center and is moving her fabric store there in March 2010.

sans studio

I don't have a quilting studio or special room for my obsession. Instead the borrowed Pfaff sewing machine sits at one end of my dining room table and my cutting surface at the other.

Being in the middle of everything suits me. My family is usually up to something in the adjacent living room and I am only steps away from the kitchen — which is handy for making tea or a meal.

Right now I am working for on a lap quilt with lots of browns and rusts. The whole composition looked lifeless until I added a bright color — a little accent of turquoise.

The pieces of fabric are lying across the floor between the dining and living rooms so I can get a sense of the color combinations. At times like this a studio with a design wall would be a lot more convenient!

dachshund circus quilt

Dachshund Circus Quilt, 2008, 52" x 42"
GIFTED TO MADDY JOHNSON

The inspiration for the Dachshund Circus Quilt came from vintage fabric I bought in Astoria last January. With a turquoise background, the pattern includes a big top, freak show, balloon man and Ferris wheel.

The whole cloth quilt has an appliqued dachshund and big ball. I pieced the appliques with fun, bright fabrics. Maurine Noble helped me by satin stitching a pale yellow thread around the two shapes with her fancy Bernina sewing machine.

On my machine (a 20-year old borrowed Pfaff), I free-style stitched around all the circus elements in the background. It took almost 40 hours! Just trimming all the threads took another three hours.

My big learning with this project had to do with contrast. Due to its patterning, the dachshund applique did not show up well. I added an eye with a highlight and little black nose to make the colorful blob look more like a jumping dog!

The quilt now belongs to baby Maddy, the daughter of a designer at my workplace.

artist inspired

Crow Barn Quilt, 75" x 52"

This month’s Art Chix theme was “Artist Inspired.” Our assignment was to create an art piece inspired by a well-known artist.

I chose quilting superstar Nancy Crow. Nancy has transformed quilting into a modern artform with her work exhibiting in high profile museums.

Partially finished with some hand stitching, my project was a twin-sized quilt. The three dramatic areas of black and white piecing in the center were created by Maurine Noble at a one-week workshop led by Nancy Crow. Maurine had tossed the class samples in her scrap bag and forgotten all about them.

I don't expect to finish this quilt until Spring. It will be given to a high school graduate at Plymouth Church. There are a lot of young men in this year’s senior class, so I assume this will be a big boy quilt.

imported from africa

Out of Africa, 2007, 72" x 48"

I made this twin-bed quilt from fabrics that Maurine Noble bought home from a teaching gig in South Africa.

The top is very colorful with quilt-as-you-go horizontal strips. The back has a black-on-beige pattern in the center area and a beige/rust-on-black pattern on the sides. Lime green sashing connects the sandwiched and machine-quilted fabric.

Note how the 1/4 inch binding changes where the background fabrics meet.