It’s all about learning something….

Someone asked me why I continue to do challenges and mystery quilts and my answer is the same…..”I ALWAYS learn something!!!”

I have now finished Angela Walters’ “Quilting with Rulers Challenge” and, as you might guess, I learned SO much!!

Here is the finished quilt…..

…..and here are a few things that I learned……

Rulers can be used in other ways that don’t match their intended purpose. In this case, I used an oval ruler to quilt some longer curves…..

Use a matching thread….especially if you don’t know exactly what you are doing…..

Plan and measure borders so that they turn the corner well….

Larger areas can be made smaller by dividing them into sections…..

Adding some non-ruler quilting can make a boring design pop……

IF you want it to be exact, there are tools that you can use…….

Finally, even though you can use a ruler to quilt a filler design, it is easier to freehand it!!!

I bought a few new rulers at Houston this past month and am already having fun playing with them and figuring out exactly how I can use them!!

And, will I do another challenge???

You-bet-ya!!! I have the top for Angela’s new “Feather” challenge and I cannot wait to get started!!! I am horrible at feathers and know that this will push me forward.

Do you need something to PUSH you to get better????

If so, think about signing up for my FREE 10-week Free-Motion Quilting Challenge called “MOVE IT!!!”

Each week you will receive an email with a few new designs to try and a video with instructions, encouragement, and sometimes even some commiseration!!!

If you are interested, sign up HERE

Ruler Quilting…I kind of like it!!

I have been slowly working thru Angela Walter’s Ruler Quilting challenge and have enjoyed several of the new designs that I have learned.

Let me share a few…..

My clamshell ruler worked well……

And, yes….the 4th row up was supposed to echo the previous one….

Crosshatching was very easy to do simply using a straight ruler…..

I used a “Continuous Heart” border ruler…..

This stitching is super easy to do, but I still have a hard time seeing it as a heart and not simply as a loopy border. Can you see the hearts??

Finally, I used Angela Walter’s “Sid” ruler…..

….to scatter some star/snowflakes in one area…..

It looks fine, but am not sure that it was worth the effort!!

As I am finishing the challenge, I will post one more blog about the things that I learned from this challenge and, believe me, there was a LOT!!!

The pesky S-curve ruler

At our local guild quilt show….way back in 2019……I had purchased two S-curve rulers from a company called Angel Oak Stitchery.

Thinking that I KNEW how to use them, I set out to quilt a border on my Angela Walters’ Ruler FMQ Challenge quilt. This is what happened…….

By the way, if you heard that horrible noise that my machine was making in the video…..it needed to be oiled. A few minutes of my time and a few drops of oil and it was purring away again!!!

But, back to the S-curve……

I was happy with how it looked in the border, and two of the corners lined up perfectly……

Alas, the other ones were not as good!!!

I realize that I need to start planning those corners better and thinking about them long before I actually get to them!!!!

I am happy that I can add this ruler to my repertoire of usable designs!!!

Breaking in the oval rulers…

Almost two years ago, I purchased a set of oval rulers but had never really figured out what to do with them. I decided that the Angela Walters’ ruler challenge quilt was the place to find out!!

I was working on this block and thought that a circular(esque) design would be nice……

After quilting the initial oval, I used the arc to quilt inside the shapes as well, first quilting around one side of the oval…..

….and then the oval to the other side and quilting the rest of the petal…..

I like how this looks and it was SO easy….

I am loving learning how to use the different rulers in my drawer!!!

What a difference the quilting makes!!

I have had so much fun quilting the baby quilt that I showed yesterday It was amazing to be able to quilt it quickly and to use so many of the designs that I have been learning this year, including a few rulers as well!!

The easiest way to show you is with a video, so…..enjoy……