Spirit Song Update: The Borders and Blue Triangles Have All Been Quilted

I am finished with the borders of my Spirit Song quilt!!!  I am finished with the blue thread!  I am so EXCITED!!  I rolled the quilt back up to the top last night -- for the last time.  Today I'll do some experiments off to the side of my quilt to decide whether I'm rethreading with So Fine or with the lighter weight Bottom Line thread in the needle as well as in the bobbin, and then I get to start quilting background fills in all of those white/neutral HSTs.

With the skinny inner blue border, where I'm quilting a 1/2" string of pearls design, I had previously been marking the circles with a stencil and then trying to stitch my circles freehand, following the marked line.  Last night, I decided to try the Quilter's Groove ProPebbles template in the border that I'd been using for my "lollipop flowers" on the blue HSTs all along.  And OH, MY GOODNESS, what a difference!!  Here is my best effort at quilting half inch circles freehand, following perfect circles marked on the quilt surface with a stencil:

...And here is what my circles looked like when I skipped the step of marking them with the stencil and just quilted them with my Quilter's Groove ProPebbles template, scooting the template along the border as I quilted one cute little circle after another:

Can you believe these circles were quilted by the same quilter, on the same day?!  And it was so much FASTER, too!  Oh my gosh.  I'm never going to make these any other way.  And next time I quilt a string of pearls, I'm going to use thread that makes sure EVERYONE can see it!

I LOVE THIS LITTLE GADGET!  So of course I had to order the other sizes...  I'm becoming quite the ruler junky.  

I know it's only Monday, but I'm thinking ahead for my To-Do List on Tuesday.  It would be awesome if I could get ALL of the background fill quilting completed on this quilt in the next 7 days, but having never done this type of quilting on an actual quilt before, I don't really know how long it will take me.  Also, I haven't pieced anything in forever, and I think it's time to show my domestic sewing machine a little love!  With that in mind, here are my goals for this week:

1. Experiment with different background threads, pick one, and rethread my machine
2. Spend at least 30 minutes quilting background fills every day
3. Figure out the code for my Long Arm Learning linky party button
4. Cut and piece the next block for Anders' Beware the Ishmaelites sampler quilt
5. Make binding for Spirit Song and set aside

I'm linking up today's post with:

MONDAY

·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

·       BOMs Away Katie Mae Quilts  

TUESDAY

·       Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

Spirit Song Progress: Blue HSTs Nearing Completion + Tentative Plan for Background Fillers

Good morning, and Happy Thursday!  I have been doing a pretty good job of squeezing in at least an hour or two at my long arm machine each day, so my Spirit Song quilting is progressing.  

I am starting to really enjoy this little motif in my little blue HSTs that I think of as a "lollipop flower."  Of course, the first couple I quilted didn't look this cute, but every time I start a new design I see it progress from "Oh, ick" to "maybe it's okay from a distance" to "meh" to "hey, NOW it's starting to look like how I drew it on my iPad!"  Note to self: Don't ever give up on a quilting design just because it comes out icky the first time I try to quilt it!

This little motif is a hybrid between total freehand for the two curly leaves and ruler-guided quilting for the "lollipop" -- the little 1/2" circle on a stick stem.  I'm using another of the rulers that I got in the kit for Lisa Calle's Rulers for Rookies class (I took this class in person at AQS Quilt Week in Paducah, but the ruler kit, panel, and instructions are available for you to learn at home via Lisa's web site here).  This ruler is the Quilter's Groove ProPebble, which comes in several different sizes, but the one I got in my class kit is designed to create a perfect half inch circle when you slide it over the hopping foot and the edge of your hopping foot moves around the inside of the big circle.  I am loving this ruler so much, I had to stop just now in the middle of writing my blog post, to order the other sizes!  (And no, I have no affiliate relationship with Lisa; I'm just a happy student/customer who is very grateful to have had the opportunity to take classes from her).  

I've added a couple strips of my NexCare Clear First Aid Tape to the back side of this ruler to reduce sliding, but I might try some of the stronger gripping HandiGrip tape from HandiQuilter instead to hold this little guy in place even better.  The hardest thing about using acrylic rulers/templates for machine quilting is making sure the ruler doesn't slide out of place when you're quilting around the edge of it.  Anyway, once again, I've discovered that Lisa's rulers have nifty little etched reference lines exactly where I need them so I don't have to do any marking at all.  I'm using the outside straight edge of the ProPebble ruler to quilt my perfectly straight stem, lining up the straight etched line in the center of the ruler with my block seam.  Then I slide the big circle around my hopping foot and line it up exactly as shown in the photo above, with the little line on the opposite end of my ruler right at that intersection of triangle points, to quilt my little circle away from the stem.  Slide the ruler off the foot, and use the straight edge to quilt back down the stem, and then I finish by quilting a free motion curly leaf on either side of my lollipop.  Voila -- cuteness!

Yes, it takes longer to slide this ruler on and off my hopping foot, stopping and starting my machine, than it would to quilt the whole motif freehand, but I am finding that mixing in some perfectly straight lines and circles here and there really elevates the look of my free motion work and makes ALL of the quilting look better to me.  Interesting!  Also, perfect circles look so cute on quilts that they are worth a bit of fussing.  Now I am thinking that, the next time I want to quilt a half inch string of pearls border, I might use this little template rather than marking the pearls with a stencil and then trying to quilt perfect circles freehand the way I've been doing on my skinny blue border for this quilt.  This matching blue thread is hiding a multitude of sins; trust me!!!

I am nearing the end of quilting everything that is getting quilted with blue thread -- both quilt borders and all of the little HSTs.  So now I'm looking forward to the next and LAST phase of quilting, which will be the background filler designs in all of the white/off white/neutral background HSTs.  As usual, I've been doodling my options on my iPad and once I came up with ideas that I liked, I printed them up, stuck them into plastic page protectors, and brought them upstairs to my studio so I can refer to them to remember which design goes where.

Although my Spirit Song quilt consists of nothing but 2" and 4" HST units and only one 16" straight set block, my quilting design was planned to emphasize the secondary design that emerges at the block intersections, creating the illusion that my quilt top is a diagonal setting that alternates two different block designs.  Those little lollipop flowers I just showed you go on the blue HSTs within Quilting Design A (above), which is the illusion block created where four of my actual blocks come together.  

In my EQ8 rendering above, you can see the actual 16" blocks that I pieced for this quilt.  My Quilting Design B is for the diamond shaped center area that is left after the corners are "removed from the equation" by Quilting Design A.  Here's how I'm quilting these areas of my quilt:

Of course, the pale aqua "thread" color was only chosen on my iPad so I could see what I was sketching.  I'll be using a blending thread color on those background fabrics, an off-white So Fine #50 or else an off-white Bottom Line #60 thread.  Haven't decided on that yet.  I might just stick with the So Fine in my needle since that's what I've been using throughout the rest of the quilt, but the lighter weight, thinner Bottom Line thread might be more appropriate for the dense, heavy quilting I'm planning to do in these areas.  I suppose I could do a little sample off to the side of my quilt to make my final decision, but often I like to live dangerously -- make a rash decision and then commit 100%, full speed ahead!

I'm linking up today's post with:

THURSDAY

·       Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

·       Free Motion Mavericks at Quilting & Learning Combo OR at Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing

FRIDAY

·       Whoop Whoop Fridays at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

·       Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More

·       Finished Or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

·       Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

Have a great day, everyone, and happy stitching!

Spirit Song Quilting Commences: Monofilament Invisible Stitching in the Ditch

Good morning and happy Tuesday!  My quilting goal for the past week was to complete all of the SID (Stitch in the Ditch) quilting along the seam lines of my Spirit Song quilt.  I'm about halfway there as of when I switched off the machine last night.

Invisible Monofilament SID Halfway Completed

For the SID work, I'm mostly using my 2 1/2" x 6" Quilter's Groove ProMini ruler, with Nexcare clear first aid tape on the backside of the ruler to reduce the slip-and-slide action without sacrificing visibility.  I also have the larger 10" version.

10 inch Pro and 6 inch ProMini Rulers from Quilter's Groove, Lisa Calle's Ruler Line

What I love most about Lisa Calle's Quilter's Groove line of rulers is that they all include helpful reference lines.  As I'm using this ruler for my SID work, I'm using those perpendicular straight lines and 45 degree angle lines on the ruler to line up with my piecing lines, helping me to keep the edge of the ruler nice and straight a quarter of an inch away from the stitching line.  I have a couple of other straight rulers without these reference lines that I bought before I took Lisa's ruler class, but this little ProMini has become my favorite.

How I Use the Ruler's Reference Lines for SID Quilting

You can see in the photo above how my palm, ring finger, and pinky are all resting on the surface of my quilt and acting as a "brake" in case that ruler decides to slide from the pressure of my hopping foot riding along the ruler's edge.  In the closeup below, you can see those etched lines on the ruler that I've aligned with my piecing seams to keep everything nice and straight as I'm stitching.

The Markings Are What Make These Rulers My Favorites!

And of course, when SID is done well and stitched in invisible monofilament thread, it truly disappears into the quilt, providing structure and support kind of like how a good foundation garment can make you look so much better in your dress!

Invisible Stitch In the Ditch: The Wonder Bra of Quilting!

...But from a distance, it looks like I haven't done any quilting yet at all:

Tedious, Invisible, But Crucial

SID takes a LONG TIME, and it doesn't give you that instant gratification of seeing your quilt transform before your eyes with beautiful designs and texture.  Done well, SID should be invisible -- we don't want to see those stitches at all, which is why I'm using Superior's Monopoly invisible monofilament thread in my needle.  By doing all the SID quilting first, I'm doing two things: First, I'm stabilizing my quilt and locking the three layers (quilt top, batting and backing) together with all of these seam lines as straight as possible and the edges of the quilt perfectly square.  That's going to drastically reduce the potential for things shifting and getting stretched out of whack during the fun quilting that comes later.  Also, SID along the seam lines gives more definition to the piecing lines, subtly accentuating those crisp points I worked so hard to create.  If I skipped the SID, the seam lines would actually puff UP after surrounding areas had been quilted down, which would have the opposite effect of obscuring or diminishing the piecing lines.  

Those Needle Holes Will Close Up When the Quilt is Washed

In the above photo, I've stitched on the low side of every one of those seams except the vertical seam between the yellow and hot pink fabrics at top right that extends down to the lower right corner between the mustard color print and the pink daisy print.  SID sinks the seam lines down into the quilt, but the only way to know the stitches are there are the needle holes (those will close up when the quilt gets washed).

Love Seeing the Backing Fabric Starting to Wrap Around the Pickup Roller!

I love seeing the backing fabric start to peek around the pickup roller at the back of my frame as the quilting progresses enough to advance the quilt!

I probably would already be done with the SID if I hadn't had a tension snafu.  Despite having tested and adjusted tension off to the side of my quilt before starting, I noticed with the first advance of the quilt that I had some flatlining (top thread too loose or bobbin thread too tight, causing the bobbin thread to lay flat on the back of the quilt rather than meeting the top thread in the center of the quilt batting to form a balanced stitch) on the back.  

Poor Tension, Bobbin Thread "Flatlining"

In this case, I knew my bobbin case tension was already set very loose (TOWA 150-ish and bypassed the little pigtail guide on my bobbin case) for my Bottom Line bobbin thread, so the upper thread was definitely the culprit.  I'd loosened it so much that it was being pulled all the way through the batting and the backing fabric, creating little loops that suspended a straight line of bobbin thread along the surface of the backing fabric.  I think my monofilament was getting caught on the edge of my thread net at one point, creating resistance, and I loosened my top tension repeatedly to try to "solve" that before I realized that it was a thread path issue.  Whoops!

So anyway, these really lousy tension stitches are very easy to remove from the backing side, just snip at either end of the bad stitching line and pull; the thread comes right out in one piece.  However, after pulling out the bad stitches on backing side, I had a horrible time figuring out which of my invisible seams had been ripped out and needed restitching when I got back to the FRONT of the quilt!  Really all I could see were the needle holes to begin with, and the bad stitching left holes that looked exactly like the good stitching.  I had pulled out the bobbin thread from the bad stitching, but the top thread still needed to be pulled out and clipped away in some cases...  I had to check EVERY STINKING SEAM, and I accidentally requilted a few seam lines by accident because I thought I'd pulled out the stitching there even though it was perfectly fine -- just couldn't SEE it.  Major time suck!  

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3...

These string pieced scraps, above, were good for testing stitch tension as well as for a quick refresher on SID, since I haven't done anything with my quilting machine for a few months.  It's also a good way of previewing what my thread is going to look like on a variety of different fabric prints.  I'm using the clear monofilament thread rather than the smoke because most of my fabrics are light colors, but the clear monofilament is slightly visible on the darkest blue fabric strips.

Not Quite 6 Months Old, Already 70 lbs of Sweetness!

This post has been a particularly boring one, even for me, so I'm ending on a high note with a puppy picture of my little Samwise Puppy-Pants.  He'll be 6 months old in 10 days, and this morning he weighed in at a whopping 70 pounds of sweetness!  :-)

So, what are my sewing goals for the coming week?

Tuesday To-Do List:

• Finish SID quilting on Spirit Song
• Change needle from 3.5 (for monofilament thread) to either 4.0 (for Bottom Line 60 weight or So Fine 50 weight thread) or 4.5 (for King Tut or YLI 40 weight cotton quilting thread), rethread machine (thread path is different from monofilament), and adjust tension as needed
• Begin additional straight line ruler work quilting with thread that is meant to be seen!

Stay safe, everyone, and happy stitching!  I'm linking up today's post with:

·       To-Do Tuesday at Home Sewn By Us

·       Let’s Do Some Ruler Work at The Quilt Yarn

·       Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

·       Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

·       Tips and Tutorials on the 22^nd at Kathleen McMusing

Order In the Studio: DIY Wall Mounted Racks for Longarm Quilting Rulers

Good morning, and happy Thursday, everyone!  Thanks to my blog-reader-friend Diane in Texas, SAMWISE LEARNED HOW TO GO DOWN THE STAIRS YESTERDAY!!!  After reading my post about how I was carrying my 50-pound Rottweiler puppy down a flight of stairs every morning, Diane emailed me with step-by-step training instructions to get Samwise over his fear of the stairs, and they worked like a charm.  It took me all of 5 minutes, y'all, and this morning he came down the stairs all on his own.  I am eternally grateful, Diane, and so is my back!!

On to the Quilty Goodness...  I have been wanting to show you guys the wall-mounted ruler racks that my husband made me for Christmas, and since I haven't got any sewing progress to share with you, today is the day for the DIY Ruler Rack post!

Inspiration: Lisa Calle's Ruler Racks, shown on her blog here

I first saw racks like these on Lisa Calle's blog, Living On a Thread, in her post about setting up her quilting studio in her new home.  If Lisa had these for sale in her online shop, I would have just ordered them from her -- but when I asked her about them, she said that a friend made them for her and it's not an item she sells.  I searched Amazon, did some google searches, and still could not find anyone selling racks like these, so I begged and pleaded with my husband to make them for me.  Anyone who develops a ruler addiction will understand that it's not just owning the right ruler for the quilting task at hand that matters -- it's REMEMBERING which rulers you own, and being able to survey your options and quickly put your hand on the right ruler right when you need it!

Here's what you -- or a handy woodworker who loves you -- will need to make racks like these for your studio:

DIY Ruler Racks for Longarm Quilting Rulers

Gather Your Supplies:

• 4' long 2x4 of wood, one per rack

• 3" toggle bolts

• sandpaper

• mineral oil

Rebecca's Ruler Racks

Making the Ruler Racks:

1. Mark evenly spaced lines on your boards, approximately 1 3/4" to 2" apart
2. With a table saw (or a sliding miter saw, if you don't have a table saw), cut grooves into the board at each line that you marked.  My grooves are cut at a 31.6 degree angle and go approximately 1" deep into the boards.  Make sure the groove is slightly wider than the 1/4" thickness of your rulers, so they don't get scuffed up when you take them in and out of the board.
3. Sand the board smooth with the sandpaper
4. Rub all sides of the boards with mineral oil to make them look pretty and to protect the wood from drying out
5. Drill through your board about 8-10" in from each end
6. Mount to your wall near your longarm machine with toggle bolts through the pre-drilled holes (the toggle bolts will safely hold the weight of the racks on drywall even if you don't have a stud in the exact location where you want your racks)

Lisa's racks look beautiful in the dark stain finish, but I preferred the mineral oil finish for my studio.  The light, natural finish of my racks looks better with my maple butcher block cutting table, plus the mineral oil doesn't need time to cure like a varnish or stain.  I wanted my racks to be installed and filled with rulers ASAP, without having to worry about not-quite-dried stain making my rulers stick in the grooves.

Bernie actually made four of these racks for me, but I only have enough rulers for three of them (so far...)!

Although I've been doing more piecing than quilting lately, I did buy some more nifty longarm rulers, and I'm looking forward to trying them out on a real quilt soon!  When I first purchased my longarm machine, I ordered some rulers from The Gadget Girls that I thought would be useful.  These are the yellow ones you see on my ruler racks.  First attempts to use them were comical, though -- this was before I'd taken any classes on quilting with rulers and I didn't know anything about where to position my hands for the best control of the ruler or using anything on the back of the rulers to keep them from sliding around while I was stitching!  Also, the rulers I ordered initially weren't as versatile as I thought they would be -- the clam shell ruler only makes clam shells in one size, for instance, whereas clam shell quilting can easily be accomplished with circle templates that are easier to control and can be used for so many other things.  

So, after taking hands-on ruler work classes with both Lisa Calle and Judi Madsen at the Paducah AQS show last Spring, I had a few rulers that were included with my kit fee for the classes.  It was great to be able to test those rulers in class, learn how to use them successfully, and know for sure that they would work for me before committing to purchasing an entire range of sizes.  These rulers/templates are just 1/4" thick etched acrylic, but they are pricier than you'd think -- probably because they are made in relatively small quantities for small businesses serving a niche market.  Some of those yellow Gadget Girls specialty rulers I played with probably work well for what they're designed to do, but I need to find a good tutorial for using them!  I really liked Lisa Calle's Quilter's Groove circle and arc rulers after using them in class, so I purchased them in every size she offers.  That way I'll always have the exact size I need, no matter what I'm working on.  

Quilter's Groove Pro Circle Templates, available here

I'm thinking of using those circles to quilt a Baptist Fan design in the center of my Pineapple Log Cabin quilt.  Not sure what to do with the borders, though.  I can also use them for clam shell quilting, wreaths, etc.  I really like the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal reference lines on the Quilter's Groove Pro Circles.

The Pro Echo arcs, also from Quilter's Groove, can be used for everything from curved crosshatching to border designs.  Lisa's YouTube channel has lots of great videos for how to use her rulers, and she also has an online ruler work class on the iQuilt platform.

Quilter's Groove Pro Echo Rulers, available here.

My most recent ruler purchase was Bethanne Nemesh's Garden Lines collection of rulers: two different French curve rulers, a nifty little applique ruler, a long point-to-point or stitch-in-the-ditch ruler, and a pair of small multipurpose rulers for stitch-in-the-ditch and continuous curve quilting within pieced blocks.

Bethanne Nemesh's Garden Lines Ruler Collection, available here

I also purchased the two larger French curve rulers that Bethanne released more recently, the Lily 3 and Long Lines rulers:

Bethanne Nemesh's Lily 3 and Long Lines set, available here

Not only can I use the French curve rulers for creating identical, symmetrical feather spines, but there are so many other cool ideas for using them in Bethanne's video tutorials.  Seriously; those video tutorials are a huge selling point for me, because any ruler is more useful when you understand how to use it, what it was designed to do, and how the various markings are intended to be used.  After successfully quilting Lars's Mission Impossible graduation quilt with a DIY custom curve ruler and two basic straight edge rulers, I feel MUCH more confident now about what I can do with my longarm machine when I can guide my hopping foot along the edge of a 1/4" thick acrylic template to ensure a smooth line of stitching.  So much easier than free motion or even following a pantograph, in my own limited experience, and that's what encouraged me to splurge on a complete arsenal of the basics.  

These rulers are going to be so much fun to play with on my quilts!  I'm linking this post with:

·       Whoop Whoop Fridays at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

·       Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty

·       Finished Or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts