Hi ,

 

Today we’re quilting Block 11 with ruler foot quilting and I really love this simple design! But then when I tried quilting wider spaced lines I found walking foot quilting actually worked better.

Click here to find the pattern for this Scrappy Tracks quilt block. Yep, you can still join in the fun of this scrap-happy quilt along and make a crib, throw, twin, queen or king sized quilt!

 

Click here to find both the walking foot and ruler foot I was using in this tutorial. This foot set is compatible with Eversewn Sparrow sewing machines as well as any machine that uses low shank feet.

 

Click Here to find the Slice Quilting Ruler. While this ruler didn’t work as well for wide spaced lines, it works great for echo ditching and you can make beautiful 20 petal Dresden Plates with it too!

My quilting design began simple enough with echo ditching in the center square and around the points of the center star.

 

The key with ruler quilting is to keep your foot aligned with the edge of the ruler. There are etched lines on the back of the ruler to help you position it and space the lines accurately. Always remember to add 1/4-inch from the edge of the ruler – that’s the distance between the edge of the foot to the needle.

 

The Slice Ruler is a wedge shape and it worked great for the echo ditching. But when I switched to a wider spacing, it was challenging to line up the design.

But it’s good to know there are alternatives! I ended up marking the remaining lines on my quilt. I then quilted on the marked lines and achieved the perfect spacing I desired without so much fiddling or math.

Walking foot quilting is a wonderful type of quilting because it evenly feeds the quilt through the machine from the top as the feed dogs feed it from the bottom. It is a bit slower, but has fantastic results!

I love how this design turned out, emphasizing the star created in the center of the four Scrappy Tracks Stars. Be looking forward to another quilting idea next week as I quilt this block again on my longarm.

Yes, the new update to Quilter’s Creative Touch has just come out and I decided to take the leap and upgrade to QCT 5. Learn how to do this update and how the block interface changes a bit in this tutorial:

If you have QTC 4 (upgrading to version 5 is free!) or are interested in longarm automation, be sure to check out my whole blog post on upgrading as it can be a tricky process.

 

Click Here to learn more about QCT 5. This package includes the creative touch motor to drive your machine, belts to attach to your frame, and the software to pick designs and place them on your quilt as you saw in this video.

 

That's it for this week, . A quick note on things to come: I have a new Ditcher Ruler coming out very soon, but I didn’t have it when shooting this week's video. It's a rectangular ruler with more lines to make spacing lines much easier. It will also be joined by two new brand new rulers, including a 2-inch feather ruler and a 2-inch circle ruler!

 

Stay tuned...

 

Let's go quilt,

 

Leah Day