Machine Quilting with Cutout Rulers: The Free-Motion Challenge Quilting Along with Angela Walters

hello and welcome to the free motion challenge quilting along machine quilting with rulers in this week's tutorial i'm going to show you how to machine quilt with cutout rulers one of my favorites because you can create so many designs and effects simply with one shape you might find these types of rulers a little easier since there's more room to hold onto it look for a ruler that has a shape or shapes that you want to quilt it's as simple as that in today's tutorial i'm going to be using taj and sid two of my cutout rulers but just remember any of the designs i'm showing you can be done with any kind of cutout i'm going to show you how to go in all different directions for a meander we'll learn how to line them up for a border design and go all the way around to create some motifs i'm going to show you how to do it on a sewing machine and a long arm let's get to it first ruler i'll be working with is taj and we're going to be using it to go in all different directions to create a meander i'm going to hold it down with both of my hands and quilt along the inside of that ruler returning to my starting point well i have my first shape and i need to quilt another one but if i rotate it from here i'm going to start spinning in a circle which is what we want when we're quilting motifs but we're not there yet so what i'm going to do is leave the ruler in position and backtrack along my previously quilted line for about a half inch or so i'm going to reposition my ruler and see which direction i want to head so maybe i'm going to go this way once i decide it's perfect i'm going to press down the ruler and sew along the inside leaving the ruler in place backing up a little bit and then repositioning the ruler again now since i'm quilting a meander i want them to go in all different directions just like i would any other meanderide quilt so i'm going to be really intentional about varying the directions i'm heading don't let the traveling trip you up if you leave the ruler in place it'll be no sweat and i'm trying to fill in that area as completely as possible i want to make sure that there's no big gaps left behind so i'm quilting all those shapes so that they're nice and close to each other but sometimes it's not going to quite work out like that you might not have enough room for the shape or maybe you need to turn direction really fast so let me show you how to work through that let's pretend i want to film this area right here i can tell it's going to overlap my seam i want it to stay nice and in that block i can reposition keeping it all within the space i want to quilt or i could just quilt the portion that fits inside the area so pretending i want to go this way i can simply quilt until i hit the seam and then back right up i also have to remember that there's about a quarter of an inch in between the needle and the edge of my foot so if my ruler does overlap the area by less than a quarter of an inch it's going to be fine because it will still fall within that space so in this particular example i'm running into two different sides this one looks close but it's going to be fine because it's within a quarter inch when i hit this one instead of backing up i'm going to travel along it and then continue up the other side of the ruler so now i've hit that edge i'm just going to take a few stitches over and then continue along the other side back up and then reposition i definitely want to make sure that i have good control this ruler so at any point i can stop and reposition my hands now here's my rule of thumb when it comes to leaving gaps in the quilting if i have a gap that's smaller than the design itself i think it's fine if that drives you crazy you can actually use free motion quilting to go fill it in now sometimes you'll run into the edge of the area sometimes you'll run into another design i'm going to handle them the exact same way i would the edge of the area i'm going to quilt until i run into it back up and move along now that we've seen how to go in all different directions let's create a border design and it just so happens it perfectly fits the panel i designed for this challenge now i can use the reference lines to make sure that's aiming down the center and then i'm going to quilt along the inside returning to my starting point now i'm going to travel along the line just like i did with the meander except this time i'm going to travel a little bit further all the way up to the third reference line i'm going to slide the ruler directly in the direction i'm heading that means i'm not going to start back at my starting point again i'm going to start just a little offset this is important because this is going to make the leaves look like they're laying on top of each other i'm going to quilt along the ruler but i'm going to stop when i hit that previously quilted line i'm going to back up to that same reference point just on the other side once that's done i'm going to slide it in the direction i'm heading and then continue along now there's a lot of different variations you can do with this design so right now i'm quilting them so that they don't overlap i'm stopping at that previously quilted line but if i wanted a little bit more texture to the design i could keep on going so that they overlap i'm gonna quilt along inside the ruler returning to my starting point [Music] i'm still gonna travel to that same reference line and continue on this would work really well with a circle cut out ruler or if you're wanting to add a little bit more density with your quilting now we know when quilting borders it's all fun and games until it's time to turn the corner so let's talk through that the trick to remember is i'm not even going to consider the next direction until i've crossed over into the corner starting too soon we'll leave you a big unquilted area in that outer corner and we don't really want that but now that my leaf shape has crossed into that corner it's time to change direction i'm going to travel along and get pretty far along my shape reposition the ruler and turn that direction the most important thing here is that i want to fill in as much area as possible and then turn that corner slide the ruler in the direction i'm heading and continue on and you're going to keep going until that whole area is filled in and like it always happen i have just about an inch left but we know how to handle that right i'm going to position the ruler quilt along it travel along the edge and then get back so whether you quilt your shapes so that they overlap that they're spaced out or close together using cutout rulers to quilt your borders is going to be a fun way to play with the arrangement now here we're being intentional about the placement being very rigid but we could be a little bit more free-flowing a little bit more organic and i'll do this one on the long arm i want to quilt my shapes in this area so that it kind of wraps around like this then i'm going to quilt my shapes so that they fall on that line the main difference is that i can only have one hand on the ruler so that means i'm really going to have to take my time and reposition my hand as needed and travel along the shape just enough so i can reposition and have my next one fall on that line it doesn't have to fall perfectly on the line i just want to follow that basic direction of course you don't have to mark out the line before starting you can just kind of follow whatever your own flow is being directional with the placement of those leaves will help it highlight different areas for instance if i wanted to wrap around a block to help highlight it or to move your eye to a different area of the quilt now once i have that main line quilted i can add some different filler around it or echo it to really show it off you don't have to use rulers over the whole quilt i love being able to switch in between rulers and free motion quilting to create different effects and just because i'm quilting teeny tiny pebbles doesn't mean that you have to do the same any filler would look great in this area or if you randomly want to throw in a petal here and there that would be fun too since i don't have to break thread in between the ruler and free motion quilting i can easily add those little petals in amongst other designs it's just a fun way to add a pop of texture to your quilts not all cutout rulers make the same shape over and over again sometimes you can reposition it to create different effects that's definitely the case with my sid ruler one way to use this cutout ruler is for stitching in the ditch place the foot inside the slot and i'm going to use the reference lines on the ruler to make sure it stays nice and straight now one thing that has been a little confusing for some quilters is the fact that there's wiggle room it's not a perfect fit well that's because if it was a perfect fit you wouldn't be able to move along the ruler so when i'm quilting along it the first thing i'm going to decide is what side of the ruler i want to hug along so here i want to hug the left side knowing that if i tend to veer off the other way i'll have that other guideline to keep me on track repositioning often seams aren't always perfectly straight especially if i have pieced them so repositioning and making sure the line sticks to the seam will have a much better effect since it's a cutout i can hold it on both sides and that's going to give me more control this may be especially helpful for newer quilters or if you're a little timid about stitching in the ditch i designed this other portion to create a starburst it's really fun let me show you how to do it so once i've positioned it exactly where i want to go i'm going to quilt along that center except this time i'm going to go all the way to the end now once i hit the edge it's time to make that little starburst so keeping it in place i'm going to quilt to the left back track and pull to the right back track keeping the ruler in place we'll make sure those lines stay right on top of each other now i'm gonna rotate it 45 degrees and line up those reference lines with the previously quilted lines that's going to give me my first part of my x i'm going to hug along the edge right here and do the same thing pull it along it and back i'm going to do the other side of my x right so now i'm going to turn it the other way 45 degrees line up those reference lines on the previous quilting and do the same thing so basically i've quilted a horizontal line and an x now i can go on to my next one i'm going to reposition my ruler go all the way back to the starting point and repeat that this will help me give the starburst consistent spacing without having to measure it makes things so much easier but now we're getting to the corner i'm going to turn this corner a little bit differently i'm going to imagine that i have a diagonal line that goes from the inner corner to the outer corner once my quilting hits that imaginary line i'm going to stop and change direction i'm not even worrying about it until i get there and i'm just going to turn my ruler these reference lines will help make sure it stays even to the quilt and then i can continue on again remembering i'm hugging one side of the ruler and trusting that the other side will be there should i need it quilting starburst is something that you don't have to have a ruler for if you feel comfortable you can just freehand those lines however if you want them to be consistently spaced and all the same size the ruler will definitely help you do that if you want to do this as an all-over or maybe fill in a border that's a little bit bigger quilting multiple rows is really easy the only thing i'm going to do is space out my starburst so that they're offset a little bit so i'm going to quilt a little bit now i can kind of reposition the ruler and make sure that it's kind of falling in between the previously quilted ones again don't worry too much about this it doesn't have to be perfect offsetting them just allows me to get the lines a little bit closer to each other here's the good news if this seems like a lot to remember don't worry i put together some downloadable quilting diagrams that will show you exactly how to do this design all you have to do to get them is to like the video okay actually you don't have to like the video but i would like if you liked it to find the actual diagrams just check out the description box below and even if the starbursts aren't perfectly placed or not perfectly quilted it's still going to be a gorgeous design that will give your quilt a geometric look quickly and easily now let's talk about using cutouts to make motifs i'm going to go big and put my motif in the very center of my quilt but since i'm working with the taj ruler which is just a little smaller it's not going to quite fit this whole area so i'm going to use a straight edge ruler to shrink the area down just a bit and then put my motif in there it's as simple as connecting the dots on the quilt basically i'm just using the quilting to make a smaller square inside the bigger square and since i know i really want to show off this motif i'm going to add another line of echoing and then get to the motif a motif is just taking a shape and rotating it around a center point so using the reference line to make sure that it's pointing straight up i'm going to quilt along the ruler until i get back to the starting point now once i get to that point i'm going to turn my ruler completely around 180 degrees and quit the next one facing away from it now i'll quilt them horizontally now depending on the shape of the ruler that you're using your lines might overlap or they might not whether it does or it doesn't it's totally fine [Music] and i have my first four pretty petals and i could stop here but i think what i'm going to do is quilt some that go in between them the reason i didn't start at the top and work my way all the way around is i want to use those first lines kind of as my guideline if my horizontal and vertical lines are off just a bit i can smooth it out by splitting the difference with the next row so this time i'm going to aim that line so it's coming directly between these two petals even if it's not the perfect 45 degree angle again auditioning making sure that's coming directly out from between those two and quilting along now this is going to have a lot of thread build up in the center so using a thread color that blends in will be very helpful i'm using this beautiful peppermint colored thread so you can really see what i'm doing but if you bought the coordinating thread collection i would use the light gray aluminum color thread in this area and there we have our pretty motif now this is not the last time we're going to see these we'll actually see them next week when we talk about points but for now let's take this to the long arm and i'm going to show you how you can do a partial motif in the corners i'm going to quit my motif so that all the lines come back to this corner i'm going to use traveling to get from one to the other and i'm going to slide in my ruler i'm going to put half of the shape to get to that corner and then one that goes out at an angle again this is where those reference lines are going to come in really handy it's going to help me make sure that's going the direction i want it to go and then the next one going on this direction once i have my cute mini motif i can travel on to the next corner and do the same and i can repeat working my way around all four corners it's a fun way to break up the shape and use it in some different ways we sure have covered a lot now it's your turn if you're quilting along with me on the custom panel designed for this challenge fill in the areas highlighted in red with the designs of your choice be sure to let me know if you have any questions by leaving them in the comments i try to check back in every once in a while see how you all are doing and i'll be back next week when we talk about quilting beautiful points with pointy rulers until then happy quilting

Channel: Angela Walters

Views: 64,101

Rating: 4.9704108 out of 5

Keywords: angela walters quilting, angela walters quilting videos, angela walters quilting with rulers, angela walters rulers, angela walters tutorials, creative grids machine quilting rulers, daytime quilt show, free-motion machine quilting with rulers, machine quilting on home machine, machine quilting rulers, machine quilting rulers and templates, machine quilting with rulers, machine quilting with templates, quilting rulers for machine quilting, quilting with rulers on sewing machine

Id: i4io5N7XXzQ

Length: 14min 43sec (883 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2020