THIS POST DISAPPEARED OVERNIGHT…..LET’S TRY AGAIN!!!
If you are like me, you have a LARGE number of quilting rulers. I mean, once you get started with ruler quilting, it is NECESSARY to buy more.
Am I right?
But, the trick is how to store all of those rulers. None of them are large but they can sure get messy in a hurry…..
BUT….. I have come up with a wonderful solution…….
Yesterday I posted about the quilt top that I made using Split Rectangle blocks.
Now it was time to quilt it.
And the old question of…….BUT HOW DO I QUILT IT????
I started out using Procreate on my I-Pad but couldn’t tell much about the designs I was looking at.
So, I covered the top with a piece of clear, plastic shower curtain and used a water-soluble marker to try a bunch of designs.
Did I like straight lines?
They look good, but would be REALLY hard to quilt without breaking my thread a BUNCH of times!!
How about Squiggles…..
I like those but it would mean a LOT of quilting and I am not sure that I want to spend that much time on it.
How about some spirals?
What about curves using an Arc-Ruler?
Either these or the spirals were my favorite so I decided to make a test piece….
At this point, I was thinking Spirals.
BUT, when I started on the quilt, I made the first one and it looked horrible…..
OKAY….pick that out and switch to arcs!!
I found that, if I concentrated, I could easily move from blcok to block without having to stop…..
I ended up having to break thread twice but wouldn’t have if I had planned it better. Oh Well!!
I was racing along to finish the borders when I hit this slight snag…..
Don’t you hate it when the backing fabric gets folded over!!
Here is the finished quilt……
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Today, is the official release of my new online course…..
If you have wondered whether Ruler Free-Motion Quilting is for you, this course will help you get started with a basic Straight-Edged Quilting Ruler.
Hurry to take advantage of the limited offer of $3.00 off the purchase price!!
Last week I presented two posts about FMQing a fun sampler quilt.
Today, let’s get it finished up!!!!
For this first block, I started out with the “Squiggy” ruler to design some outlines….
….and then used “Petunia” to fill in some petals…..
It ended up a little funky but I really liked the finished block…..
I had left these last two blocks for last because I simply couldn’t come up with an idea of how to quilt them…..
I wanted to exaggerate the diagonal in both so started by using a wavy ruler to quilt down the center of the first block and then echoed it several times…..
After I got tired of waves, I switched to a straight-edge ruler and added some straight lines on the diagonals.
Then is it was more waves and finally more straight lines……
It was super easy, fast, and fun!!!
I used the same principle for the last block, quilting half the blocks in a wave and the other half in straight-lines……
I wanted to finish the quilt with a Ribbon Candy design but didn’t want it to be so wide. To fix the problem I used the straight-edge ruler to add lines 1/2-inch from each edge and then quilted Ribbon Candy in the center section…..
Here is the finished quilt……
This has been a fun process to quilt this project. I found that it was easy to come up with designs to use and the actual quilting was a breeze.
I have spent so much time practicing that it was good to actually QUILT something!!!
Now I can’t wait to finish the next top so that I have more to quilt!!
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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.
Yesterday I posted about quilting the first four blocks of my friend, Diane’s sampler quilt.
Here are the next ones……
These triangles called out for point-to-point arcs…..
….but the FUN happened when I added in a loopy meander…..
If you have read my blog for very long, you will know that ALL of my meanders eventually turn into LOOPY ones!!!
I used more Point-to-point arcs for the next block, although I could have done better on the spacing!!!
To fill in the background, I quilted four feathers that curved around the point!!
I am SO thankful for Angela Walters’ FMQ Feather Challenge. I went in knowing NOTHING and came out feeling okay about feathers!!
Here is the wrap-up post…..
Next, it was time for some more Echo and Arc designs…..
I wanted the inside of the triangles and chevrons to be 1/4-inch inside the block and not be a slanted Dot-to-Dot design, but I did NOT want to break thread every time.
Instead, I sewed a short “entryway” into each of the shapes…..
I don’t think that detract from the design and sure made it easier to execute!!
The last one for today is a simple block with an overall clamshell design…..
It took a bit of time to figure out how to do the edges, but I think that it turned out okay!!
Since we are on a roll, let’s do one more block!!!
I started out with arcs in this “Sawtooth Star” block…..
….. but added some straight lines to fill in the spaces…..
I really like how this traingle looks!!!
So……we have seen 9 of the 12 blocks. Since the next few days will be full of holiday fun, come back next week as we finish the quilt!!!
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Thank you…….