Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!: shorty quilting ruler

Showing posts with label shorty quilting ruler. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 06, 2019

FMQ a neutral quilt on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 254 of Free Motion Mavericks. I'm very glad that you dropped by.

FMQ the Epic Neutral Bow Tie Quilt

You've seen this quilt a few times over the last year and the end is in sight. I'm just going to show you the free motion quilting (FMQ) that I've done so far. The final reveal will be before the end of the month since this is my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for November and I'm determined that it will be finished.😊

Usually I practice all kinds of FMQ designs when I quilt a lap quilt but I wanted this one to be calmer and unified. So far, there are only four FMQ designs in the quilt - and there is only one more to be added.

The darker blocks (the snowballs) are quilted with straight lines. I did get a chance to practice using my ruler. It took a while but I finally got the hang of it. I only have 11 of the 32 snowballs left to FMQ.

FMQ straight-ish lines through the snowball

The background beige four patch between the snowballs were quilted in two different designs. The rows that have 4 blocks have this lovely sun design. As you can see, I used a Frixion pen to draw the design. I then quilted it, including an echo.

A sun design with echoing

The rows with 5 background beige blocks have a loopy flower with tendrils. This design is great in a 4 patch block since the lines can be used to guide the FMQ.

This loopy flower with tendrils design is great in a 4 patch block

In the borders where there are only two beige background blocks, I used this design. I just drew a triangle with a Frixion pen and then used the seam of the two blocks as a guide.

I only have some dark blocks left to FMQ - which are 14 sets of two blocks (half snowballs) on the border of the quilt as well as 4 corner blocks. I'm still not sure what design to use there, but it will involve straight lines so that it fits in with the snowball blocks.

What I learned

I used Angela Walters' Shorty ruler for the straight lines. It took me a while to get used to using it because my foot would get caught in the ruler and skip a stitch or two. I've now figured out that the darning foot can't rest too tightly against the ruler. I can also hear when this is happening so that I can loosen my grip. It's working out well now that I have the hang of it.
The straight lines are the hardest part to quilt because depending on where I'm quilting from, I can't always see the other end of where the line needs to go. I found it much easier to quilt all of the other designs.
Two of the designs, the flower within the triangle and the loopy flowers with tendrils come from or are adapted from Angela Walters' Shape by Shape book.
I'll be discussing what I learned overall when this lovely is finished!

Sunday, November 25, 2018

A loon, a bear and a binding tutorial

Finished loon

The loon mini is quilted in-the-ditch.

I found some fabulous foundation paper pieced patterns for making woodland animals blocks. Here's how it started.

My October DrEAMi! (something that catches your fancy and you just have to Drop Everything And Make It!) was a foundation paper pieced block that I gave my brother for his birthday instead of a card. Since he loves the outdoors, I made him a loon.

This is the first of several minis that I'll be making using Made by Marney's patterns. The finishing of the loon mini and the making of the bear mini are my November DrEAMi!

A bear mini

My next mini was a bear - well actually two bears because I'm making a second one for my husband. The first one I made has a pretty obvious mistake so I'm keeping it for myself and using it in the binding tutorial below.

Extended-border binding technique

These minis are perfect for trying out new techniques. I tried this binding technique on the loon block and then took pictures of the process using the first bear mini for this short tutorial.

Challenge: I didn't want to add a binding to this block. I've tried binding the quilt from the back but didn't really like the results since my corners are not always very good. So I essentially made a wider border and used it to bind the quilt. Here is the tutorial.

Measurement: Decide how wide you want your border, then add ¼" for your seam allowance and add 1" for the binding.
In this case, the border fabric was made from 2¼" strips. (¼" seam allowance + 1" border + 1" binding.) * You can adjust how wide you want your border as well as how much fabric you want to use for your binding.

Attach the border
Attach the border fabric to the top and bottom of the block.

Adding the top and bottom border

Attached the side borders to the block.

Adding the side borders

Sandwich the quilt with the batting and backing fabric and quilt the piece except for the border.

Quilting in-the-ditch with the "Shorty" ruler

Cut the batting and backing
Once the quilting is finished, flip over the border fabric away from the edge. Then, one side at a time, trim the excess batting and backing.
(In this case, I cut the batting and backing 1" from the edge of the border.)

Trimming the batting and backing

Trimming the batting and backing from all sides

The front border extends past the backing once each side has been trimmed.

The front border extends past the backing

Finish Quilting

If you want to quilt your border, this is the time to do it!

Press the border

Fold the extended part of the border in half and press.

Pressing the extended fabric in half

Flip the pressed extended border over the back of the quilt. (I use small metal paper clips to keep my border in place.) Stitch the extended border to the back.

Using paper clips to keep the border in place while stitching

This is what the back of the pieces looks like with the border used as the binding.

The back of the bear min when the border is used as binding

The back of the loon mini

Label

I made a label using some great retro duck fabric and used neutral fabric to write on. As I learned previously, I ironed freezer paper to the back to ensure that the fabric wouldn't shifting around when I wrote on it.

Using freezer paper to stabilise the fabric to create a label

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who are celebrating today!

What I learned

Minis are great to try different techniques. There isn't the investment of time, material and effort that you might have with a larger or more complex quilt.
One of the tricky things about foundation paper piecing is that the finished product is the reverse of the pattern. Since I didn't print up the pattern in colour, I mixed up one of the pieces. You can see that the bear block looks like it has a broken leg with a cast instead of the shadow of the leg. I haven't finished quilting the second bear, but it doesn't have a broken leg!
Making the bear pattern a second time was much easier since I knew what to do - and not do! I rarely make something twice but it is a good learning experience. The second time it usually is easier and faster and probably better. I think that I sometimes miss out on the learning aspect of that type of repetition. Since I was so intent on getting the second bear mini right, I wasn't bored 😊
I used Angela Walter's "Shorty" ruler to quilt in-the-ditch. This is the second time I use it and I'm very impressed.
I've never come across this method of binding a quilt, but if it's out there somewhere under another name, please let me know.
I hope you were able to follow the tutorial (it's my first one). If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave me a message in the comment section, or email me at quiltingandlearning (at) gmail.com

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Symphony in Stem Stitch

My piece is ready for the Out of the Box Fibre Artists group's exhibition at the Stittsville Library in December. I have never placed a piece in this venue but when the organiser said that it should be art with a quote, I got an idea 😊 Why not make something with one of the embroidery pieces that I've been working on?

Finding the right words

Google was made for finding suitable quotes (among a few other things of course!) On the Goodreads site I found the perfect beautiful quote by John Keates:

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever"

Symphony in Stem Stitch

I've been working on this project for over a year. It's the second embroidery using free motion quilting (FMQ) motifs. It's been a lot of fun to create since it's very improvisational. I just started by doodling some FMQ motifs with a Frixion pen. I would embroider it using a stem stitch then add more doodling and keep at it. If I didn't like what I had drawn, I would simply iron it off.

This is the first picture of this project that was posted on this blog (see Related links below).

Embroidering colourful FMQ motifs

First stem stitch embroidery -
Étude in Stem Stitching

Adding FMQ motifs a little at a time

The image to the right is the first stem stitch embroidery piece that I started. I used much more muted colours. It's still a work-in-progress (WIP).

I started this to practice my stem stitch after taking a Craftsy course with Jessica Marquez.

This image has the binding attached and ready to be sewn to the back.

It just needs the binding to be sewn to the back

It's such a great feeling when a piece comes together the way I imaged it. It doesn't always happen, and sometimes it's really not a bad thing, or so I tell myself. 😊

What I learned

When I had almost finished the FMQ, I squared off the piece, marked it and then quilted it along the line. I then cut it a ½" past the line. This gave me the chance to finish the FMQ along the edges without going over it much. I don't mind loosing a little bit of FMQ when squaring it up, but if I don't mark it before finishing it, I tend to go over the edge - a lot!
I finally used my quilting ruler to FMQ the line around my piece. I used Angela Walter's "Shorty" ruler. I was pretty impressed since it's difficult to FMQ a straight line. I will definitely use it again.
I had no idea what I would do with these embroideries but I love asking the question...."What if?" So in this case, the question is "What if I FMQ an embroidery? What would that look like?"
I must say that I'm very pleased with the results. There is a lot of potential here for interesting effects for art quilts.
Now to make the label and packaging for the piece before tomorrow!
I was happy to see that my practice with stem stitching payed off. When I decided to finish this embroidery I could do the stem stitch without referring to my favourite embroidery book (see Related links) or the Craftsy class. Of course I haven't done any other stitches in a long while, except for a few French knots, so it may turn out that it's the only stitch I can now do without looking up! 😊