Let's Do Some Ruler Work Linky Party #6

Well, here we are again...I have decided to run the linky every week as it is easier to remember both for participants as well as myself!


Last week we had Terry from On Going Projects participate with some very intense quilting on her Tea Room Quilt.

This really inspired me! I don't know about you, but I have been slightly overwhelmed with what's going on in the world at the moment and surfing the internet has also become somewhat stressful. There is so much going on in the cyber space at the moment...QALs, videos, more posts to look at and explore...I have had problems disengaging and started to spent an enormous amount of time just flicking around the pages or watching videos, becoming completely unproductive.
On top of that I am in whinge mode about not having my Handiquilter machine etc, etc...

So, Terri's post was just so good. I thought...stop the whinging and time wasting and get going back again on your DSM! It's been a while...I learned to ruler quilt on the Sweet 16, so this was going to be interesting. I had made a table runner out of orphan blocks from a Disappearing Four Patch quilt I made some years ago...perfect project to practice some ruler quilting on.

So, out came the curves of which I have got many

HQ 2-1/4 Slice and Arc Ruler

Lisa Calle's ProEcho Rulers

HQ Curved Crosshatch Ruler

Of all those, I prefer the Pro Echo Rulers. For some reason they work better for me than any of the other arc rulers. While I do use the others, I more often than not turn back to the Pro Echo rulers. Something about the lines on them seems to make it easier for me to align, however this might just be me.

I decided to start with some echoed arcs in the coloured prints, but then also did arcs in the white squares...just needed to have that symmetry. I used the Pro Echo 6 and the little Pro Echo 3 (which is also great for travelling in the ditch on the straight edge).

I filled the center part with Ribbon Candy with my Ruler foot on which was a bit more challenging, but I could not be stuffed changing the foot over every single time, so that is going to have some hiccups in there, but I am going for the texture in that section, so it will not matter too much. Also filled the white arced section with some swirls just for a bit of variety.

All a bit busy, but that is what I felt like and it will keep me busy for a while.

What about you...what are you working on?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Karin

Let's Do Some Rulerwork #1

For the first of our Ruler Linky Party I would like to draw your attention to a class I was made aware of by Quiltshopgal some time before Christmas. It's Patsy Thompson's 'Beginning Free Motion Quilting with Rulers' offered through the Missouri Star Quilt Company. As the title suggests it is a class for beginners, however as it was relatively inexpensive and I absolutely love Patsy Thompson's teaching style I jumped on the opportunity. I figured that there are always hints and tips that I can pick up from watching her videos.
The class covers basic stuff about ruler quilting including information about measuring/marking, ruler feet, how to stitch with a ruler and alignment, and some information about rulers. In the class Patsy is making a basic table runner using a straight line design, arcs and curves. I was particularly interested in the marking of the designs and producing accurate channels, so I followed along making a slight variation of this table runner.

So I did some straight line design, curve design and arched swags. I used my Pro Echo 7 and 12 for the curves and arcs. Should have probably chosen some more contrasting fabric and thread as this was very hard to photograph.

...and then I did some filling in to just practice different designs

Gone a bit overboard practicing some crosshatching with the Pro Echo12 ruler (still find that very challenging) and also some more piano keys with the HQ Line Grid ruler. And...as you can see...stuffed the curves up a bit by filling them with a darker thread which makes the filler design stand out more than the curves. Live and learn (I think Patsy did mention this, but I was just so bored with the coordinating thread). What did I learn?
- measuring your border (for each design) down to 1/8in was absolutely essential
- marking your center lines correctly (and, if need be, correcting them slightly after your first pass) is important to have all the points align on the same line (easier said than done!)
- alignment of your ruler to hit that little tick mark each time is crucial
- picked up a neat little hint on judging the alignment when doing arcs, using this little tool (which I had floating around in my sewing box)...just holding the little 1/4in notch against your ruler to double-check that you are actually 1/4in away from your tick mark...this was very helpful when wanting to be precise.

Great class!

Now its your turn to share what you have been making with rulers.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Karin

Patsy Thompson January Online Workshop

Lesson 5 of Patsy Thompson's January 2018 Ruler Work Winter Course included stitching out some arcs with tapered and parallel lines to create some channels.

The tapered channels were no problem, but when I tried to stitch out the parallel lines I realized that my ruler would not be that helpful. I have got one the Handiquilter Arc Rulers

As I was quilting the arc I realized that I needed the inside arc to complete the channel. Well, with this ruler that obviously was not going to work, so I had to work from the inside out, i.e. marking all the channels in with tick marks and then starting on the inside...this is how that worked out...the offending arcs are in blue

This had not occurred to me before...could not believe it! I tried to put some tick marks in to complete the channels from the inside out but as soon as you start doing that you introduce a margin of error which becomes more obvious the more channels you put in. Also, doing that amount of marking to put in a few channels pretty much defeats the purpose of a ruler (in my mind they are supposed to make life easier, not harder). So after all this I realized that I needed a different type of ruler, one where I have the curve on the outside as well as the inside.
So I searched the internet and ended up ordering 2 arc rulers, called the Pro Echo Rulers,  from Lisa Calle's online shop. Had come across her rulers before and postage to Australia was reasonable. Also looked at Patsy Thompson's starter package. That would have been perfect too, but I already got several straight rulers, so do not need the included straight ruler. That package is perfect I reckon, when you start out...well worth considering.

There seems to be a lot to learn about rulers and which ones you need to use for what, and what size. As I have just found out, this seems to be a bit of trial and error. Probably the best thing for quilters who are just venturing out to buy some rulers is to have a think about what they are going to use them for and then research on the net the variety of rulers that are available...there are a lot of different types of rulers out there and you really have to think that through carefully and probably have to accept that you will get it a bit wrong every now and then, like I just did.

Karin