Sunday, March 3, 2013

New Toys from the Quilt Festival: Volume 2

I mentioned that I used two new rulers on my last project.  They were both bought at my trip to the MId-Atlantic Quilt Festival last weekend.

The first is a binding ruler by TQM Products. This ruler helps you join the ends of the binding together. It was handy to have for the placemat project that I just did since there were ends to join on all six placemats and the table runner.  There is a good explanation (and a better photo) on the website.  My bindings for this project were 2 1/4 inches so I had to do a bit of adjustment to get the result I wanted.  But this is definitely the best method I've used so far for joining binding.  And...this can be used as a template for a french braid quilt...directions on the website.
And another first while I was at this booth.....my opinion on binding was solicited!  Since I'm a newish quilter I'm rarely asked the hows or whys of my technique.  But I guess no one knew my level of experience and I was asked about how I like to attach binding.  Unfortunately this was before I had discovered the machine method in my previous post.  But just being asked was nice!

The second ruler I bought was Leaves Galore by Sue Pelland Designs.

There is so much that you can do with this ruler/template.  Sue designed it to cut out leaves and stems for applique.  She has great examples on her website.  The ruler comes in three sizes.  I bought the middle size.  My ears really perked up when she mentioned that it could be used to mark lines for curvy quilting.  I've wanted to find a way to quilt nice big curves for awhile.  I used this ruler to cut the curvy center applique on the table runner that I posted about yesterday.  For the smaller side of the ruler you really need a small rotary cutter to get around the curves.  Sue is also the one who introduced me to the magic iron off chalk. If I had had this ruler when I first planned the placemats I probably would have incorporated some leaf applique into the design.
I can see lots of quilty fun with both of these in my future.

3 comments:

  1. Ooh curvy ruler looks great. I like the idea of using it for quilting curves.

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  2. I'm interested in that binding ruler, Nina. Only twice have I actually cut and stitched the ends of my binding where the ends meet. I was really surprised that it worked but it was hard to get the stitching in the right place. I think I had to unsew twice on the last quilt! I wonder if I could figure out how to use this.... Thanks for sharing about it.

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  3. That Wavy ruler would work well for the borders I am currently marking. It is my first attempt and I drew them out on tracing paper, then fold and traced. I think I am ready to actually mark the quilt, but a ruler like that would sure save the trouble, and of course be more consistent.

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