Apr 16 17

A Completed Ruler Work Quilt Experiment

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I finished this quilt (including the binding-can’t believe I got that part done so fast), over a week ago but I didn’t like any of my photos of it so I didn’t post and now I’m just posting because I have no other quilt pix to post!  This was a fun project from start to finish and actually began only because I started the center block as a demo for a video we made about how to use our PTD flower templates.  I didn’t want to waste the fabric block, so I finished it as a trapuntoed feathered wreath and then kept experimenting with it.
 
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This was the first quilt where I’ve used the arched border design I used here.  Until now, I had only used it as a design sample that I’d stitched out.  I have to say that I really like how it came out.  It’s made using the PTD 12 arc and PTD 6.5 arc and it incorporates curved cross-hatching, using a featherette to fill an empty space, and a single row of pearls that change sizes along the length of the melon shapes.  Here’s a close-up that shows the details:
 
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I like how the series of arches form a unique kind of frame around the center section.  I also like that the corner blocks are a part of the frame as well.  Those were made using the PTD arc rulers as well and then I just created featherettes out of the melon shapes in each corner:
 
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This next picture was taken in different lighting and is a “crisper look” at that corner zone:
 
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I didn’t want to use  a piano key border to fill the outermost “empty zone” created by the arched border.  Part of my thinking was that a piano key border would be too formal for my quilt. I must be honest and also say that quilting a piano key border strikes me as an incredibly tedious experience.  I am willing to “suffer” to some degree in quilting but it just didn’t seem worth it to commit to such tedium for a look that didn’t appeal to me.  Instead, I used the same arc ruler to create a couple of channels and then threw in a featherette to fill each empty space.  You can see that pretty clearly in this close up:
 
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I was trying to make that area be secondary to the snazzy arched border, so I used “understated threads” in that zone.  The ruler work channels were made in a solid polyester that was fairly close in color to the background fabric (just a tad bit different so it would be noticed), and then the featherettes are in a purple polyester thread.  All threads used in machine quilting here are solids and either polyesters or rayons.
 
A couple more pics:
 
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Sometimes machine quilting can be so very satisfying…

2 Comments

  1. Nancy Sumner Says:

    I love how you combine the ruler work with fmq. Your quilt benefits from both and you have married the two techniques very nicely on your piece. Thanks for sharing!!

  2. Julie Hertel Says:

    Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing the steps and thought process.