If you have been following “Free Motion Friday” for this past year, you know that I have been playing with grid quilting. I started with basic square grids and moved to big circles, and the latest have been small circles in a square design.
So, this week I have been thinking about ways to design my own “grids” using tools that I already have.
My first thought was using one of the Westalee Spin-E-Fex rulers and I pulled out the simplest of all of the rulers…..
….the Westalee Spin-E-Fex #4.
At its simplest, it makes this shape……
I know….pretty boring.
If the shape is repeated four times, it makes these shapes…..
Also, nothing to get excited about!!
But, what if I combine those shapes….maybe like this…..
That has promise for a 6″ block!!
What if I add loops on each side…..
It looks even better when you turn it 45 degrees……
NOW….what if I add more “loops” to the corners…..
That is okay, but not my favorite.
How about if I add 3 loops to the corner but have two of them going a different direction?
Oh WOW…..I really like that one!!
I like that it gives the illusion of having two circles around the outside. If you can’t see it, just squint!!
Now the question is…..can I quilt it??
I like that it will only require four guidelines, but I will definitely have to be VERY INTENTIONAL in my practice to make sure that the points end up where they are supposed to!!!
Come back tomorrow and I will stitch this out for the first time…..ON CAMERA!!
NO PRESSURE!!!!
As I proofread this post, I realized that I have drifted from my original “grid quilting” design but sometimes you just have to go where the creativity takes you!!
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One of my goals for the next 4 to 6 weeks is to start and finish the quilting on this bad boy…….
It is a BIG quilt and it will be a BIG job to quilt!!
Over the last 2 years (since I finished the top), I have thought a lot about how I was going to quilt it and have drawn out SO many ideas!!
My first thought was to use lots of colored threads, but the more I thought about it, I am thinking that I will go with lots of straight lines in the background colors, maybe something like this…..
Even though this is just a rough idea, it still means that I need to decide on threads and get them organized.
Fortunately, I had three of the colors needed…..
Light Grey Omni for the inside circle…..
(I won’t need much of this one).
Omni Medium Grey works perfectly for the next color gradation……
….and this Signature Black will be great for the darkest area…..
So that leaves one gradation to fill and an Omni Dark Grey should fit the part!!
It has been ordered which puts me ONE step closer to actually starting to quilt!!!
The next decision is what batting to use. I have toyed with using a double bat, but it would make a very large quilt sandwich even LARGER and I am not sure that I want to deal with that!!
I have been dreading this project for a long time and I need to make sure that the green circle doesn’t come into play with it…..
So readers…..keep on me to make sure that I get this done SOON!!!
If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..
I FINALLY figured out exactly how I wanted to quilt this background, so here we go……
If you are viewing this blog post on your email, you will need to click into the actual blog post to see it. For some reason, it won’t embed directly.
At this point, I am REALLY close to finishing the quilt and will be posting about it in the next week.
HOWEVER, I will be in Africa when the posts run and will probably not have access to the internet during that time. This means that I will not be able to cross-post to Facebook groups, so if you get to my blog thru those posts, you will not see them.
Can I encourage you to go ahead and subscribe to the blog so that you get an email when it posts? It is the best way to be sure that you don’t miss a single thing.
PLUS…..who knows when photos and videos from Africa might appear and you wouldn’t want to miss those.
If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..
We are getting ready to travel overseas and time has become VERY precious. Among other things, I have to finish my Monarch challenge so that I can enter it before I leave!!
Consequently, I haven’t had time to do ANY more grid quilting!!!
So, today is going to be a throwback day and I want to share the design created by the Westalee Spin-E-Fex Ruler #16…..
It is an easy ruler to use and I love the design…..
If you are viewing this blog post on your email, you will need to click into the actual blog post to see it. For some reason, it won’t embed directly.
Have you ever tried these rulers?? If so, I would LOVE to hear what you thought!!!
If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..
