Giving wavy rulers a try

This week I continued with the Angela Walters “Quilting with Rulers” challenge, working with wavy rulers this time!!

The first one that I played with was her “Elvira” ruler…..

For some reason, I expected that if I sewed from one end to the other (hook to hook) that the line would be a continuous wave…..I WAS WRONG.

I put it on my whiteboard and did some playing and discovered that sewing from one end to the other created a point in the wave (the left line below)……

Instead, to create a continuous curve, I nad to stop at the lowest point of the curve and move the ruler to the next lowest point. It makes the effective use of the ruler less, but I needed to stop and reposition my hands anyway so it didn’t make a lot of difference.

I used this ruler to first make parallel wavy lines and then quilted some opposite wavy lines…..

It actually reminded me a lot of the first two designs that I teach in my “MOVE IT” free-motion quilting class.

Check out the bottom of this post for more about that!!

Honestly, I think that it was easier to free-hand these designs rather than use a ruler to quilt them!! I might use my ruler to get the initial line in place but then would probably free-hand from there.

Angela encourages you to try all of your rulers so I decided to use one that I purchased several years ago…..’

I tried to use it on a design where the waves move a small amount in one direction with each pass. I didn’t get it working PERFECTLY by any means, but it is something that I think I could master with a bit of thought and practice…..

I used the Chevy ruler…..

…to work a small area…..

I like it, but obviously, need to learn how to space them better.

I grabbed another ruler and quilted this triangle…..

Finally, I chose to use a “Sew Steady” ruler….

….to quilt one of the 1-inch borders…..

It looked a little bland when I finished, so I added another design and it ended up like this…..

Much better!!!

The thing that I am learning about rulers is that you have to plan a bit more than you do when you are doing free-hand filler designs, but I can still see the many times that they will be useful!!

I’m still working on the challenge so there will be MUCH more to come!!!

Now…back to MOVE IT!!

To sign up, just CLICK HERE>> Remember….it’s FREE!!

MOVING IT to finish a baby quilt!!

Yesterday I mailed the two twin boy baby quilts that I have been working on and was so excited to get the quilting finished on them.

I already showed this one.….

….and had talked about some of the “new to me” quilting designs that I had used.

Today, I want to share about this one…..

I obviously am feeling a lot more comfortable with the new designs that I have learned during “MOVE IT!!…a free-motion boot camp”, because I was able to simply move from one design to the other and even felt comfortable trying a few designs that I had never done before!!

In this video, I talk about some of the designs that I have learned in the past 10 weeks……

AND…..if any of these designs look interesting to you, remember that I turned my personal Boot Camp into “MOVE IT”…..a free motion quilting course. To join me for 8 weeks of new designs, sign up HERE

Remember that it is free and you can start at any time and work at your own speed!!!

I would love for you to join me on my journey!!!!

Using what I learned

Earlier this year, I talked about wanting to try a bunch of new free-motion quilting designs but being scared of doing them. Then I decided that I was going to start my own “FMQ Boot Camp” to make myself learn some new things.

Well, I have worked hard at learning to “Move It” and have been able to use a bunch of these new designs on the baby quilt that I am currently working on.

Check out yesterday’s post for the first steps on this quilt.

Now that the ruler designs were quilted it was time to start filling in the spaces!!

I started with a design that I called U-Turn….

…and used it to fill in around the elephants…..

It was super fast and a great start to my quilting!!

Next I needed to fill in the small strip that was just above the elephants and I chose the ribbon candy design…..

It was perfect…..

Actually, the quilting was NOT perfect, but it fit well into the spot!!

For the first really big area, I jumped right in and tried the paisley meander….

It took me a while to figure out that I needed to GO BIG but once I did, the space filled in quickly!!

Come back tomorrow for more of the quilting of this sweet top!!!

AND…..if any of these designs look interesting to you, I will remind you that I turned my personal Boot Camp into “MOVE IT”…..a free motion quilting course. To join me for 8 weeks of new designs to try, sign up HERE.

Remember that it is free and you can join at any time!!!

We are MOVING IT!!!

MOVE IT…..a Free-Motion Boot Camp has been up and running for 2 weeks and people are telling me that they are enjoying the practice and are getting more comfortable with new FMQ designs.

I am working hard to stay a few weeks ahead and am really enjoying learning new designs myself. This is where I am at this point….

I am sure happy with how this looks, even using the contrasting thread which means you can see each and every mistake!!!

But just look at the back where I used matching threads and fabrics…..

MOVE IT!! is an 8-week Boot Camp that you can start at any time. Each week I present two or more new designs to try with the idea that we add each design to our “toolbox”. This way, when a pattern says “Quilt as Desired”, we have LOTS of ideas!!!

If you are interested in joining, you can sign up HERE!!!

I hope that you will join me!!

Free Motion Friday and the Leafy Meander

Well, I wrote this post once but it disappeared so here we go again!!!

Today it was time to once again attack the Flora and Foliage Quilt-A-Long from Angela Walters. I had lost momentum and frankly was scared of the next design. Those two emotions go a long way to turning a WIP (work in progress) into a UFO (Unfinished Object)!!!

I re-watched Angela’s video about the leafy meander and decided to practice on another piece. I was relatively happy with it so moved on to the designated top.

And, you know what, it wasn’t all that hard!!!!

My biggest problem was wanting to get smaller as I approached limited space areas. I had to keep reminding myself to quilt half-leaves rather than a bunch of smaller ones!!

Next, she wanted us to try the pattern as a paisley rather than a leaf. The only real difference is that you have a rounded top rather than a point…..

Next was using the leaf shape to fill in one side of an area. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep the shapes even so I lightly drew the design in…..

But once I started sewing, I couldn’t see the markings so ended up doing it free hand anyway. It turned out okay…..

There was another of these to do but the curves were bending out to the opposite side. With many of these designs, I really struggle to make the two sides match and I was having a hard time figuring out which way to sew next. I solved the problem by using my finger to “sketch” the shape several times before I started sewing…..

This simple movement made it easier to sew!!!

Next was to make larger leaves and fill them in with some other design. I found this harder to do because I had trouble placing the larger leaves into the design. If I was doing a larger area, I would probably mark where I wanted those large leaves to land.

Finally, she wanted us to do a fern type of design. I started out drawing it on my white board and one of the ladies at my retreat walked by and said “that isn’t working is it!!” She was right!!! I kept reviewing the video from Angela, kept drawing it over and over and finally ended up with something resembling her design……