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Not Perfect, But Not Hideous, Either. I Like It! |
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Extra Wide Margins of Excess Batting and Backing for Tension Testing |
I have approximately 9 1/2" of excess batting and backing on both sides of my quilt top. That gives me plenty of room for these little warmup/test stitching scraps on both sides of the quilt, and there's one additional bonus. Having that much extra batting and backing on both sides means my side clamps are well out of the way of my ruler base, so I don't need curtain rods, yard sticks, pool noodles, or any other contraptions to lift the clamps out of the way of the machine.
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Hobbs Tuscany Wool Batting, My Tabby Mountain Disco Kitties Quilt |
But I digress... Back to the quilt at hand. This is one of my DIY 24 pound vellum paper stencils, traced with ultra fine Sharpie marker and perforated along the drawn lines by sewing with an unthreaded domestic sewing machine. I've tried multiple different brands and colors of chalk powder for transferring the stencils and none of them would work if my design was super intricate or required a great degree of accuracy, but the regular white Pounce Chalk with the pounce pad is working best on most of my colored triangles, and on the fabrics that were too light for the white chalk to be visible, I used the Pounce Chalk in blue that is supposed to need to be washed out of the quilt. Ha, ha, HA! I WISH it stayed on my quilt long enough to need washing out, instead of bouncing right off the quilt surface immediately. Your mileage may vary, though (especially if you're not a starch fiend like I am), so please do your own testing before using colored chalk on your quilts.
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DIY Vellum Stencil, Ready for Pounce Chalk Transfer |
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Ta Da! Even Though the Orange Ones Look Like Snakes... |
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HandiQuilter VersaTool (with Pink Glo Tape Added) |
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HandiQuilter VersaTool with Glow Line Tape |
The two donut-looking clear stickers at the top of the ruler are TrueGrip non-slip ruler grips. They work well for preventing rulers from slipping, but they are pricey and they are a little on the thick side. The long, clear, textured piece of tape along the left straight edge of the ruler is 3M's Nexcare Flexible Clear Tape, a super cheap solution for slipping rulers that you can find in the first aid section of your local pharmacy. It tears easily, sticks to the back of your ruler, and prevents unintentional sliding of the ruler without giving it a death grip, making it perfect for a ruler like this one that you may need to slide on purpose to stitch a longer line. It's also thin and transparent, so it doesn't obstruct my view of what I'm quilting like some of the other nonslip products do.
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Pink Glo Tape Makes Etched Ruler Line Easier to See |
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My VersaTool Works Even Better Now |
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Feathery Swirls Look Better From a Distance |
Aside from that little boomerang detail, the only other ruler I need for this design is my 2 1/2" x 6" Quilter's Groove ProMini. I don't need to worry about eyeballing the quarter inch because the Quilter's Groove Pro rulers have clearly visible white markings that I can line up with seam lines, stitched lines, or drawn lines on the quilt surface to ensure the ruler is properly positioned to put my stitches where I want them to go. You can tell these were designed by a long arm quilter, because when I want to quilt a straight line on a quilt, there is almost always a reference line etched into Lisa's rulers that matches up with some kind of reference line on my quilt.
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The One Ruler I Can't Live Without: 6 inch Pro Mini from Quilter's Groove |
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Design Stitched Over Blue Marked Lines |
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It Looks So Much Better After the Lines Disappear! |
Last but not least, I have to show you guys the View from Underneath the Quilt Frame!
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I Crawled On the Floor to Take This Picture For You |
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Birthday Goodies! They Know Me So Well! |
My sons bought me a Henry VIII coffee mug that has all six of his wives on it -- but they disappear when you fill it with hot liquid, and then it tells you how each one died. Love it!
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If This Had Been From My Husband, It Might Have Made Me Nervous... |
Well, one more "quick blog post" that ran on longer than I intended it to! I hardly know what day it is anymore. If today is Thursday, then tomorrow my oldest is headed to Hilton Head Island for the summer. He will be working at the grocery store and working on his independent living/adulting skills by balancing fun time at the beach with having to get up and get to work on time, and hopefully he'll save up some money for when he goes back to college in the Fall. My younger son has his last full week of his high school junior year before we can all take a break from this hell that is "online learning."
Stay safe, y'all, and happy stitching!
I'm linking up today's overly long post with the following linky parties:
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
· Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre