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Monday, April 20, 2015

Ruler Work

Back here I posted about using the Westalee foot and rulers for freemotion quilting on a domestic sewing machine.  

I've been trying the Westalee 'Circles on quilts - wreath 16' ruler.  At the narrow end of the ruler there is a pin hole, a drawing pin is inserted from the back of the quilt and the ruler is placed on the pin.  One segment/shape is stitched then the ruler pivoted so the next segment can be sewn.  Finally joining up in a wreath shape.


ruler, centre pin
stitching


 









What I learnt:
* stabilise the area to be quilted first by stitching in the ditch.  Basting with safety pins isn't a good idea as the pins get in the way and the ruler doesn't cope with them nearby or underneath. 

stabilising in the ditch


 












* extra flat space is required so either use the sewing machine in a table such as a Sewezi or an extension table for the machine.  Having a reasonable amount of flat space is needed.  

* use the Supreme Freemotion slider as the under side of the drawing pin will get caught between the machine and the insert thingy.
slider on my sew ezi table

 











* the screw on the foot does need to be tight - interesting things happen if it comes undone.

* if there are any whoopsies stop and unpick.  If you keep going it probably won't meet up at the end leaving the wrong sized space for the final segment. 

* check that there is enough space on the quilt for the completed pattern before starting to stitch.   I didn't do this and was stitching across the batting. 


oops












This did have a happy ending as I realised that the pattern was quite interesting so stitched over the unpicked shapes but within the star.
partial stitching
 

I then needed to repeat this on the other star and realised that I could stitch until I reached the outline stitching of the star, backtrack, turn the ruler stitch the next segment.









Now to fill in the rest of the space and work on getting the stitch length even ... 




See here for Westalee's video for using this foot.  


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