Mar 04 14
Doing Some Simple Ruler Work on my Home Sewing Machine
I am trying to get back to learning more about using rulers on my home machine, so I played around with the front and back of this tote. These will be used for another sample of the Tulip Tote Bag. I opted to just use straight lines and for these tote fronts, I used 2 rulers, the short 6 inch Fine Line Ruler and the longer Handiquilter ruler. I kind of got spoiled by the handles on the Fine Line Rulers so I had Ernie cut several short pieces of 1/4 inch acrylic rod and then I super-glued them to my Handi Quilter rulers. You can see that below:
I kept this really basic and just started by creating some geometric divisions in the center section. I wish I could say this was part of some master plan, but it was all I could come up with on the fly! Here’s the top once those divisions were in place:
I then used basic loop-d-loop in a line to fill in the spaces. More and more, I am feeling that fill in work looks better if it doesn’t completely fill in a space and deliberately doesn’t touch boundary lines:
Here’s what the back of it looked like at this point:
My last move was to fill in the rest with a simple swirls design. I actually switched to a different color thread for this section but it’s so subtle that you barely notice it:
I really love all the texture created by the machine embroidery applique; it makes me want to run my fingers across the quilt. These shapes are from the Stylized Stems 2 die and the Tulips die:
Very effective. I love your use of rulers and free-motion quilting. Inspirational.
I too think FMQ is good for the soul and spirit. 🙂
Hope you have a wonderful day.
SewCalGal
http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com