This week, I had fun playing with the Westalee Spinning Ruler #21……
This one is different because if that TINY little dot at the bottom….
See what I mean…..
I love how easy this design is to make, and I especially love that you can keep adding to your hearts’ content!!
Now I need to make a quilt with blocks that will highlight this fun design!!
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Yesterday I posted about taking a simple ruler and turning it into a great design……
The BIT question was whether or not I could actually QUILT IT!!!
It got off to a slow start as I forgot to turn on the camera (TWICE), and messed up the design once.
But…attempt number 4 was apparently the charm……
Check out the video…..
I am excited about this design and now I want to pull out all of my Spin-E-Fex rulers and see what I can do with them!!!
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If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..
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.
If you have missed any of these, please check out my YouTube Playlist……
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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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.
Today I want to talk about quilting with the “Curly Q” ruler from Westalee.
I have had this ruler for a couple of years but had never spent time playing with it and YESTERDAY was THE day!!!
Here is my review of this ruler……
As I say in the video, I am not sure that this particular ruler is worth the work….
….although I do like this design a lot……
If you have used this ruler, PLEASE let me know your favorite designs!!!!
Hooray!!!
After 5 months of income tax season and 3+ weeks in Africa, I am back home and getting to spend time in my studio. It is SUCH a wonderful feeling!!
The first order of business is to quilt the first of two baby quilts that I need to get into the mail. I made the tops at our guild retreat back in May (you can read about it HERE)
I knew that I wanted to keep the quilting fairly simple and I also wanted it to be FAST. But, I was concerned about how to fill in ALL of that space and keep it interesting!!
Somewhere along the line, I got the idea to use some of my Westalee “Spin-E-Fex” rulers to quilt some large-ish designs first and then fill in with other quilting.
So, the first step was to decide on placement of those designs and get them quilted!!
I chose to add a few half-designs to some of the edges as well……
I used several different rulers in the Westalee Spin-E-Fex series, including #11, 15 & 16.
I have previously posted reviews, videos and information on each of these rulers and you can check them out here…..
Now that the ruler work is done, it is time to move on to the filler quilting!! Come back tomorrow for more…..