Good Morning, Quilters!
Thank you again to so many of YOU who have pre-ordered a signed copy of More Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3! WE made it to Etsy’s BESTSELLER list!!! The books will ship the week of April 2 and I know you will have reason to celebrate-after all there’s an entire chapter of motifs titled “Celebrations”!
NEW ULM QUILT SHOW
A quick shout out to my friends from the Prairie Piecemakers Quilt Guild in New Ulm, MN. These talented ladies are hosting their big quilt show next week, March 23-24–a great weekend and great excuse to take a drive! Check out their website HERE.
RULER WORK WITH AMANDA MURPHY
Last month I posted my first attempts at Ruler Work following Amanda Murphy’s free quilt-a-long offered by BERNINA’s We All Sew. My beginner tips and observations are included here.
I also posted a free motion version of the ruler work quilt HERE. This quilt is more in my comfort zone–but as they say: “All learning occurs outside of our comfort zone!” Which leads me to….
LESSON TWO: Amanda Murphy’s Ruler Work
In Part 2 (Found HERE on WeAllSew) Amanda walks us through areas 4-7.
Areas 4 and 5 are straight line ruler work similar to what we learned in the first lesson. After stitching these two areas, I was feeling pretty good about straight line work, especially after my friend, Pam Hansen sent me a few sheets adhesive sandpaper to add to the rulers. (Pam sells the sheets at Bear Patch Quilting.)
AREAS 6 AND 7: CURVES!!
Unfortunately, my confidence was thrown a curve ball when Amanda added circles and curves!
I was just getting used to pressing the back of the foot against the ruler, but with circles it’s different! With circles, you have to think about pressing different parts of the foot against the ruler while moving–I had trouble getting my brain, fingers and fabric to work together!
I also had trouble lining things up again….
Practice. Practice. Practice!
I found I could only concentrate for an hour and then I allowed myself to free motion quilt–NO RULERS!
Tomorrow–The NO RULER version of Amanda’s Quilt–aka-My Comfort (Zone) Quilt!
By the way, Amanda’s LESSON 3 is also available at We All Sew HERE. I will post my results in the next few weeks!
What about YOU?
Have YOU tried Ruler Work?
Do YOU like Ruler Work?
Do YOU have any tips/techniques to share?
We’d LOVE to hear!
Stay in the lines. The lines are your friends!
Well, sometimes,
Your Out-of-the-Zone-Quilter,
Lori
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!
16 comments
Ellen McKinley
Thanks for posting your learning curve….it gives me hope and the incentive to keep trying with FMQ!
bbquiltmaker
I love ruler work and am keeping up with Amanda ‘s sew a long. Seeing your learning curve makes me more confident that my free motion will improve with more practice.
Susan the Farm Quilter
Lori, to help you with exact placement with rulers as well as free motion, get a piece of 1″ elastic the length of your longarm and mark it with 1″ and 1/2″ increments (I used different colors of fine-point Sharpies) on one side…I pin the end just above the area I am quilting and pull it so a line hits the end of where I am quilting. That way I don’t have to do a bunch of marking but can keep the same distance between motifs. Does that make sense to you??? Love ruler work and I’m enjoying watching what you create.
WordPress.com Support
I think I understand–that is brilliant! Will try that!
Carolyn S
I’ve been keeping up with the Ruler work quilt-a-long. I was good with lessons 1 and 2, and 3 is kicking me. I have different rulers than what you and Amand show. I have one with circles from 3/4 in. diameter through 1.5 in. This one has a slot so you can move the fabric and ruler with the foot inside the circle. I’m getting better with this one. My 2″ and larger circles are circles, where the foot has to travel around the outside of the circle. The 2″ circle is a 1.5″ disc, dang tiny and I never thought of my fingers as fat until trying to hang onto the dinky disc, the fabric and attempting to keep the foot near it, touching of course would be best. Needing much more practice or a different circle ruler. Watching the video with the multi sized one you need to tape together seems annoying to me. Rulers are on the expensive side too. Love your blog, Lori, I learn from it everyday.
N Lien
I’ve just started the Ruler work with Amanda Murphy’s quilt-a-long and love it. The straight line quilting is great fun but the circles are more difficult. Think I’ll need more practice. I’ve done some free motion and also need more practice and really enjoy your clear instructions. Thanks for sharing.
Lorraine Doyno Evans
I want to get some arc rulers and follow Patsey Thompson’s designs…they are incredible. I do have those nested circle rulers that are in your photos. What do you think of them? I really dislike them…you have to tape them together and they seem to come apart on me while trying to sew. It is hard to know which rulers to invest in, and they are an investment as they are very expensive in my opinion.
Delina Aberle
Check out the new circle rulers that Handi Quilter has designed. One they call the big swiss cheese and it is absolutely great for circles – good size to grip and using the various size cheese holes you can create many designs. I can’t recall what the name is of the smaller one – but it is great too!
Julie Zeigler
Do you need a special foot to do ruler work? I have a couple different Viking sewing machines.
Delina Aberle
Julie Zeigler – yes you need a ruler foot. That is because it is a higher sided foot that prevents you from stitching under or over the ruler – which would 1) break your needle 2) break your ruler 3) thrown off your timing on the machine or even do worst damage – bend or break the needle arm. Westalee sells the feet – you just need to tell them the make and model of your machines. I have a Viking and a Janome and a Juki and their feet work perfectly on all of them!
Donna Smeal
Lori, you’re the best! Love getting your email blog every day, love the classic paintings and your Silent Sunday pics! How do you keep up with all you do? And talented too! Wow, you are a gift from God in my crazed life 🙂
Pray for bountiful blessings for you and your family,
Donna
Mary Ann wolf
Thanks, Lori, for mentioning the New Ulm Quilt Show. Hope you can come!
Barbara McKenzie
I LOVE ruler work, but….I have a longarm and I’m sure rulers are much easier to use on it than on a domestic machine!
Delina Aberle
Barbara McKenzie – I have both a long arm and a domestic that I do ruler work on. The advantage to the longarm is I don’t have to handle and move the fabric. However, I like using the ruler on the domestic because I can control it easier. On the longarm since it is so easy to move it, I can actually bounce off the ruler and get wobbles in the stitching. That usually doesn’t happen on the domestic. So both have their ups and downs.
sunnysewsit
I have a very limited supply of rulers; did buy foot 72 for my Bernina. I also have on order Angela Walters’ set of four rulers (bought from a friend at a great price.) From what little I have tried, I find ruler work very tedious and stressful. Perhaps that is because I am SO used to free-motion work (since 1966 when the only stabilizer I had was tissue paper!) I i know everything worthwhile takes practice, so I will persevere…. Thank you so much for your tips and your own experience. Just watched Amanda’s Part 3 series.
Kim McKee
I am in the same stage as sunnysewsit! Want to try something new, so I bought the foot and one ruler (friends and I are buying different ones and swapping/sharing), but I find it difficult and I am tensing up in the shoulders. Still willing to practice, especially after I see a blog post that shows a less than perfect attempt! Thanks for the inspiration.
Comments are closed.