A Favorite Tool and Some Student Work
I am not a huge user of ruler work on my domestic machine, but occasionally my quilt will call out for it. Let me be clear, I am not calling myself an expert on ruler work. And I actually like the look of an imperfect line. But I’m working on a project that does “need” ruler work and I’ve discovered a fabulous ruler for straight line work:
I love this Four Paws Quilting ruler! I haven’t found another like it-it has a 1/2″ slot in the middle so you can’t mess up your line! There are rulers with various types of grippy thingys and such, but without that foolproof channel, it is likely that at some point you will do this-
because you didn’t snug your ruler foot right up to the ruler. There are also other rulers that have the groove, but it’s wider than 1/2″, so you can still end up swinging out like this example.
If you’re new to “ruler work”, let’s back up. Why rulers? Why not walking foot? If I use a ruler, I can free motion quilt my lines and not have to flip my quilt every time I want to move a different direction.
Ruler work requires two things: ruler work rulers, which are thicker than our cutting rulers. You need that extra height on the ruler to keep your presser foot from hopping over the ruler. You don’t want to end up hitting the ruler with the needle-ack! And you also need a ruler foot, designed to snug up to the ruler. Most ruler feet are a convenient 1/2″ wide, putting the needle at the 1/4″ center. There are a variety of rulers available for domestic machine quilters. That 1/2″ foot snugs perfectly into the middle of the groove on the Four Paws ruler.
The following is not really a tutorial, but more of an overview of using this ruler for parallel straight lines:
In my example, I started at the top of the piece and I’m quilting down towards me. You can see how the foot snugs in the groove perfectly, making for a foolproof straight line. I took the photo from the side so that you can see I placed the edge of the ruler right on the previous line. This will give me a straight line 1/4″ away. I was in a hurry so I grabbed a practice piece from my bin. The “straight line” to your left that I snugged my ruler up to, was free hand quilted without a ruler. Can you tell-see the little wobblies? I think that is fine for some pieces. For the piece I’m currently working on I wanted dead-on straight lines, hence the ruler work.
When I get to the end of my box, I want to pivot at 90 degrees, follow the previous line and pivot again (in the shape of a squared off “u”) to create my next line. I lined up the marking in the center of the groove with the previously stitched line, trying to hit it exactly, and quilted 1/4″.
Ah, but when I try to line up that ruler as I’m quilting back to the top, I can’t see through my machine to line up the ruler correctly back there. I devised this method of “seeing” through my machine. The mirror tells me what is going on back there.
I grab the mirror and confirm that I am lined up with the previous line-perfect!
One of the hardest parts of this process is not the straight lines, it’s hitting the previous line when you make the pivot. Here I was successful.
And here I was (deliberately) not. And this is why you care about hitting that line-this is NOT a good thing! So you have to take a lot of care to hit that line. The ruler helps this process enormously.
I used this ruler to help me achieve this border on my “Feathers Four Ways” class sample. I first saw this on a Margo Clabo quilt and I just had to do it on one of my quilts!
Love it!
And now, a quick brag on my students. These are first time efforts:
First time stipple!
First time Headbands!
First time feathers!
When I see a student “get the path” in class I am delighted! I do not expect the actual path to be perfect stitched and finessed. I love these samples-it’s so fun when students get all fired up. Oh how I love to teach!
I’m headed down to Carson, California for the Southern California Council of Quilt Guilds for their annual Meet the Teachers. I am in the very last group of the day so I hope there is someone there to even see me! I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday for all the good links!
Hi Jenny – As always, I love your posts. Being retired, I don’t always keep up with what day of the week it is…but when I get your weekly post in my mailbox, I know it is Thursday.
Today’s post was so timely for me. I’ve been experimenting with a new technique that requires some straight-line threadwork. I usually don’t mind the “wobble” because I like the “organic” look in my work. This time, because I was laying down a lot of linear thread – I wanted to make sure that my lines were all parallel – and perpendicular to the edge. In this case, a ruler would help me set nice parallel lines every few inches to use as guidelines. I pulled out one of my cutting rulers, that already has slip pads (or whatever they are called) on it, and was able to keep my FM foot down low enough to not jump the ruler – BUT – I was having a dickens of a time moving the work and ruler together and keeping the ruler from slipping. I imagine the slot would help, but how do you keep your ruler from slipping?
Thank you Schatzi! I think a ruler work ruler will hold better because it’s heavier, but not sure on that. I have some pads on the back of mine that are like snips of shelf liner. Another issue may be the length of the ruler-longer is not better for us domestic sit down quilters. The Line Tamer is 10 1/2″ long and I occasionally use another ruler that is 8″ long. Too long and they are burdensome and will wobble and move and get in the way. Hope that helps. Write me if you have problems.
Thank you for all of the great information. I have not tried using rulers yet but have bought a couple to try. I haven’t seen this particular ruler before. Good luck in So. Cal., Jenny
You’re welcome Leslie-I hope to pick up some gigs in SoCal. You should try out those rulers-see if you like them or not. Even for me, not a passionate ruler work person, they occasionally come in quite handy. They work well for stitch in the ditch and in my opinion, I much prefer to fmq that than to walk it. Let me know what you think!
Thank you for this perfectly timed post. My ruler foot just came in after being backed ordered. (3 month wait). I am just beginning to hunt for rulers. Thank you! Great post!
Kay you will have fun with them! I have a collection including cross hatching rulers, etc, but my fav is definitely the Line Tamer because it makes it foolproof!
Oh, my, your Feathers Four Ways is awesome! I love free-motion quilting and can see the help that the rulers could offer but have not tried them. Great post.
Thank you Martha! If I need a lot of straight lines I think it’s easier to fmq them than walk them. See Barbara Black’s comment above for stitch in the ditch!
I LOVE the Line Tamer! Just ditch quilted my OH Stars quilt in one easy day, it was so fast and accurate most of the time. Margo is such a sweetheart, glad you love her style.
I don’t have the privilege of knowing Margo but the first time I saw that border I knew I wanted to try it myself-brilliant design! So I have not SID with the LIne Tamer yet but it’s good to know it works well for that. I don’t care to SID but sometimes you need it for the quilt. Enjoy Chicago!
Your mirror solution is genius! I love the borders on that feather piece, and congratulations to your newbie FMQ students!
Thank you Rebecca-glad you enjoyed the post. If you do any ruler work you will use the mirror too!
Jenny, thank you for sharing info about your experience working with a ruler foot. I have been drooling over ruler and long to give it a try. Unfortunately neither my Bernina 1260 or older model APQS George can be adapted to accommodate a ruler foot. Looks like I will have to continue to droll over your work and be satisfied with FMQ for now.
I didn’t realize that the older BERNINA’S couldn’t accommodate that ruler foot. I looked it up even. Too bad! Any thought about upgrading? I know I dearly love my older BERNINA’S, but I do appreciate the features on the new ones.
Just ordered the Line Tamer, can’t wait to try it out. My Black and White quilt top is screaming for some straight-line ruler work to go with the feathers I’m planning. Enjoyed your Feathers Four Ways class, looking forward to the next one!
Oh Barney-please send a photo of it when you’re done! Can’t wait to see what you do with ruler work.
I’m not much on ruler work–haha, I’ve NEVER used a ruler. But seeing how that one works with the cut out for the foot intrigues me. I will keep it in mind should the need for a straight line ever strike!
I am reluctantly being sucked into the ruler thing. I do see a need for it at times. I’ll bet you’re going to end up using them at some point Debby!
Thank you so much for the tool recomendation!!! I ordered it almost immediatley, after I figured out what size I needed. I have just been playing with it and I am so pleased. I wish you’d reviewed it sooner as I have been having troubles with the quilt I just finished. ;-D
I am jealous about the quilt shop you just wrote about. It sounds amazing and there are no amazing quilt stores around here.
I’m glad the Line Tamer works for you Debbie-I love it and wonder why I would ever do a straight line with anything else! So sorry that you don’t have cool quilt shops in your area-that must be hard!!