Ruby Strings quilt

Check one off the list! I’ve still been plugging away on those unfinished quilts, and decided to start with this one, since I already had a backing made. So once I got it basted, it was a pretty quick finish!

I love me a string quilt, and I’ve made quite a few already. This time I decided to alternate the printed fabrics with solid white, and I even made up a chart so that the strips would line up. I had a fat quarter stack of Bonnie & Camille’s Ruby line and thought this would be perfect for a string quilt. I really love how this line has a Christmasy feel with the reds and lime greens, yet would still be perfectly lovely any time of year.

I knew I wanted an all over quilting design, so I took yet another look through Angela Walters’ wonderful new book Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters (so inspiring!). I decided to try out her double loop design, which has lots of fun loops with double loops every once in a while. It’s kind of similar to the movements for a regular meandering design, so it was a relatively easy one to complete. I really love the texture it gives the quilt, and I love looking closely and seeing those fun loops!

(Max really loves quilts!)

I used Aurifil thread this time, which is a first for me. I’ve seen lots and lots of praise for Aurifil on various blogs, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure if it could really be so much better than what I was already using. Terri kindly sent me some to try (thanks again, Terri!), and I did a bunch of piecing with it, and was pretty impressed. I’ve mainly used Mettler thread, but I think I’m an Aurifil convert now. I love the size of the spools, and the weight (50 wt, in this case) was perfect for piecing, and equally as perfect for the quilting on this quilt. I’ve already bought myself several in white and cream, and now I’m looking forward to trying some of their other (many!) colors and weights.

Anyway, I’m so happy with this quilt, and even happier to have one fewer quilt on my work in progress list!