The Ruby Ruler Archives - Wise Craft Handmade

August 5, 2019

The Hold Tight Quilt Sew Along

Sharon Holland Hold Tight

Let’s kick off the Hold Tight Petit Sew Along!

The Hold Tight quilt is a PDF pattern designed by Sharon Holland, this month’s Ruby Ambassador, and features a bouquet of balloons. We will be making a mini, 6 balloon version of the original quilt. Color value plays heavily in this design heavily, and it;s the perfect design to show how understanding color value and using the Ruby Ruler™ or Ruby Minder™ as a value lens will help you create a successful layout. Because you know what makes the balloons look like some are behind others? Color value! Get that part right and your quilt is successful!

August 5, 2019

Ruby Ambassador Sharon Holland

Happy Monday everyone! I am super excited to announce ambassador in the Ruby Ruler™ Ambassador series, Sharon Holland!READ MORE

July 27, 2019

My New Online Class Starts August 1st- Modern Scrappy Value Quilts

Registration is now open for my new online class, Make Modern Scrap Quilts Using Color Value! 💃🏻

In it, I will walk you through the magic of using lots of your favorite fabrics and creating a quilt design with them using color value. My techniques, tips, and tricks, I’m sharing it all with you in this class.READ MORE

July 27, 2019

How to make a Snowball Quilt Block- new Youtube video

I recently traveled to some very warm areas recently to visit family (North Carolina I’m looking at you!). That is likely the very reason why I started thinking about making a snowball block quilt. This is one of those blocks that’s super easy to make, and endlessly customizable. The corner block colors can be all the same, or all different. Its fun to see how the quilt changes. Its also a great project to keep set up by the sewing machine, at the ready for any time I have an extra half an hour (like while I’m waiting for computer problems to be resolved…).READ MORE

July 26, 2019

Facebook Live interview with Timna Tarr, Monday, July 29th

Join us in the Wise Craft Quilts Facebook Group for a special FB Live interview with Timna Tarr, this month’s featured Ruby Ruler™ Ambassador, on Monday, 7/29 at 11:00 PDT. I love Timna’s thinking-out-of-the-box, no nonsense approach to quilting. It is sure to be an enlightening interview!

If you are not a member of the Wise Craft Quilts FB Group, be sure to join before Monday morning so you can tune in (only members of the group can see the interview). Its free, fun, and full of inspiration!

Have a question you’d like me to ask Timna? Leave a comment on this post or in the Facebook Group and I will collect them all before the interview.

July 1, 2019

Ruby Ambassador Timna Tarr

Today I am excited to launch a brand new series that I have been working on for a couple of months. I have partnered up with a group of amazingly talented artisans, quilters, embroiderers, and sewists to launch the Ruby Ambassador series. I’m kicking off this series with one of my favorite quilting artists- Timna Tarr!

June 10, 2019

Not all “light” colored fabrics are light values

I am currently making a basic thousand pyramid quilt design for our bed, and cutting lots of ” equilateral triangles. I plan to pull all of the lighter fabrics from my stash to build this design. A king sized bed takes up lots of visual room in any bedroom and I don’t want this to be an overwhelming presence. So nothing crazy. Plus, if I use all my light colored fabrics in my stash, I will have the perfect excuse to buy more, right?

When building a scrappy quilt design using the power of color value, as I plan to do, understanding that not all light colored fabrics are light in value can take your quilt to new levels. (This also applies to dark fabrics too.) Let me explain what I mean.

May 29, 2019

How Much Fabric Do We Need to Stash?

organized fabric stash

stash, noun: a store or supply of something, typically one that is kept hidden or secret.

We sewers usually have some sort of a fabric stash. A literal stockpile of cloth to be used for making quilts or other projects. We sketch designs on scraps of paper or we start with a pattern. We form a plan, with a sincere hope to start soon. There’s comfort in knowing that when we are ready to start, there’s a pile(s) of pretty fabric, right at our fingertips, to pull from. A fabric stash represents hope in our lives, a future of creativity! The promise of quilts.

May 3, 2019

2 Easy Tips for Choosing Fabric Prints for Scrappy, Value-based Quilts

Tufted Quilt

The challenge a scrappy quilt poses fascinates me constantly. They are bit like a puzzle, with all the pieces fitting together to create a scrappy story that is most successful when it creates a visual story. Creating a good visual story with scraps is a great challenge for me. I start every one of these quilts from my fabric stash. I love the idea that I am constantly dipping into and using up all those fabrics. That’s why I bought them, right? But did you know that some fabrics are better to use than others? I have two tips for you!

April 10, 2019

Introducing the Ruby Minder™

The Ruby Ruler™ is now just over a year old. Hard for me to believe! I had so much fun creating that product and getting it to market. There’s is a huge amount of satisfaction around thinking of “hey, what if…”, seemingly kooky idea (at first), and actually making it happen. Ruby Rulers have now shipped all over the world and I’ve now restocked 4 times!

Late last year, I once again recognized that familiar itch to design a new product creeping in. I was stitching a new version of the Boro quilt from Wise Craft Quilts for the live stitching sessions of #wisecraftstitchalong in my Facebook Group.