Domestic (Home) Machine Quilters

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Comment by Janet/MO on March 28, 2019 at 3:49pm

It can be frustrating when you finally want to quilt & your machine doesn't cooperate!  

I know I would get better at free motion if I would just do it more often.  I can stipple with the best of them, but anything else just looks like a little kid scribbled on my quilt.  That is one of the reasons why I'm happy I can do quite a bit with my embroidery machine.  

I did manage to get quite a bit of quilting done this morning, but it has been storming all afternoon so I closed everything up.  We live on a bluff above the MO River.  Fortunately here in Boonville we haven't had any flooding, but areas right across the river sure have.  Now that it is supposed to rain for the next couple of days, I wonder what will happen to those areas!  The farmers have been really hurt this year.  First by the tariffs, then the extremely cold & long winter & now this excessive flooding.  Makes me cringe when I think how the cost of food is going to be impacted.

Comment by Janis B / OH on March 28, 2019 at 8:38am

I actually did a little sewing on my machine after almost 3 years. I'm working on the Drunkard's Path blocks for the quilt I'm working on. I also thought I'd experiment with my rulers but I couldn't get the feed dog switch to move to drop the feed dogs. I may have to take it in and have it checked because my ruler foot only fits this machine. It won't fit my smaller machine. Always something to figure out.

Comment by Ali Stanley on March 27, 2019 at 8:33pm

I agree with you on the geometric look with straight line quilting, Sherri. I had gotten pretty good at free motion quilting, but I find myself using the rulers more and more since I got them. Janet makes a good point about having the right foot, too. I have a Janome 8200QC machine, and Janome makes a special foot for free motion quilting and ruler quilting...one just has to switch out the "toe" of the foot, and the ankle stays attached to the machine. I hope that makes sense. I have read some online blogs that say the foot will also fit other brand machines. My memory fails me here on which brands. There's also a ruler foot available that looks like it has excellent visibility over some of the others because it's made from a clear acrylic. The brand name also escapes my memory. 

Comment by Janis B / OH on March 26, 2019 at 8:54am

Janet, I've always stayed away from free motion but I thought I'd give the rulers a try. Might even tackle that this afternoon. If I'm brave I might try free motion at some time.

Comment by Janet/MO on March 26, 2019 at 8:31am

I too just have the Westalee starter ruler.  For anyone who is thinking of using these, make sure you have the right ruler foot.  For my Pfaff I had to get a medium shank whereas most machines are either low or high ones.  

I have also started doing more quilting using my embroidery machine.  It does not work for every situation, but does work for quite a bit.  It takes a bit of wrestling to get everything lined up, but it works great for those of us, like Sherri said, who are just not that good a free motion quilting.  

Comment by Sherri Eley on March 25, 2019 at 6:35pm

I have not looked into using rulers when free motion or straight line quilting.  I generally only do straight line with my walking foot.  I measure off the quilt and use painters tape to be my stitching guide. This works well for me, although on a large quilt  I use a lot of painters tape.  Can only tape off a few stitching lines at a time because the tape releases and falls off with all the maneuvering of the fabric.  But I am a geometric kind of gal.  I love the look of straight line quilting as well as the precision in standard quilt blocks like the 4 patch and 9 Patch,  with pinwheels and triangles thrown in.  I am not much on free motion... Although it looks beautiful when done well,  I just don't do it well. 

Comment by Janis B / OH on March 25, 2019 at 1:44pm

Thank you for the information ladies. I have the Westalee Starter package and their foot. I just finished 4 applique borders that I'll add to an applique center block. I think it will be about 60". I was thinking of quilting this once the applique borders are added and then quilting the final pieced borders and add to the center because I want the finished quilt to be a king size. Before I tackle this project I'm going to have to practice a lot.

Comment by Ali Stanley on March 24, 2019 at 10:58pm

Welcome to the group, Janis B. 

I have the starter set of Westalee rulers and have used them quite a bit. I find a few different ones are my favorites, especially the 12" arc. I've used it quite a bit on borders of a couple different quilts. Today I started quilting a six-sided table topper (a Connecting Threads pattern) and decided to try the one that makes curved lines that spin from the center of a 6" block...rather pretty and fun to use. I also bought the Handi multi ruler but haven't used it much. For ideas and tutorials, I have found YouTube to be very handy. Good luck and have fun with whatever rulers you get.

Comment by Cat Lady--MO on March 24, 2019 at 1:47pm

Welcome Janis. Thank you for the compliment on my table runner.

I have only used a few rulers while quilting on my Bernina 440QE.  I have a couple of the basic rulers from Bernina. I also have the starter set from Westalee. And I have some of the rulers that Angela Walters designed. I have dabbled using most of them, but am in no way proficient.

I know there are a lot of different rulers available out there, and many of them are identical-- just a different designer or company name. The most important thing is to make sure you use a ruler foot and the correct thickness of ruler to go with that foot.

Comment by Janis B / OH on March 22, 2019 at 9:05am

Thanks for the info Janet.

What brand rulers do you use? I've got Westalee but I think there are other brands also.

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