Know what ya doing, doing to me? Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby

10 points for you if you know who sings that song :)

So here she is in all her glory! Ruby [plus some friends]

There's a charm pack of Ruby, plus some Michael Miller Ta Dots, Sandi Henderson Secret Garden, Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow, Sweetwater Reunion, and Jenean Morrison Silent Cinema. The solids are Kona White and Kona Medium Gray [I think]. And the polka dot binding is from Farm Fresh.

I knew that I wanted to cut down on the sweetness of Ruby, so I chose the triangle design, and left the edges jagged. I also think that the gray helps bring down the cutesy effect. Although, truth be told, I didn't want to use gray. I've been wanting to branch out and use something other than gray and white, but I was making this on a deadline and that was what coordinated at the store. Ideally I would have used an aqua color of some sort. Another time!

The backing was a real struggle for me. I didn't want to buy any more fabric, but had gotten a yard of that Ruby print really cheap, specifically for this back. But I could not get the back to something that didn't look like I just threw the leftover pieces on there. Finally, after cutting and rearranging at least 20 times, I came up with the final design. And I think the aqua Ta Dot print is what saves the back.

I used my pattern tracing wheel to help with the quilting and it was phenomenally helpful. I traced the seam lines from the triangles out to the edges of the quilt, so that when there were no more seam lines to follow I could still achieve straight lines [ok, they're a little wobbly in some places]. The tracing wheel does not leave a permanent mark, and is much like a hera marker. As you can see in the second picture, the quilting in the gray is both diamonds and just radiating lines, and I loooove it.

Now, here's my issue with the quilt. First, I need to sew slower sometimes. I had several triangle points that didn't match up when I sewed the rows of triangles together. Secondly, does anyone have any tips for basting on carpet? In my current apartment I baste in literally the only space that is big enough for it, and I'm sure it will be the same in my new apartment. There is no area of hard flooring for me to baste on! I've made Stephen help me with every quilt in the past, but he wasn't available to help this time, and I wasn't able to achieve the crisp, wrinkle-free basting that I needed. But I didn't know it wasn't good enough until I started quilting [I had fixed all the wrinkles above in the photo]. So, any help from carpet-basters would be much appreciated!

Anyways, this went to my lovely friend and old roommate, Allie, and I hope that she loves it! :)

*Linked up at Crazy Mom Quilts and Amylouwho