Wednesday 18 January 2017

Clarity Ruler Foot - Impressive!

I have been quilting with the clarity ruler foot from Accents In Design for a few weeks now.
To practice I chose to continue on my Field Guide quilt which has a continuous line design in it. Given that the lines had to be marked, it came to a complete standstill. As I have a little arc ruler I thought that I give that a go, because that meant minimal marking, i.e. only a center mark and then four dots halfway on each side of the block. The block measures 4 1/2" and my arc ruler is a small 4" arc ruler. This meant that I had to eyeball the alignment of the ruler.😬

Probably should have started with something a little bit easier as my experience with rulers is limited. Not only did I have to eyeball the distances but also had to deal with a rather puffy quilt under the machine. Can't really give any specific suggestions other than that you need to try and work out what works best for you. In my case I decided on a particular path which meant that the ruler was always in front of the needle or on the side of it. Even though I could have stitched behind it, I decided rather quickly that that was not going to work for me. Started off rather wonky but got better with time
as I experimented with where to place my fingers, how to hold the ruler and how to eyeball the 1/4" distance. Needless to say the first few were not that good, but I noticed improvement after a while. Had to laugh though...had definite trust issues with the ruler. Spent a long time aligning it and finally stitching my line, only to shift the ruler in the last minute thinking that this can't possibly finish at the point it was supposed to. Well, the ruler was never wrong, but I frequently was!

In terms of settings on the Pfaff QE 4.2:

Needle: Titanium Needle 80/12 (have found that Titanium Needles work better with the ruler feet in general...no idea why)
Thread: Aurifil 50/2
Tension: as usual 3.8
Needle position: +1
Mode: Springfoot Freemotion

Here are two of the 'improved' examples
Some misjudging of the arcs going on, but overall looking nice and tidy. Also found this to be getting quicker.
Only a quarter of the squares left on the quilt...

I am very impressed with this foot...had no issues at all with tension or skipped stitches and after 2 weeks of continued use, this foot was still securely attached. My Westalee foot had the habit of falling off after a while...probably from the vibration of the stitching and that was most annoying and irritating. Had to take the Ruler foot off the other day as my daughter wanted to stitch the hem of her Jeans and today attached the foot again...curious to find out how easy it would be to re-adjust the foot to its exact setting. Well, happy to report that this was no problem at all. Attached the foot, lowered it and then only had to make minor adjustments to get it exactly right. Very easy.

Apart from this I have been working on my drawing for the Wholecloth
Almost done, just need to go over it with a darker pen. I am even thinking that I could use the ruler foot for some of the straight lines...I do feel confident with that by now. Maybe even the arcs following the drawn line...we'll see.

Karin

8 comments:

  1. I have the same problem with the Westalee foot. I am going to check out the Clarity. Thanks for the review.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Terry...sorry to hear you have that problem but glad that it is not just me. Was starting to think it had something to do with what I was doing. I used the new ruler foot for 2 weeks straight without the washer (does not fit the machine - see previous post) and no problem at all. Maybe it grips better because of the acrylic...very happy with it and finally can see some possibilities for making my DSM life easier.
      by the way...you are a no reply blogger, hence my response here.

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  2. Beautiful FMQ Ruler Work with your new Clarity foot. And, I love your sketch for your next wholecloth quilt. Going to be stunning.

    QuiltShopGal
    www.quiltshopgal.com

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  3. Working with ruler is nice but harder than complete free motion. I think yours is perfect!

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  4. I am absolutely new to ruler work, in fact I’ll be taking my first class (beginner’s) in about 2 hours. I also have a 4.2, and have not been satisfied with the FM I’ve done on it . (I had a bernina 1230 for 21 yrs, LOVED it but it but the dust 3 years ago). Are you happy with yours? I can only afford to own one sewing machine, and have been contemplating trading it for a Baby Lock Jazz or something similar. Patsy Thompson steered me to your page as she knew you had the 4.2. Any insight welcome. Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Yes definitely happy with machine. Please send a reply email as you are currently a no reply blogger. Most likely has to do with your settings. Definitely can help you with that

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    2. Sorry, new to this as well (geezer).

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    3. No worries....if you want to contact, find my email in my profile

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