I'm in the homestretch for finishing the farm quilt and then....rip it, rip it. I was free motion quilting my wonderful feathers around one of the corners and I was halfway done and compared it to the opposite corner. Then I remembered that I was supposed to rip out the spine in that spot before I feathered it, as I had changed the spine on the other corner.
The spine was to be on the faint line shown by the arrow.
Yep, I had already feathered one side of the misplaced spine! So I'm back to the dreaded frog stitch. Rip it, rip it.....
I had once thought that I'd use the blasted seam ripper less as I got better at quilting, but it seems I use it just as much. Some days it feels like I use it more than before!
First let me say a great big thank you to all those who commented on my previous post, Let Me Tell You a Little Story. You all are so kind, sweet, and wonderful! I can't possibly answer all the comments I got, but I will work on it this week.
Now, I wasn't too sure about choosing "using rulers" as the focus of one of our quilting adventures since not everybody has the ability to use the ruler toe from Janome. (Though most models of machine can use the Janome foot, you just need to match up the Convertible Free Motion Foot Set to your type of machine --high or low shank.) (Edited to add: There is a third party ruler foot maker- Westalee- who has feet that will fit on most machines.) This is one of the main focuses of my quilting work and this blog, and since I have a perfect give-away to go with this design focus, I decided to go forward with it.
If you find you can't use any of this month's techniques (though I'm hoping you will be able to use parts of it) be assured that next month's design focus has already been chosen and you will enjoy it, I promise! I also urge you to talk to your machine brand's dealers and teachers and tell them about this technique and convince them that there is a need for this foot! Because this really is an awesome foot and technique and they really don't want to see you switch to a Janome, do they? (Though I'd totally switch to a Janome to do this technique if I had to!)
These were the first rulers I bought from www.accentsindesign.com
First, let's talk about rulers, since this is what makes the whole ruler toe needful. These are longarm (long arm) rulers and are 1/4 inch thick. Please, please, don't skimp and try this with a regular rotary cutting ruler. If you just have to, then tape two rotary cutting rulers together, one on top of each other, before trying it. It's just way too easy to slide a 1/8 inch thick ruler under or over your machine's free motion foot (even if you have the ruler toe) and then you'll break your needle and possibly throw your machine out of time!
Carol at Accents in Design sent me some of the rulers I was missing from her line so now I have the full set of templates, 8 inch straight ruler and the two smaller continuous curves rulers.
Now, even if you do have a Janome, but not the ruler foot OR maybe even not the convertible FMQ foot set (and you really should get the FMQ set if you FMQ on a Janome! Awesome foot!), you can do ruler work on a standard free motion foot. But, it's tricky.
I slapped one onto my machine to verify this. These feet hop up and down so the foot doesn't move as smoothly down the ruler. (Above, it is in the up position, and below, the down position while stitching-- presser foot is down, don't confuse that) Leah Day has instructions to modify a hopping foot so it doesn't hop. And of course, the toe is much thinner, making it easy for the ruler to slip over the foot and under the needle, which would break the needle, and possibly throw the machine out of time.
You can raise the foot slightly so it hits the ruler at the middle of the thickness and that can help. Since the ruler is holding the fabric down, raising the foot higher shouldn't affect the stitch quality too much. Also, since the regular FMQ foot isn't evenly round, for the most even spacing of lines, you need to hold the ruler to one specific spot on the foot. There are other free motion feet that have a round toe and that would definitely be better than the oval foot above.
Bernina- With the proper adapter (77 or 75) the Janome foot might work. See this tutorial for the Janome ruler foot on a Bernina. There is a third party ruler foot maker- Westalee- that will work with the adapter shank. Ivory Spring has a good post about her experience with using rulers for crosshatching on her Bernina. She preferred the round, closed toe for free motion quilting with rulers on her machine, and found she did not like to use her stitch regulator with the rulers.
The ruler toe is packaged specifically for the 1600P so some dealers will say it can't be used on other Janome models. It fits perfectly on the high shank convertible FMQ foot set and I have been using it for 2 years, with the blessing of my local Janome dealer. The ruler toe fits on the low shank version of the convertible FMQ foot set also.[Note: the ruler toe comes packaged with only it and another 'toe' in the package -part #767-434-005. It is not the set that comes with the convertible foot set for the 1600P] Here's a link to one place you can buy the ruler toe.
Next week I will go into more detail about designs for ruler work and you can also see previous posts on ruler work by going to the tab above in my header.
But in the meantime, being able to use a ruler helps you quilt really straight lines much easier than free hand even when following a marked line. A straight ruler helps with stitch-in-the-ditch and the 1/4 inch echo of seams like I'm doing below.
You can do designs like the diamond design below. And then there's crosshatching, which is such a great design for traditional quilts.
Then there's my favorite, curved crosshatching! Love using this design whenever I can in various forms and shapes.
Here's a video on curved crosshatching:
And one even faster to see how I work my way across the area:
Wheeeeeee!
A semicircle makes egg-and-dart designs in a flash.
Tips on using the rulers:
Choose a ruler big enough for your design, but not so big as to continually run into your machine while being used. Sometimes rotating the work and ruler is needed.
Don't push too hard on your ruler or it will be hard to move the quilt smoothly.
Some sort of non-slip on the belly of the ruler is vital!
Resting a finger or two off of the ruler (with quilting gloves) and on the quilt works better than having all your fingers on the ruler and using it like a handle to move the quilt.
Make sure the ruler is against the ruler toe at all times.
When re-positioning the ruler, make sure there isn't a bit of extra quilt wrinkled up against the needle.
If the ruler slips, don't re-position the part that's against the ruler, move the end you are working towards. This will make a smoother correction.
All of these designs above were done with Fine Line Rulers from www.accentsindesign.com They are the rulers with pegs for extra secure hand positioning and a great velcro hook tape on the underside to prevent the ruler from slipping. They also have good markings on the rulers, more on that in another week's post.
Accents in Design has graciously provided me with several more of of their rulers to supplement the rulers I had previously bought and I can't wait to use them to show more ruler work designs next week.
In addition, they are providing a set of the continuous curves rulers to one lucky participant of this month's series. So make sure to comment and/or link up to be entered in the giveaway!
Whew! That's a lot of material to cover in one post!I am sure there are questions, so ask them in the comments.
For the linky this week, post any ruler work you've done, if any. If you haven't done any, feel free to use a ruler to draw out any line based designs that you'd like to explore. You can use rotary cutting rulers for drawing. If you've written a post about wanting to do these types of designs, you can post that too!
If you've missed any of the Free Motion Monday posts, you can find them on the Free Motion Mondays page.
Some quick rules:
Keep your post relevant to this quilt along please. Spammy posts will be deleted.
Make sure you link up to the individual post, not your home page as nobody wants to have to search around for the post if they're a little late to the party.
Link back to this post somewhere in your post. You've got to dance with the one who took you to the party, so make sure you link back.
Don't be a wall-flower. (Talking to myself here too. In person I am so stinking shy!) Visit the other links and leave comments.
Please make sure you leave me a way to contact you if you are a no-reply commenter, especially if you ask a question.
Visit others who have linked up and be sociable!
Don't forget to bookmark this blog, follow, or sign it up in your favorite feed reader. Like the facebook page (I do post some short things on it pretty regularly), or even check out my Pinterest boards. I'll be visiting you too!
Once upon a time there was a woman who had a farm and a wonderful husband. They were happy and in love and worked hard. She raised organic vegetables and sold them to very appreciative customers in the city, several years before the magazines started writing prose about "farm-to-table" or CSA's and featuring very well styled photos of idyllic farm-side dinner parties.
Then the love brought along babies. One thing led to another and then there were two. The woman wanted to raise her babies without the demands of a farm and a huge mortgage and so they all packed up and moved to Beverly the nearby small town and they were quite happy even though they missed the farm. To Thing One and Thing Two was added a Little Boy Blue.
The woman, who had begun to think of herself as just a mother, was fully immersed in being a mom and very grateful that the three babes and home were her only responsibility. Sometimes the mothering took every bit of patience and more that she had and she knew without a doubt that if her responsibilities were any greater she would completely lose her mind. She had no idea how working moms managed, nor how any single parents survived. She was in awe of so many moms that she saw.
And then it hit: cancer. Her strong, handy hubby had a huge tumor under his armpit. The first surgeon said "We'll do everything we can to save the arm". Losing an arm would be a death sentence to the man who loved working with his hands. Thankfully the first surgeon was wrong and referred us to another surgeon. Breast feeding Little Boy Blue gave way to many, many babysitters and long chemo infusions.
It was a dark, dark, time.
But there was a tiny glimmer of hope. Hubby was a rock. A very tired, grayish, hairless rock. The woman filled her time at the cancer center with prayer and pages and pages of doodled quilting designs. One co-occupant of the infusion room asked, "Are you an artist?" The woman laughed, blushed, and said "Oh, no."
Cancer got its butt kicked.
The budget got a good beating too.
The husband grew a beard but kept his head shaved. He got a tan and began working again. Many praises were lifted up.
The woman was quilting and seemed like she'd never stop. The stitches kept her life from falling to pieces when everything else came undone; the dishes, the laundry, the cooking. There were small contributions made to the floundering finances from the works of her hands.
And the woman started to feel like more than just a mother again. She was still very happy to have had all the time she had focusing on her children when they were little and needed her most but she wanted to be her own person too sometimes. Maybe, just maybe she was becoming an artist after all. The quilting introduced her to people who weren't always talking about babies and housekeeping.
She began sharing her quilting adventures in the big world of the internet. She kept stitching. She entered a show with a quilt that had all her pain and fear, but also hope, stitched into it from the dark time of cancer. Eventually, someone asked her to quilt a top for them. Then she began teaching classes on free motion quilting. She began working with the very nice older gentleman who sold her the first Janome she every had.
Videos were made, pictures were taken, posts were posted and shared, and the blog grew and grew.....
When it comes to free motion quilting, there's nothing I like better than to quilt feathers! I like to them where they are all wild and different though. So a huge border full of uniform feathers is a wee bit intimidating. When I first started marking the border, I was using the Fine Line 10" Continuous Curve ruler for the spine; flipping it alternately down a straight line for an undulating curve that was supposed to go all the way around the border. But I just couldn't work out the corners and get it spaced so it went well with the curved crosshatched triangle shapes.
So I ended up using a circular spine so there was a curled up feather between every CCX'd triangle. It still didn't work out perfectly around the corners, two curl in and two curl out. But at a diagonal from each other it looks fine. And once all the feathers get added, it'll be fabulous! That's what I get for being all free-spirited and not drawing out all the elements of my design ahead of time, but that's just a part of how I am.
I did go ahead and stitch the spines and the drop at the end of each curving spine, as I wanted to use that big teardrop shape to help me get every space filled with plumes. Then it was time to go back around and add the plumes.
I had some trouble at first getting the inner plumes to turn in that circle evenly, but I wasn't trying to make them all identical anyway. I might redo a few spots on the first ones when I get done. It got better as I went along.
To turn that inner turning circular part of the feather, I divided the circle into fourths and then quilted each quadrant with a set of plumes that filled each wedge. The plumes have to vary in size in order to turn them this way. You can get another quilter's take on turning feathers at IvorySpring.
I think these aren't bad, but I could still use more practice. It always looks worst when you're right at the machine, once I step back and take a look, it's so much better. Some of the plumes are longer and skinnier than I want, maybe I should have used a slightly bigger circle template. I made my own with my AccuQuilt circle die cutter and some dense cardboard. Best way ever to get perfect circle shapes!
I used the big teardrop shape at the end to help 'tighten' the circular curve so it looks more like a spiral than a circle without having to use a different template. I also used the teardrop as part of the spine for the outer plumes, so I could fill all the space.
We'll see more of these feathers in a few months when we do feathers as our Free Motion Mondays design, most likely in July.
Do you love feathers? I hear that the more modern quilters find them too traditional, and I agree that some forms of them are a bit stiff and old-fashioned. But some quilts scream for feathers and there are so many variations that there's got to be something for every style.
and a Janome Convertible Free Motion Quilting Foot Set for Memory Craft Embroidery Machines & High Shank Models
. If you have an Elna or Kenmore machine, there's a good chance that either the high or low shank versions will fit on your machine. We have tried these feet on a Babylock in the shop without success, the foot fits the shaft, but the needle doesn't line up with the foot.
