Using up What’s at Hand and 2 New Rulers in the Store

March 26th, 2015

mess-of-bird-blocks

One thing that happens when you are developing new machine embroidery applique designs is that you end up with tons of quilt blocks, and I mean TONS!  That shot above was from about 2 1/2 years ago when I was creating the blocks for the Harmonic Song Birds Quilt, and I would guess that I now have about 6-7 times this amount of blocks and borders.  This happens because you end up testing the embroidery file and often times end up making small adjustments to them and you have to stitch out a new block each time you make a change.  When I do this, sometimes I have a specific use for the block and make it in fabrics/colors that will coordinate for a specific project.  Other times, I have no idea what I’ll use it for in the short term and end up with lots of blocks that will be used for something down the road.  In the last 6 weeks, I’ve been working on some quilts that use up some of my “test blocks.”  I’m quilting a small wall hanging now that began with this old MEA block in the center and then I threw some setting triangles around it:

 

mu0_5

I recently tested out a series of files using the Appli-K-Kutz Large Feather die for a border design so I have lots of these feather borders lying around as well:

 

lge-feather-border-whole-rev

(Those cross-hairs in the center come out before the block gets used; they are how I align the block on the stabilizer.)  I added these borders and some cornerstone blocks and pieced this wall hanging:

 

MU1

I started out by outlining all the applique shapes with invisible thread:

 

MU4

And then moved on to some ruler work.  I’m still quilting this, but I’ve really had fun playing with the Line Tamer Ruler on this quilt.  This is a variation of the straight edge long arm ruler in that it has a channel routed out through the center of the ruler:

 

LTA

By placing your ruler foot inside the channel, you have tremendous control over your lines.  Here’s a shot of what I’m trying to describe:

 

LTB

Can you see the fine white lines on the blue/green fabric?  All I had to do was place the Line Tamer so the white line ran down the center of that channel, and I had beautiful lines that created a quilting design that ran across the center block and into the setting triangles.  I also used the Line Tamer when I was creating the framing design around this star:

 

LTC

I know it doesn’t look like much in this early photo, but once I finished all the framework and then added some “filler” designs inside some of the channels, the quilting around the center star came out looking really neat:

 

LToff

 

You can also use the Line Tamer just like you would a “regular” straight line ruler by holding the edge up against your ruler foot (notice that this ruler has etched lines both near the channel as well as on both sides of the ruler).  All I can say is that I LOVE MY LINE TAMER!!  I love it so much that we just picked it up in our online store and you can find it by clicking here.  I am also smitten by another ruler called the 4 Way Radical Ruler by Dusty Farrell.  Here’s what it looks like:

 

4-Way-Radical-ruler

It has 4 different circular arcs and 1 double arc.  It’s very easy to hold this ruler and it’s very hard to hold small circles in place as you quilt around them, so this is a big plus!  I have just barely started uncovering all that one can do with this ruler, but I’ve made some really pretty border designs with it.  Here are just a few.  The “plain” mini swag:

 

4W1

…and this is after I went back in and added filler inside those miniswags:

 

4W2

Those colors don’t photograph very well, so here’s a clearer shot from my scrap piece when I was making up this design:

4w3

I have 2 more variations of this one border and I haven’t even sat down and really “tried” to come up with ideas yet!  Here’s one more example from this ruler…I made this one by combining 2 of the circle sizes and then going in to add filler once the baseline 2-tiered swag border had been stitched.  This border is much deeper than the earlier ones:

 

4w4

Ooh-la-la!  I could play with these rulers all day!  You can find the 4-Way radical ruler in our online store by clicking here.  And one more thing…if you’re anywhere near the Philadelphia area Fri and Sat of this week, I’m teaching at Steve’s Sew and vac in King of Prussia, PA, so give them a call!  You can find their site by clicking here.

 

 

 

 

 

Can’t. Stop. Playing With rulers

March 12th, 2015
LT4
The color is way off on these next 2 photos, but I love the texture they show:
 
LToff
 
LToff2
 
LT1
 
LT2
 
LT3
I have all kinds of work that I really need to be doing but all I want to do is mess around with rulers and templates.  Sigh…

The March 2015 Free Motion Quilting Challenge!

March 1st, 2015

maroon-block

If you haven’t been following it already, Darlene of Quiltshopgal blog has a new free motion quilting challenge going this year.  She hosted an incredible free motion quilting challenge a few years ago and thousands of quilters really honed their FMQ skills by participating.  This year, she is a hosting a new monthly FMQ challenge where participants make a pillow that showcases various FMQ skills/techniques.  For the month of March, the challenge relates to some of my favorite techniques and you can read all the details on her blog by clicking right here.  I’m going to hopefully inspire you with a couple of ideas in my blog post today.

demo-6-wreath-fully-quilted

Darlene has 3 different options for quilters to explore in the March FMQ challenge.  I have a quick class where we learn the basics of trapunto and it’s a popular class so I’ve needed to make many, many samples for it over the last several months.  I’m going to post how I recently made 2 different pillow samples and each of these will incorporate all of the options included in Darlene’s challenge.  We’re going to use:

 

1.  Cool border design work using principles from my 2012 FMQ Challenge.  (Click here to go to that original posting.)

2.  Trapunto and hyperquilting from my Craftsy class.  ( Click here for a link for $25 off of my Craftsy class…that’s MORE than 50% off!)

3.  Cool background free motion quilting from my instructional DVDs on free motion quilting.  (Click here to see our instructional DVDs.)

 

For my pillows, I started with an 18 inch square fabric block.  The fabric was deliberately solid so that the stitching would be obvious.  (A gently mottled fabric would also work great for this.)  For this trapunto class, we begin with an elaborate feathered wreath that has already been stitched in the center of the block (I provide this wreath block to the students and I make these quickly on my embroidery machine using one of our Majestic Feathered Wreath Designs.)  If you do this on an embroidery machine, you can either throw a piece of scrap batting underneath the fabric block or pin it underneath the hooped stabilizer.  If you are stitching the wreath yourself, just pin a piece of batting underneath the block before you begin stitching.  (I’ve posted about how to do this a million times in my blog, so surf through the posts under “trapunto” if this part seems foreign to you.)  Once the wreath has been stitched, you will cut away all the excess batting/stabilizer that falls outside the wreath.  Take care to avoid accidentally cutting into that top fabric! The backside of your block will look something like this when you’re done:

trap-wreath-backside

Once done, place that square into a quilt sandwich with batting and backing fabric.  I spray baste, but you can baste however you’d like.  The first thing you’ll do is to outline the various “zones” of the wreath w/invisible thread. For the wreath I’m using on pillow 1, this means outlining the inside and outside of the wide spine zone and then outlining each plume.  You do not want to outline any of the detail stitching inside the spine or inside the plumes because that will kind of flatten the trapunto.  At this stage, you will begin to see your trapuntoed feathered wreath protruding out somewhat. To make my wreath really pop, I then echo outline the perimeter of the entire wreath with a highly contrasting color of thread.  This will add a halo of color around the wreath and will also make the trapunto more prominent.   Once you’re done w/the outlining, switch to whatever thread you are going to use for your quilting.  I chose a green that was just a tad darker than the background fabric and created a series of empty borders that lie on the diagonal from each corner of the square block:

FMQC1

You can do this with your walking foot or you can do this as ruler work.  If you look at the bottom right corner, you’ll see that I messed up on the width of a border, but I just kept going!  In this tangential shot, you can get a better sense of the trapuntoed wreath protruding out a bit:

 

FMQC2

(Can you see all the shiney invisible thread across the plumes?  Those are my “jump stitches” from when I was outlining and they will all be trimmed away before the pillow is finished.)  I then began filling in some of my empty channels.  I stitched small feathers inside the corner triangles and a row of pearls inside a narrow channel:

FMQC3

(If you look at the corner, you’ll see a faint soap line at 1/2 inch from the edge.  I don’t stitch anything in there as it will ultimately be a seam.)  In this larger view, you can see the borders are beginning to take shape as a formal frame around the wreath:

FMQC4

Next up, I added the ribbon candy design inside another border zone:

FMQC6

In this wider shot, you can see how having different textures inside border zones really adds an element of intricacy.

FMQC7

Notice also that every other border is an empty channel.  This really creates texture and interest, so never underestimate the importance of “empty space” when you’re doing work like this.  The last part of quilting this pillow front is adding some background quilting.  For this pillow, I stitched the rudimentary version of the “Plumify It” design:

FMQC8

NOW we’ve got some real texture going!  And here is the final pillow using straight borders to frame the trapuntoed feathered wreath:

FMQC10

For my next sample, I again utilized the series of borders on a diagonal concept, except this time, I made my border zones curved instead of straight.  Here’s a shot of the pillow top after I’d stitched my initial curved border zones.  I used my Quilters Groove Pro Echo 5 and 8 inch rulers for the borders on this quilt:

FMQCa

…and then I stitched my cornermost circle lines:

FMQCb

And then I began filling in zones.  First up were pearls:

FMQCc

And then I used the inchworm filler which is always a great one if you’re filling  a space whose dimensions are changing:

FMQC-inchworm

And then I added a small feather design at the base:

FMQCfeath

I liked it and figured more border zones would look better so I just kept adding them.  Here’s a completed corner section:

FMQC-corner-done

I filled in the remaining “empty space” with the irregular swirl design and here’s a shot of the final pillow from the bottom:

FMQC-pillow-bottom

…and here’s a more “upright version” of that same pillow:

FMQC-pillow-upright

I think I like the curved borders better than the straight ones but they were both fun to make!  To celebrate Shopcalgal’s March FMQ Challenge, all retail sales of free motion quilting instructional  DVDs by PTD are 30% off from 3/1/15 through 3/31/15.  To get the discount, just write FMQChall30 in the discount code box during checkout.

And one more thing!  If you’re in the King of Prussia, PA area and want to learn how to do trapunto like this or you’re interested in learning how to free motion quilt, please join me at Steve’s Sew and Vac on 3/27 and 3/28!   You can read about it by clicking here and I promise it will be FUN!!