Nov
16
14
I did a demo on the George sit-down quilting machine a little over a week ago for Sheridan Kay Quilting Studio in Hendersonville, NC and you can find her web site by clicking here. Sheridan is the local APQS dealer in western NC and I can personally attest to what a great studio and shop she has. Anyway, I needed to come up with a quick quilt that I could work on during my demo. I wanted to demo some basic ruler work on a sit-down machine, so I came up with this quilt:
When I was creating all the digitized feathered wreath designs for the 2 Majestic Feathered Wreaths CDs which you can find right here, I ended up with about 10 million quilt blocks with wreaths quilted on them because I needed to test out every design in every size. I decided to use a bunch of them up in this quilt, so throwing this together got me a quick quilt for the demo as well as used up some stuff I had lying around. You can see the pieces of it starting to come together in the photo below:
Once I’d pieced the whole thing, I threw it into a quilt sandwich and did my stitch in the ditch quilting, followed by outling each “zone” of the wreaths. (The reason I do that is it causes the trapunto to really pop!). For my ditch quilting and my outlining of the various “zones” of the feathered wreaths, I always use Monopoly Thread by Superior Threads. This lightweight thread will not be seen but it allows you to create these kinds of fabulous effects and I use a TON of this thread in my quilting. Once done with that “anchoring” kind of stitching, I switched to my ruler work. I am a relative newbie at ruler work but I’ll tell you, I am really learning that a little bit of ruler work can add a whole new level of interest to your quilt. I’m talking about a big time level of interest! In this shot below, you can see how basic this ruler work was:
The side setting triangles and corner setting triangles are all done with easy straight edge ruler work that creates a “skeleton,” or framework, and then you move in and add some fill in freehand work. Once you’ve done a few of them, you start to appreciate the secondary designs they create. For the blue blocks in the center, I used curved rulers and started by creating simple double arcs inside the blocks:
I then marked the center of each block and a few guidelines and created these spinning something-or-other shapes:
Notice that all those lines are double lines with a channel in between. You’ve got to have that channel or the design will not have much punch, so take the time to create 2 thread lines. My original plan was to hyperquilt something inside, but I decided against it…at least for right now! I then filled in my arcs with a row of pearls and you can start to see that this creates a secondary design of a frame of pearls in this next shot:
The wreaths really poof out nicely because they have a trapunto layer of a lightweight polyester batting behind them. You can appreciate that in this shot:
…and here’s another good shot for that effect:
Ooh-la-la, I can’t get me enough of that splay-of-fireworks feathered wreath! Anyway, this was a very fun quilt to quilt and I am falling more and more in love with ruler work. If you haven’t tried it yet, you really must…
Filed under Free Motion Quilting, George Sitdown Quilting Machine, ruler work on a HDSM.
Beautiful. I love the colors, machine embroidery and the free-motion quilting you did with this quilt. #quiltlove
SewCalGal
http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com
I am amazed at the beautiful quilting you do on just a sit down machine. It gives me hope! I bought your Craftsy video and need to get to it for more inspiration and tips. I’ve been a fan for a couple of years now.
Beautiful, I love the colours.
those spinning doo-dads are really a great look. thanks for all the pictures–really shows the process/progress. love it. thanks
its amazingly gorgeous, and i so agree with the impact of the ruler work miss patsy! well done… well done!! love the splay firework design, too.
Gourgeous quilting: the wreaths are glowing beautifully, and the graphic ruler work patterns counterbalance the rounded and softer wreaths.
So so beautiful, what more can I say. Stunning hyper quilting! I’m also beginning to like ruler work in my fmq but at the moment have to draw the lines as I have not come across the rulers yet in South Africa.
Patsy –
a craftsy class, as to HOW you manage to manipulate the ruler on a sit down machine would be a one-of-the-kind class. Consider doing one?
Pat
Oh my!! these are beautiful! serves as great inspiration for me! thank you for sharing.
Gorgeous! I love the block treatment of the squared off “flower”. so pretty. I had to forward this to a friend.
I can’t wait to play more with my designs!
Wow! Gorgeous.
Absolutely beautiful, Patsy! Now I have another quilt design of yours to put on my list of Quilts That Must Be Made.
Diane
I love the ruler work, Patsy! I’m still trying to do it on my domestic machine, which seems to be a bit more difficult than with a machine with a hopping foot…
When I took a sit-down machine class with Debby Brown I, too, found out that ruler work is actually pretty easy and allows all sorts of great looking shapes.
Beautiful!
Wow it beautiful! I would love to see the back, would like to see how the quilting looked around the wreaths.
Patsy, Your work is incredible! Thank you so much for the demo and visiting the studio! Come back soon!
I have at least 8 of the wreath blocks already finished…now I have to make myself a quickie quilt!
Love your designs Patsy.
Smiles,
Kelly
My George and I would love for you to teach a class on ruler work in southern Indiana! 🙂