Bonus week – Quilting with Rulers

Finished your quilt top and want to start quilting your quilt right away? I get that!

If I don’t start basting my quilt right away, chances are that my top will end up on the never ending pile of WIPs. (And we all know that it will still be there three years from now…)

So let’s get to it! Let’s quilt our penguins.

Thread

Lately I have been using 30wt Sulky thread for quilting. And I love it! It’s just a little bit thicker then 50wt thread and still runs through your machine smoothly.

For thread color on this quilt I went for something neutral. Using the color of the background fabric is almost always a save choice. An other option is to use thread in the color of the bellies of the penguins.

To select the right one, you can place your threads on your quilt top to see what you like best.

Ruler + Ruler foot

For this QAL I have quilted one quilt with straight lines, and one with the the Elvira ruler designed by Angela Walters.

To be able to machine quilt with rulers, you will need a ruler foot. On my Bernina 770QE I use the #72S (or #72) ruler foot.

When you have a Bernina, you can probably use the same foot and high shank rulers. If you’re not sure, check with your dealer to learn what foot you’ll need.

When you sew on a different brand machine, you can check out my video on high vs low shank machines to learn what type of foot and rulers you’ll need.

In my webshop I have a universal high shank and low shank ruler foot for most machine other then Bernina.

Quilting straight lines

The pink Ella Bella quilt is quilted with a grid. I started with quilting a grid with the lines about 2 inches apart. But after finishing that I wasn’t completely happy with it.

So I went back to my machine and quilted extra lines to make a smaller grid.

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A post shared by Irene | Sugaridoo (@sugaridoo)

Now the lines are 1 inch apart. I really love how this turned out!

Quilting with rulers

For the rainbow on grey quilt I chose wavy lines for the quilting.

In the video below I’ll show how I used the Elvira ruler quilted it. I’ll walk you through the steps of how you can quilt this design yourself.

https://youtu.be/Xhel2eZTeo8

Here are some links to other quilting videos on my youTube channel that might be helpful if you’re new to machine quilting:

Do you have a high or low shank machine?
All quilting videos from the One Two Tree QAL
Machine quilting with a Wavy Ruler

Binding

When you’re done quilting it’s time to snuggle under your quilt with a cup of tea and stitch on a binding.

My favorite way of attaching a binding is to the front of the quilt by machine, and then to the back of the quilt by hand.

When I want a quick finish, I sew both sides by machine. Taking enough time to press and fold, and glue baste the binding in place helps me with this method.