Deciding On A Quilting Design

The Fancy Foot block is cute, but left me scratching my head for a suitable quilting design. I had decided to do ruler work instead of an allover design. I have a whole bag full of rulers by now and the best way to become really familiar with them is by using them on a quilt. I find that it does take a bit of practice to work out how to align them, the best way to hold them and which one you might prefer for which job. But first, I had to come up with something...

This took a lot of doodling on the Ipad...tried all sort of things and in the end decided to go for some straight lines to stitch down the elongated triangles in order to emphasize the circular nature of the 'foot', then do some simple curves in the square sections and some pebbles in the middle to make the middle section recede. Worked out a stitching path diagram which took the longest time...somehow I find that incredibly difficult to visualize, so out came the Ipad again.

Realised today that this may need to be revised as I did not stitch one seam down...not sure whether I like this or not as the 'foot' is puffing out a bit.

Happy with the arrangement though.

I used the following rulers for this first part:
- Pro Echo3 &5 (all time favourite shown above)
- Ditch ruler (shown above)
You would have seen the circles in the sashing. Thought I give that a try...used the long Skinny ruler to quilt a 1/4in echo and then used the 1/4in Swiss Cheese ruler. My sashing is 1 1/2in wide, so I used the 3/8in Echo foot to make the circle exactly 1in.

Was a bit impressed with that...have only really played around with the Swiss Cheese ruler on practice samples but was encouraged by the first lot that I did. Accuracy was a must as the circle fits exactly in that space with not a millimeter to spare. At this stage I also realised that I needed to do the sashing first before the dense quilting would compact the areas...so continued on that today...

Well, alignment  was an issue...I had drawn myself a center line in my sashing but somehow that did not work so well, possibly because I was drawing on the sandwiched piece, so my line was not necessarily exactly in the middle. Also, of course, my quilt is not sitting tightly on a frame but is scrunched up all over the place which does affect the alignment of things. After a while I started to eyeball this a bit, however the eye is trained for 1/4in, not 3/8in. To my surprise, at least in one of the long sashings I found that if I aligned the side markings of the circle exactly at the top of the sashing, I hit both echo lines spot on. I spent a lot of time looking at this as this made absolutely no sense, however it worked! I suspected that I was shifting the ruler ever so slightly as I was doing the circle because I was holding on too tight trying to concentrate on staying on the circle. Anyway, this is how far I got today...

Looks really nice, I think. Planning to do swirls around the applique but will have to finish all the sashing first.

Really enjoying this and getting a very good workout on all the different rulers.

Karin

Almost Done!

Have been steadily working on my baby quilt.

This is the third time I am making this quilt, so it went together fairly quickly. See the other colour ways HERE and HERE. I quilted this quilt exactly like the previous one, given it is going to go to twins. 

First I stitched in the ditch...I used the HQ ditch ruler for this and I must say that this is getting easier as I force myself to do all the ditch quilting on the Sweet 16.

The ditch ruler can be used either side of the seam and I have used it both ways, however I think I prefer to lay it on the seam stitching along the ditch that way.

My ditching looked good and the only thing I might have to watch a bit is my stitch length. As I am concentrating my stitches tend to become smaller and smaller. For the stitch-in-the-ditch I used Aurifil 50/2 in both the bobbin and the top thread.

Then I started on the curves, using the Pro Echo 8 ruler  (on the left) from Lisa Calle.

I don't just like the ruler, I love that ruler. Aligns with ease and given that this was the second time I did the curves, was able to do them with some speed. 

Starting off with the curves...this time I did not break thread that often going diagonally across and back again, then travelling on the side to the next block. I used a white Aurifil 40/3 thread for this on the top with the Aurifil 50/2 in the bobbin. Went without a hitch.

Finished quilt top

Only got the binding left and I am done!

Linking up to Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making.

Karin

Ruler Practice Quilt #2

With the baby quilt finished I went back to my ruler quilt. Used spray basting to put it together...this time a bit more careful, so that I did not get that sticky stuff all over the floor. Worked well.

I did go over the whole thing with the basting stitch of the Sweet 16. Probably not necessary but at least then I'll know that it will not go anywhere.  

Also wondered whether my marking in the border would remain with handling and smoothing it all out and was happy to see that that worked.

Looks a bit faint in the photo but is easy enough to see. I used Roxanne's Quilter's Choice Chalk pencil and am a bit impressed with that (more on that in my next post about markers). My border design is from Cindy Needham's Border stencil collection...as you can see I chose the zigzag lines to keep it a bit simple...might dress that up a bit once I have the basic design down.

Then I went ahead and started stitching-in-the-ditch using the HQ Ditch ruler. That came as part of the first Handiquilter Ruler Club and I had not really tried it out that much on an actual quilt. Must say, that ruler is very nice and very easy to handle...like it!

It has got these rounded off notches on either side which you align directly on the seam to get your 1/4in space and it guides you along your ditch in a very consistent manner. Also discovered that if I place the notch next to the foot when starting off I can avoid that wobble you sometimes get when having stopped and starting again. Very comfortable to use and very helpful. Ever since I have got this machine I have basted and stitched-in-the ditch on it as this was one of the reasons I bought the machine...to make things easier and quicker. While it has taken some time to get used to the machine I do find it is much quicker and easier to stitch-in-the-ditch with the Sweet 16...you have got more room, can see better, manoeuvre around your less than perfect seam lines and once you got the hang of the rulers, stitching-in-the-ditch becomes almost effortless. Similarly with the basting...I have used this function on every quilt since I have got the machine...just so useful. 

My plan is to finish off the stitching-in-the-ditch and then put the structure of the border design down. As this quilt will lie around for a while and will get handled a fair bit, I am unsure whether my white lines will continue to be easy to see or whether they will become fainter with handling etc. Don't want to risk this as this would be a nightmare. In terms of thread, I am stitching in the ditch with purple Rasant thread, not sure what I will use for the ruler work that is yet to come.

Karin