Quilting with a Ruler Foot

I've been having so much fun checking out the entries for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, I can't resist adding another one! I love making all kinds of quilts, but baby quilts are my favorite to create and gift. They are the perfect size to make (big enough to be a satisfying project, yet small enough that they actually get finished!) and it is just plain fun to make something for a new little person.

This one is on its way to the new little girl of a wonderful friend from college. It's constructed entirely from half square triangles (I have a bit of a thing for HSTs...) in a herringbone pattern and made in Gooseberry fabric by Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique.

This is the first time I quilted a quilt using my ruler foot. There is a learning curve on this technique, to be sure. I'm still learning to love it, but I think we'll be friends with time. I like the design possibilities that it opens up, as I am not one of those people who can free motion beautiful designs. For this design, I used the large curve on Piece 'N Quilt's 4-N-1 Machine Quilting Ruler. I'm still trying out different rulers and seeing what I like best, but I certainly like the flexibility of this one!

Some tips for ruler work:

Practice! Spend some time playing around with samples and getting a feel for the technique.

Though it never seems to make a difference for me with free motion quilting, dropping the feed dogs on my machine helped a lot with ruler work.

I needed to put more pressure on the ruler than I initially thought. Simply resting one hand on the ruler resulted in a lot of slippage. Really get a good grip on that ruler!

Happy sewing, everyone!

Improv Quilting and the Blogger's Quilt Festival

I recently took a class in improv quilting and, boy, did it get the creative juices flowing! I loved the thrill of trying something new, I loved the freedom the technique allowed, and I loved creating something with such modern flair. I lucked out in that I had an excellent teacher, the talented Mary Menzer, who has created some amazing modern quilts using this technique. She patiently shared her knowledge with the class and helped us to create our own improv pieces.

I was quite pleased with my class sample and quickly began another wall hanging. I stepped away from my usual palette of blues and greens and used bright warm tones for my second improv piece.  I call this one Sherbert. It's a small wall hanging, measuring at 15" by 14 1/2". I used mostly Kona solids, along with a couple low volume prints and one linen-like solid. It's quilted using matchstick quilting in a variegated Aurifil thread.

The Blogger's Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy Gibson of Amy's Creative Side, was the perfect opportunity to share this little project. Amy does so much to make the online quilting community the dynamic group that it is, and the Blogger's Quilt Festival is just one part of that. Enjoy all the amazing eye candy shared in the festival by clicking through the links. Thank you to Amy for all your work organizing this event and to the sponsors who make it extra fun!