In this beginner's guide, we'll explore everything you need to know about using rulers for longarm quilting.

Here is our beginner guide to Free Motion Quilting with a Ruler (also called templates). Free Motion Quilting templates help you to create designs like Baptist Fans, Arcs, Clamshells, Waves and more. This getting started guide will help you install your ruler foot, setup your machine and get started!

Amy's Top Tips for Quilting with rulers on a stationary machine.

Tips for using Monofilament thread

Quilting with rulers on a domestic or home machine- Zentangle quilting paradox.

Natalia Bonner –– Take the straight-line challenge!  Are feathers and swirls your fallback? Learn how satisfying it is to quilt with only straight lines! Quilting expert Natalia Bonner shares sixty new straight-line motifs to fill in triangles, square blocks, and borders, plus allover designs. Teach your walking foot some new tricks or practice controlled free-motion quilting with rulers. Domestic or longarm machine… the choice is yours! Each pattern comes with step-by-step photos, so quilters of all levels can conquer their fears of straight-line quilting, and learn to rock it! • Natalia Bonner fans, unite! Learn forty-eight straight-line quilting ideas and thirteen fun variations • Find freedom in the constraints of straight-line quilting and shine a spotlight on every intriguing angle • Use a longarm or home sewing machine to create geometric perfection, step-by-step #11327 Stash Books 8" x 10" 128 pages ISBN: 978-1-61745-765-4 UPC: 734817-113270 (eISBN: 978-1-61745-766-1)   Related Blog Posts Introducing Visual Guide to Creative Straight Line Quilting  Quilting A Red & White Star Quilt New Releases For August The link will open in a new tab or window.

Custom Quilting is determined by how complex and dense the quilting is. I hope that these photos and descriptions can help you to determin...

Tips for free motion quilting on a sewing machine; including ruler work: using rulers to guide free motion quilting, doodle quilting, & quilt design.

High Shank Mini Quilt In A Bag Kit WT-QIABMKHS Westalee Design by Sew Steady Creative Quilting Inspiration Free Motion Quilting Class in a Bag Mini Quilt in a Bag Ruler Kit Details Sew deco, nouveau, and contemporary style designs with the Westalee Mini Quilt Ruler Kit. This set is full of fun rulers and design options. Each ruler is made of clear acrylic so you can see what you are sewing as you go. The Mini Quilt in a Bag Ruler Kit is a four-piece set that includes rulers, a spacing gauge, instruction booklet, CD, and more. Please note that the Mini Spin-E-Fex Template Rulers are specific to the type of shank your machine uses: high shank, Set Includes: Clear Bag Continuous Border Loop 1″ x 1″ Westalee Spin-e-fex 11 4.75″ London Collection Continuous Hearts-a-Plenty 4 1″x 2″ SashLee Quilt Template (Simple Ditch Ruler and Sashing) Spacing Gauge 6pt 8-1/2″ Crosshair Ruler Instruction Book and CD with all the lessons to complete a 43-1/2″ x 39″ Quilt

It's week 2 of our free motion link party featuring McTavishing for the month of March. I hope everybody got to learn more about this versatile free motion quilting design and did some practicing on paper and then stitching on their machines! See week one of the free motion quilt-along, McTavishing Monday. Here's Karen with her daughter. Aren't they beautiful? If I'm not mistaken, since this picture was taken, she's had a son. Well, I know she's had a son, just not sure when this picture was taken, it's an older one. Chalk up another reason to like this lady, that baby is now a boy about the age of my oldest. Maybe we should start a club for women who are considered young quilters, but older moms of little kids. Karen's namesake design of McTavishing works great around applique and is wonderful for traditional designs. And also for more modern quilts. I love how she's changed up her usual McTavishing so that the lines accentuate the contours of the woman below, And the design can be more edgy and wild as used below in the zombie girl quilt below. Here's my new McTavishing practice piece, below, in progress. I started with one very curvy line that went all the way across this circle. Here's the circle all done. And a close up. And a video: The spools of Glide thread arrived from FilTec for our give-away. Glide is a thread that many aren't familiar with unless you are a longarmer. Their website is at Bobbin Central, named for their prewound bobbins. I admit to a bit of selfishness in wanting to try the thread first as it is new to me and yet, I want to share all 5 1000M spools with some of my wonderful readers. So....I....am going to use a little bit of each one for my McTavishing sampler I am doing for this quilt-along. I used the color, Cool Grey 3 for this center bit of stitching and it ran smooth as butter! I had to increase my top tension slightly as I was using Isacord in the bobbin and it was winning the typical tension tug-of-war as the Glide is a bit smoother thread. Not that I'm saying anything against either thread. Love them. But when you have two different threads in your machine, you will usually need to adjust your tension unless you have an automatic tensioning machine. Above is a close up shot of 3 similar threads I had on hand for comparison. It's not perfectly focused, but it's a fair shot. In case you can't tell, I like a little shine to my threads. Isacord has just enough shine for me, and this Glide has just a bit more. The Floriani has even more shine, but I've decided it has too much shine for most of my projects. That's ok, as it is primarily a thread for machine embroidery. The Glide has a very smooth twist too! Very nice thread, you're gonna love it. Have I mentioned it is an affordable thread? Very. I hope you've had a chance to do some McTavishing this week and are ready to link up your post featuring your work on this great design. Feel free to post a drawing if you are new to this design: drawing the design really helps! Post a sample piece or even a finished work. Treat last week as a base line and see if you've improved! This linky is no longer valid. Don't forget to bookmark this blog, follow, or sign it up in your favorite feed reader. Like the facebook page (I do post some short things on it pretty regularly), or even check out my Pinterest boards. I'll be visiting you too! This is being linked with Connie's Linky Tuesday.

How to choose quilting designs. Talking about types of designs and their uses for quilting, whether free motion, walking foot quilting, quilting with rulers, or even hand quilting.

It's past time for my Free Motion Monday Quilting Adventures post and while I'm posting it before it's officially Tuesday, it's not the post I had planned. This weekend and Monday has been a doozy. Feet for Free Motion Ruler Work I talked a lot about the foot options for ruler work last week, so please read there if this is your first introduction to this technique. But Carol Olson and I had emailed a bit this past week (She's the owner of Accents in Design, maker of the Fine Line Rulers and Templates that I love so much) and she had some information that I thought I'd pass along for those who aren't Janome users. " I did find a 1/4" ruler foot on ebay listed by NgoSew Sewing Parts Co. . This foot is made for Juki TL98, TL98E, TL98Q, TL98QE, TL2000Qi and TL2010Q. The price on their ebay store is $75.00. I looked at Viking/Husqvarna, I had a Husqvarna prior to my Janome and used it during many classes and show demonstrations using the rulers and templates. They have two Open Toe FMQ feet, one is "Floating" or stationary and the other one is hopping. The foot is not as high as the Janome or Juki, however, it is thicker than most. I used the stationary one and it worked well. The stationary one is part # 412801045, the hopping one is #412531045. Elna is exactly the same as Janome, so they would be able to use the conversion set as well. Bernina, since the newer machines (not 35 years+ like my old one) seem not able to use the conversion set with the adapters, I did look at three of their Embroidery FM feet. Foot #26 is a closed toe round foot and looks like a shallow bowl which would work with the rulers. Foot #24 is open toe for FM Embroidery or quilting. Foot #92 is a FM Embroidery foot, looks like a thick hook style, curved from left to right with the opening on the far right side. Using the rulers and templates on the left side, it should enable a clean swipe along the ruler edge." I shared with her my thoughts on one of the Bernina feet she had mentioned, the #26 foot does look like it would work except that it has a small teardrop shaped opening for the needle and I am concerned that with the sideways pressure of the ruler, the foot could shift and allow the needle to hit the foot. We are both married to handy fellas and were of similar thoughts that the foot could possibly be drilled out and carefully sanded to work well for ruler work on a Bernina. She also reiterated that ruler work can be done with regular free motion feet if done with care and usually with less speed. We also think that it's just a matter of time before some ruler toe type feet or even adapters hit the market for these other machines. I also tracked down Patsy Thompson's post on her improvised ruler work foot using the Babylock/ Brother Free Motion Foot C. She super glued a small 1/4 inch cylinder to the foot. So there are some options for those who have other brand machines. Designs So now it's time for some designs. I did all of these on paper this time as I just didn't have enough time to stitch some up. Getting these weekly series posts done on time is a challenge for sure, but I am hoping to start getting a few posts ahead so I can get them done better. First a note about planning ruler designs: When you choose a design for your project, you've got to consider the size of template or ruler you have and how it will fit in the desired space. Remember that the stitched line will not be right along the edge of the ruler, but a quarter of an inch away if using the Janome foot, or some other distance using another foot. So the design needs to be spaced according to the stitched spacing, not the ruler spacing. If you draw it out (and I strongly suggest you do), make sure to rig up a spacer for your pencil so the spacing is accounted for. I have a small acrylic washer from Quilter's Rule that is the same diameter as my foot. Also, it is wise to add a few reference lines even if you think you can use the lines on the ruler to space your design. Some designs need additional markings to get the placement just right too. Don't skimp on the needed markings! You'd hate to complete a run of a design and find out that you're not perpendicular or parallel to your piecing lines when needed! I really hate marking, but it's not too bad to set a few markings to keep me straight. Today I am focusing for the most part on designs for borders and sashing. Borders are a great place to put ruler work. These border designs can also be used as background designs around applique and such, just like the following crosshatching and curved crosshatching: Borders can be dressed up with scallops or swags. Scallops and swags can have piano keys or bead board with them. Above, you can see my drawing spacer/washer with some sparkly paint to help me find the tiny thing. Below are a couple of straight line designs for borders using diagonal lines and the straight ruler. Below are two designs using the Fine Line half-ellipse template. I really like these, however I have doubts as to whether I could actually stitch these out on a stationary machine. It would require working on opposite sides of the foot with the ruler for each shape. I'm certain that with my Janome 6600 Accufeed system behind my foot, that I couldn't work the ruler around behind the foot. (One reason why I would recommend the 6300 or 6500 on the lower priced side of the 6600, or moving up to the 8200 if you're in the market for a Janome for free motion quilting.) Before I forget, here's two pictures of how I place my fingers on these rulers as I work: Sashing designs are fun with rulers too! Below are a traditional egg and dart pattern and a variation I have seen lately. The diamond looks really neat when at the corner of sashing. It works into a 4 point star-ish shape or a bigger diamond. And then of course you can fill in some of your ruler work with other designs. Feathers.... And below is a tiny stipple and a e.l.e. loop (a bad one too! Eek!) in the diamonds. I've got to say I like that stipple! Though the better place to fill the design below would be the half diamonds along the side, leaving the whole diamond to 'pop'. Next week I'll show some designs for ruler work on piecing and filling in setting triangles and such. Hopefully there will be actual stitched samples and maybe a video or two. All of these designs above were done with Fine Line Rulers from www.accentsindesign.com They are the rulers with pegs for extra secure hand positioning and a great velcro hook tape on the underside to prevent the ruler from slipping. They also have good markings on the rulers, more on that in another week's post. Accents in Design has graciously provided me with several more of of their rulers to supplement the rulers I had previously bought and I can't wait to use them to show more ruler work designs next week. In addition, they are providing a set of the continuous curves rulers to one lucky participant of this month's series. So make sure to comment and/or link up to be entered in the giveaway! Make sure to leave an email addy if you are a no-reply blogger. Whew! That's a lot of material to cover in one post!I am sure there are questions, so ask them in the comments. Now, a word or two about this linky. In addition to my usual guidelines, I've got to mention that I want this linky to benefit all the bloggers and wonderful readers involved. So firstly, since my link series is about the series of designs I'm showcasing on my blog, let's make sure that's whats being discussed in your linked post. It can even be a previous month's design. There are other linkys out there that may welcome your link about some great product you are hawking (yep, had a few spammers to delete). There are also general quilting linky's out there to join. If your post is relevant, link it up here. Secondly, please be courteous enough to post a link back to me or I will remove you from my party (ie: delete the link from me to you). (I hate that this sounds so mean, I really hate confrontation.) It's my party and I'll cry delete if I want to need to if the blog that is using the link opportunity isn't respecting the guidelines of this linky. If you are just linking up to as many link parties as possible to promote your blog and to earn points with Google for having others link to your site, kudos to you, but keep it relevant and reciprocal. I feel strongly about this. In fact I stopped linking up to a pretty popular blog link party when the blog owner's guidelines changed to specify she wanted the linked posts to be about something learned from her site. Since my posts usually were more about free motion quilting in general, I stopped linking to that specific linky. It would have benefited me to keep linking my posts and hope she didn't get offended, but I didn't meet her criteria, so I stopped until I have a relevant post. Now, if I've gone and made you mad, I'm sorry, but the guidelines for this linky are pretty clear. If I've made you worry that you've accidentally erred, email me at sonshinecottage[at]comcast[dot]net Let's keep it fun, civil, educational, and helpful for us all. Here's those guidelines: For the linky this week, link up a post of ruler work you've done, if any. If you haven't done any, feel free to use a ruler to draw out any line based designs that you'd like to explore. You can use rotary cutting rulers for drawing. If you've written a post about wanting to do these types of designs, you can post that too! If you've missed any of the Free Motion Monday posts, you can find them on the Free Motion Mondays page. Some quick rules: Keep your post relevant to this quilt along please. Spammy posts will be deleted. Make sure you link up to the individual post, not your home page as nobody wants to have to search around for the post if they're a little late to the party. Link back to this post somewhere in your post. You've got to dance with the one who took you to the party, so make sure you link back. Don't be a wall-flower. (Talking to myself here too. In person I am so stinking shy!) Visit the other links, be sociable, and leave comments. Please make sure you leave me a way to contact you if you are a no-reply commenter, especially if you ask a question. Don't forget to bookmark this blog, follow, or sign it up in your favorite feed reader. Like the facebook page (I do post some short things on it pretty regularly), or even check out my Pinterest boards. I'll be visiting you too!

Choosing quilting designs can be a difficult part of making quilts. Continue reading for 5 thing to keep in mind when making quilting plans.

Learn how to use baking paper as an aid for your free-motion quilting. Tutorial includes instructions on how to quilt a stylised flower motif suitable for square blocks. Free downloadable template provided.

The sound of crashing waves, the salty air, the gentle wind blowing the ruffles of our beach umbrella… It is one of my fondest memories of spending time with my loved ones at the beach. The m…

This Baby Lock Free Motion Quilt Set with a main shank and four interchangeable quilt foot soles. Use this Baby Lock sewing machine foot set for all your free-motion quilting needs including: straight lines on fabric, quilting on uneven thickness, echo quilting effects, ruler work. Works with Baby Lock: Accord, Aerial,

Free motion quilting sampler block using quilt as you go technique. How to quilt flying geese block.

I think we can all agree that as quilters we have this deeply implanted love of creating and being creative, and that creativity doesn’t just stop at piecing a quilt top. Doing the actu…

This past week, I started and finished a fun new Wholecloth Quilt that yielded 36 fun, new free-motion quilting motifs. Not only am I thril...

As I cruise around Pinterest, often I see pins of my quilting in a Flying Geese border from this post. With this I've had several inquiries about what path I used to quilt this border... So here it is... Step by step directions. (the geese are flying sideways in my diagrams, but it's the same no matter which directions they are going) I start with quilting my feather in the bottom goose and Stitch in the Ditch to the right corner (or bottom corner in the diagram). Continuous Curve up to the next Goose and repeat feather motif. Continuous Curve up to the next Goose. Continue to fill the Geese with feathers and Continuous Curve until you reach the end. Now is when you can decide how you want to finish the last side of the background triangles. You could Continuous Curve, or Stitch in the Ditch back to the first Goose. I decided to add a swirl... Swirl in each background triangle back to the first Goose. Stitch in the Ditch to the left corner (or top corner in the diagram). Finish the background triangles with Continuous Curve quilting until you reach the last Goose, and swirl back to the beginning. There you have it...

When it comes to free motion quilting, there's a few main myths that people believe about starting free motion quilting. Here's the truth!

Tips for free motion quilting on a sewing machine; including ruler work: using rulers to guide free motion quilting, doodle quilting, & quilt design.

Free Motion Quilting Designs: Paisleys. A bit of sanity stitching.

Is my sewing machine a high shank or low shank machine? Here's how to tell the shank type of your sewing machine.

Cheap tip to keep ruler from sliding on fabric.

We're moving right along with our free motion quilt along and it's super fun to go through all the linked up blogs to search for questions to answer here on Thursdays.And I'm seeing loads of beautiful stitching! It's so wonderful to see your progress after just two weeks of working on stippling.We have a wide

Follow step by step to develop your free-motion technique, learn tricks for success, and solutions to stay on track if you meet a roadblock.

Get longarm results with your home machine and break way from straight line quilting with our exclusive Free Motion Quilting Essentials Template Set. The set comes with 5 of the most fundamental shapes that will help you get started with Free Motion Quilting with templates.  This set is an amazing value as comparable sets sell for over $90.  This set is meant to be used with a ruler foot, see below for more information. You can create classic quilting patterns such as circles, baptist fans, clamshells, waves, straight lines, arcs, feathers, and more.  These templates require you to use a ruler foot...

It’s Friday and time for a new machine quilting design. Today I’m adding Pinstripes to the Quilting Design Gallery because...

Keep your creative juices flowing with over 100 free quilt blocks rounded up in one place. Includes everything from basics, traditional and paper piecing.