Ruby Wedding

What do you do when your friend names her new baby girl Ruby? Start collecting red fabric, of course. That was over two years ago and now I have a great collection. That's good because I found out a week ago that another friend is going to celebrate her Ruby Wedding this week. I'll easily get a drag-around-the-house-quilt AND a table runner out of the red stash.

To fit in with the ruby theme I've collected intense gem like reds that go from hot orangy tones all the way to the cool purply. I speed pieced quarter square triangles for a cut gem look. I love how the colours look together such a rich plummy wine. Now I needed just the right threads. I wanted the threads to shimmer so I went for the Rainbow range from Superior Threads. I narrowed my options down to these two gorgeous spools. On the spool I couldn't decide - I loved them both.

So I took my pieced table runner top outside in the sunlight and took the spools of thread out of their wrappers. The I unwound a bit of thread and laid it against the fabric. This made the choice easy. Rose Garden, though lovely, disappeared but Gypsy shimmered and shone.

Today I needed to decide on a machine quilting pattern. I've been wanting to try a free-motion pattern that circles round the squares. But as the blocks came together I was worried about the multiple layers of fabric in the centres. This quilting pattern would have me go right through these bulky centers. I was afraid that the needle might get stuck.

So I did something that I almost never do. I made a practice block from my wonky squares. I loaded it on the frame with some wadding and backing, threaded Gypsy in my JUKI and had a trial run. It worked! I'm thrilled and I can't wait to start quilting in earnest tomorrow.