Easier FMQ with a Ruler Foot and Rulers!

I finally finished my Spinning Spools quilt… and quilted it with designs that I never imagined I’d ever be able to do. Check this out:

Have you ever tried to free motion quilt beautiful flowers, circles, and stars on your quilts, but then been disappointed when you couldn’t get it right? That’s totally me. It’s happened so many times that I now have a stack of quilt tops ready to be made into quilts, I’m just afraid that I’l ruin them if I try. Well, Sew Steady gifted me a ruler foot and some rulers, and I think my pile O’ tops might just see the batting.

Look at this beautiful flower I quilted! Yes, me, a not-expert free motion quilter on my Juki TL-2010Q (I’m showing you the back of the quilt because it’s easier to see the design). This design was made with the ‘Spinning Wheels 36’ ruler that comes in Westalee Template Set #1 (a great starter set).

In between the larger star designs I added sweet smaller flowers with the ‘Spin-E-Fex No. 4’ ruler (also in the starter set..

Here’s the front of my finished quilt, you’ll recognize it from my Classic Spool Block tutorial. The fabrics are Modern Lace from Blend.

This is the special ruler foot and the first ruler that I used. The ruler attached to my quilt with that ‘pin’ (I call it a thumbtack) which made quilting those fancy stars so easy! Leonie of Westalee designs even has a video tutorial for it. They make special feet to fit almost any sewing machine, plus a generous selection of rulers.

It was really amazing for me to be able to quilt this way, sitting at my sewing machine.

This is the second ruler that I used to add the 4 petal flowers. I stopped at 4 petals, but you don’t have to. In her video, Leonie quilts 8 petals on each flower.

There was a learning curve, of course. See my practice ‘quilt sandwich’ above?  I had to get used to moving the ruler and quilt as one under the free motion quilting foot. I spray basted my quilt with SpraynBond (from Thermoweb) instead of using pins because I thought they might get in the way. I also followed my other usual free motion quilting practices, like using quilting gloves and a Supreme Slider.  I’m also using my Wish Table from Sew Steady. If you are new to free motion quilting, then I suggest you get comfortable with the basic feel of it first, then using the rulers will be easy. 

{And FYI, Sew Steady often has product giveaways on their Sew Steady Facebook page!}