And this episode of Love of Quilting Angela takes a quilt from an earlier episode, Passion Flower and quilts it It will show you how to combine free motion, ruler work and computerized quilting.

Talking through the hows and whys of each method, from straight lines and curves to lettuce leaves and curls.

We'll walk you through Angela's quilt plan on today's episode of Love of Quilting.

Funding for Love of Quilting is provided by.

The Bernina 990.

If it can be imagined, it can be created.

APQS Longarm quilting machines allow you to express your creativity.

APQS quilt forever.

The Warm Company manufacturer of battings and fusibles for quilts, crafts and wearable arts.

Panasonic, maker of the 360 degree freestyle cordless iron, magic quilting and crafting collection, ironing sprays, and more.

Hi there.

Welcome to the 4700 series of Love of Quilting.

I'm Sara Gallegos, and I'm Angela Huffman and Angela.

I can't wait to see how you're going to custom quilt passion flower.

Yeah, so I was really inspired by passion flower.

So, it's Deborah Rivera's quilt, and it just has so much negative space and it just kind of sings to me like custom quilt me.

You could certainly all over quilt, you know, an edge to edge quilt, but sometimes it's nice to show you just kind of the thought process of how I break down a quilt and decide, what to quilt, where I think everybody's always looking for a little peek into your brain.

Oh, yeah.

What is your design?

It can be a little scary.

And there's, I'm just wondering.

Yeah.

So the first thing that I did is I took a photo of the quilt and I brought it into my tablet, and then I drew on the photo, and I just put transparent layers over that photo.

Drew on the photo, took that layer away, drew on the next, and then turned all those transparent layers on and off and on and off.

There's apps that you can get to do that, and it gives me just a creative sandbox to test my theory and go, well, that was a terrible idea.

Or oh, that idea has legs and I'm not getting wrapped up.

And am I drawing it?

Well, am I anything like that?

I'm just kind of dividing space up.

And when you have a lot of negative space, you're going to want to divide it up because it can be quite intimidating.

Right.

Your brain is like, where do I go next?

Where do I start giving it boundaries to play with that?

Right.

And so I wanted to show you two different rulers.

So these are arc rulers.

And one of the things about arc rulers, it's very different than say, a straight edge or a circle ruler.

Is that the arc is all dependent on the size circle.

That arc was made out of.

And so you can see the two that I have here, this one is a much deeper curve, and this one's a more shallow curve.

And so they work in different places.

And so some of it you have to kind of audition the ruler to the space to see if it's the depth of the curve that you want.

So what I did on the star points around, the center is I used a more shallow ruler to give me these, curves and kind of make that star now more of a blossom, a star blossom.

So one, it drew attention to the star.

Two, it made up some of that intimidating negative space.

So now I don't have to worry about it so darn much.

Sure.

And so I've got, I've got over on this side.

I have my, large triangle in the corner, and I've gone ahead and I've marked the center position with, blue, marking device.

And I'm going to choose for this space.

So I'm going to audition the space and look, do I want the, the, the, the kind of the smaller curve or the bigger curve.

And I'm going to choose the bigger arc only because if I put the smaller arc here, you're going to see it doesn't quite overlap a lot, the two existing arcs.

And I really would like it to, overlap.

So I'm just going to bring my bobbin thread up here in the, corner, and I'm just going to take a few little tacking stitches.

And I would say that you want to go ahead and stitch in the ditch, your quilt, just to stabilize everything, I'm going to nest that ruler up against the hopping foot on the machine.

That needle is a quarter inch away from the edge of the hopping foot.

And then on the other side, I'm going to place the ruler about a quarter inch away from that little blue dot that I marked.

And then, just because I'm holding that ruler with my non-dominant hand and I'm holding the machine with my dominant hand, I'm going to take this side of my handle and kick it up in the air so that it's not in my way.

It's not.

I have more room for my hand to move with the ruler, so I'm just going to travel up that ruler, and you'll notice I'm holding that arc with as many fingers as I can spare.

And I do have.

I do have a ruler base on the machine to hold and stabilize the ruler itself.

So it just kind of extends that narrow opening space where the needle is that you can really hold that ruler.

Yeah, there's a little it just floats with the machine.

There's a little table that slides onto the throat and it floats to support the ruler.

Okay.

So then I always love to combine free motion with ruler work.

And of course, this big triangle here is a prime spot for some fun free motion.

I'm going to bring my handle back down because I want to use both handles to do free motion.

And then I'm going to I've got my stitch regulator on of course, and I'm just going to do some kind of lazy loops up through this triangle.

And.

And then I ended in a little curl.

Okay.

Now I'm going to come back down this kind of wandering path here.

And I'm going to cross over as I go.

And it's going to create a twisted ribbon effect to the eye.

Super simple and a great way to fill in large spaces.

And I'm back to my center position.

And the great thing about many of the rulers is that the same arc on one side is the same arc on the other side.

So you have both a positive and the negative arc.

And that's going to be helpful because I want to come back down to where I started with the same ruler.

But for me to hold that with my dominant hand and hold the machine with my non-dominant hand is hard.

It's hard, so I don't have to worry about it.

I can just use this side of that ruler, and I have that same arc on this side of the ruler to carry me.

Now back to where I started.

So.

And I notice that you've positioned the end of the ruler again, about a quarter of an inch away from your start point.

Right?

You have to accommodate that hopping foot.

Okay.

So I'm just going to, break my threads here.

So I just did needle down, needle up, and then I move the machine away to drag out a little bit of bobbin thread underneath the machine.

And then I'm going to, I clip that.

So I'm going to come back here, I'm going to move all my goodies down.

I'm going to come back here and I've, I've got this center position at the top at the apex of that square and square, and I've put two arcs on each side.

And I'm going to use those arcs now as a spine, and I'm just going to do a kind of a curly, feather on each side.

So let's see.

That's what I drew.

So let's see how that goes.

Sometimes the plan changes as you go, doesn't it?

It absolutely does.

Because one of the things that happens is you get to know the fabric.

You get to know the spaces, you get to know, like the groove you're in.

And so there is some improvising.

Don't think that when you draw it out on paper or tracing paper that that is your like you're committed.

You are not committed with it.

You don't you do not.

Okay.

So I'm just going to put some curls in here.

So I'm just stacking curls and I'm using the curves.

As my spine.

Or.

Drag.

And then I'm just going to break my threads.

I was kind of fun.

I want to do it on the other side now.

It's really pretty.

Curls are nice because there's no backtracking, so it's a nice way to get a feather look without a whole bunch of stress.

And I think you'll see the way that they come together to.

They kind of as they meet in the middle, they look real pretty.

And if you look super close, I did mark my middle line with a blue wash away pen, and it just gives me a little bit of a registration so I can keep myself centered.

Okay, we're almost done, little one.

Up at the top.

And then I'm just going to take some tacking stitches and break my threads.

Now, if you are super hyper critical, you would look at these two opposing, spaces and you say, well, Angela, they are not perfectly symmetrical.

And I would say, you are entirely right.

And that is on purpose because I am a human.

I am not a computer, I'm not trying to be a computer.

And those small variations will add warmth and depth to the eye, especially as they're repeated across different spaces of the quilt.

But custom quilting versus computerized is that you do get a little bit more of a natural human element to it.

There's a warmth to it.

Yeah.

I mean, I like computerized quilting too, but I like to mix them so that you see kind of both happening at the same time.

I want to reach a different section of my quilt.

And of course, the spaces on this quilt are so monstrous, so it's going to be easier for me to reach them if I actually roll this quilt forward a little bit so that I have more room, because I'm going to go in those green petals and we're going to do some free motion designs.

That is a different type of feather that is a little bit more forgiving too.

And it's called a lettuce leaf or a molar.

Have you heard that?

I have not heard that expression.

So we did a curl and now we're going to do so.

Think about your tooth, your molar, and how the top of it has a little a little bow, a little, dip.

Interesting.

Yep.

And like, where the cavity is, you you or the top of a lettuce leaf has a little edge to it.

So that's what we're going to do.

And I have inspiration from everywhere.

You really can.

You really can.

So, I've done it, on one side of my, space here.

And what I did is I kind of.

This to me, looked a little bit like a Lone Star unit.

So it has that diamond shape to it.

And so what I did is I took my, my marking device, and I just divided the space up, and it's a little hard to see on the green.

You could use a white chalk if you need it to shout at you a little bit more.

What I need to do is I need to to kind of draw a spine here of a place to, to mimic or to fill.

And I've kind of tried to do a little bit of the opposite of what's already here, but it doesn't have to be that way.

And I'm going to start in the middle ish.

And again, this is a great place to if you have like matching threads, don't stress too much.

Just try it.

Just jump in and try it.

I'm going to start in the middle of that space.

I'm not committed to that curvy line that I did.

It's a suggestion.

It's not a rule.

And I'm going to start out by doing a little curl, and I'm going to go up and I'm going to curl to the base and I'm going to put a little, kind of curly, Q tip on that.

And then I'm going to head back to where it started.

And since I had this one kind of going to, towards me, I'm going to have this, curl on the other side.

I'm going to have it kind of going towards you and coming back to that spine.

And now we're going to build those lettuce leaf or those molar feathers.

So these don't touch each other.

They aren't back tracking.

So they're very simple to do.

And the great thing is because each one is slightly different.

The eye doesn't go, oh, you weren't perfectly symmetrical right there.

It all kind of blends in.

So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to kick out and I'm going to do a little dip at the top, and I'm going to put a little vein in it as well.

I come in, I'm going to do a little dip at the top, let it come in and put a vein at the top, a little dip, a little vein.

And literally that is what's going on in my head or I will get lost.

Now this very tippy top part here, I think I'm going to put a little curly, like a little a little curly Q and then head back down.

And now I'm going to do the other space and I'm going to fill in with a little guy first, just to fill in that space and then kick out.

And each one of these should be different.

And they will be different.

All right then I'm going to head back down again.

And now I'm going to do this bottom half of my lettuce leaf coming in this direction.

I really want it to pull in to meet kind of at the base.

So I need to really think about the direction I'm going to go with my, with my spine.

And I'm just going to draw it here a little bit more prominently to give myself a guideline.

All right.

So now we're going to do Lettuce Leaf, coming down towards me.

And that's fine.

All right.

And now we're going to do the opposite side.

So do you see the lettuce leaf or the molar?

That's really neat.

You see it.

So you just have to think that at the top, you just have to do a little a little dip.

And so when I, because I took this large space and broken into smaller spaces, this whole spray of lettuce leaf, feathers are just going to kind of frame out the whole passion flower.

So I'm coming every direction, every angle of that.

Right, right, right.

All right.

So, the other thing I wanted to show you is up here, and I'm just going to roll that quilt right on back and just show you.

So, the those arrow blocks that we were looking at when we were piecing it, they really frame out this quilt so nicely, and they really pull the eye into the center of the frame.

And so I used a straight edge ruler to do that, to bring my, my, lines down.

And so I have repeating lines that just continue and repeat themselves.

The eyes are going to go, oh, this is where you want me to look.

Got it.

And it'll pull it into the center.

But they're very long lines.

And of course, a lot of long arm rulers, are shorter, right?

They fit in one hand.

And that's too much of a negative space, a too much place to travel with a short.

I'd have to market beforehand.

And you can mark it right when it's on the frame.

You can also grab a longer ruler.

But even this long ruler, I wasn't able to reach there.

So you have to really position those rulers well or pre mark them.

Okay.

So, think about think about, straight lines as drawing the eye and think about curved lines as softening space.

And the two the space between them is a great place to put some, filler designs.

So those super long lines, because if you look, here I'm going to move the machine over here, take a look at how long this line would be, because I was thinking from this point all the way over to the top of this point would be such a great way to frame out the whole quilt.

But goodness gracious, if I had to use that with my ruler, how in the world do I aim my ruler so that I can get that super long line?

Because I want to do a super long line from here all the way to here.

And then if I can echo that.

So again, a super long line from the tippy tip all the way to the tip of that, flower would give me an echo and again, carve out negative space that I can fill with free motion.

But to do that with a ruler and know where to aim super hard.

So this is where I told you I like to combine ruler work with free motion.

I also like to throw in some computerized work too, because the computer is so good at super straight long lines and connecting points.

So what I want to do is let's like let's lower the table.

Okay, pull up a comfy chair.

Yeah.

And let's engage the computer and let's start, dropping some lines that we can fill with some free motion.

Sounds good.

Well, this is kind of fun.

I can quilt with friend.

Yeah.

I'm glad to have you on this side of the table.

Yeah.

So just sitting here chilling out, let's pull some lines and start to divide the space up and frame this quilt out.

Sounds good.

So, on the computer, I'm going to actually, like, for sure, you can always, like, pull in a design and drop a design into a block or a border or a corner, but we're interested in pulling a straight line from a specific point to another point.

And so in this case I'm just going to mark those points.

So I'm going to hover my needle over the first point that I want where I want it to start.

So I'm hovering my needle right over that tip.

And I'm just going to say add a point.

And then I'm going to drag my needle over to the top of that, triangle and add a point.

And then I'm going to go back to, my next point and click in that point.

And then what I want to do is I want to actually quilt that, line that I drew.

So we're going to go, go ahead and we're going to pull our bobbin.

So it's going to move to that first, place.

And you can see where the green circle is.

That's my start.

And where the red circle is.

That's my end.

So it knows right where that is.

It's going to take us.

I'm going to go right where I am.

It's going to take a single stitch, and then I'm just going to sweep underneath and bring that bobbin thread up to the top.

And I can take some little tiny tacking stitches here.

And then I'm just going to say, all right.

So it and so it knows exactly what, you know that degree is and it'll so it just fine.

And I just sit back and watch it.

All right.

There you go.

Look at you.

What a good job you're doing.

And I will say that a diagonal line on a longer machine is one of the hardest things to do, because, it moves so smoothly that it's hard to keep it on that diagonal, whereas the computer has no problem at all keeping it on the diet.

This is a place where we want to take out the human element.

Yeah, because if I wobble or bobble or that line isn't perfect, the eye will go right to it.

Obviously, it's one of the annoying things about the eye is that it can spot symmetries.

So, so well.

Okay, so it got there to the end.

And I'm just going to take some little tacking stitches again to tack off my threads.

And then I'm just going to bring that bobbin thread here up to the top.

Needle down needle up and clip that thread.

So there's our space to play.

And you know, in looking at it, Sara, you know how we did those little curls on this side of that curve?

I'm really thinking that it would be kind of fun to do that in this space.

That wasn't my original intention.

My original intention was to do more of a dense, freehand filler inside of here.

But I might be changing my mind, I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know.

All right, so we did the lettuce leaf, and we did it with me in control.

Right?

I'm going to have the computer if you're like.

That's nice, Angela, but I don't think I can do molars in lettuce leaves.

Right.

Let's use the computer to fill the space instead.

So again, it's so there's so it's so big.

Let's just roll this all forward.

And I have a space here.

And so it's okay as you're quilting to kind of move back and forth throughout the space of the quilt.

It is you don't want to go too far.

So think about when a newspaper rolls up.

You know how it splays out.

The same thing happens with your quilt sandwich.

Okay, so I don't want to go too far or it'll start to shift on me.

Okay, but this little bit back and forth, not a problem.

If I went all the way to the end of the quilt.

Big problem.

That's an issue.

Big problem.

Okay, so let's go back to our placement and I'm just going to remove all of those placements that we did.

And this time what I want to do is I, instead of stitching the area, I just want to give myself a clear indicator of where this, space is.

So I'm going to fill it.

So all I'm doing is I'm just adding some marks here.

So I'm just clicking in the points where I want this pattern to be dropped into so I can visually see, when I'm done, if it'll fit into that spot.

I'm not going to put a butterfly in there.

Yeah, I'm not going to do that.

So let's go ahead and I'm going to select a different pattern.

And I think I've got some good ones.

There's a lettuce leaf.

And so it's not sized, it's not rotated correctly.

Right.

But I can certainly, go in and choose to place it.

I'm going to choose a two point placement and I'm going to choose it to stretch.

And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to hover my needle, kind of where I think this lettuce leaf should end.

Okay.

And then I'm going to hover my needle where I think this lettuce leaf should begin.

And now it's too big.

Do you see that?

So I can immediately tell that it's too big.

And so I could I did stretch, I could change it to fit.

Well, now he's too fat this way.

So I need to do stretch, but I need to adjust my, my start.

And I need to adjust my end.

And I can just sit here and click and click a click until I like what it looks like, because the starting point isn't at the very tip of the leaf.

It's a little bit further in there accommodating for that excess.

Right.

And I went too far.

And once I get it we can stitch it out I think I like that it looks pretty good.

Yeah.

All right so let's stitch it okay.

So I'm going to go over here and I'm going to say pattern.

And I'm going to say quilted.

And let's go ahead and pull that bobbin.

Excellent.

And we'll bring it on here.

And we will let it stitch Sara.

And then we will come back and chat about it.

How about that.

That sounds good.

I can't wait to see it.

Yeah.

It's fun to watch it happen, isn't it?

It is.

There it is.

Okay, I'm just going to do, a little bit of a, tacking stitch and then we'll be able to see, see how it stitched out.

And of course, I don't want to compare this to my sleeves, because this is perfection and mine is being a human.

But isn't it gorgeous?

It's very pretty.

So there's other ways you can audition designs and spaces.

We clicked on the diamond and we placed a pattern and kind of sized it.

You can even, take a photo of your quilt and pull it in and start laying patterns on top of a photo and audition designs that way.

It's a great way to use the computer to kind of see it before you stitch and visualize it.

Yeah, well, another really inspiring lesson here.

And, just can't wait to practice few lettuce leaves myself.

Yeah, draw it on paper first, then take it to your machine, grab a pencil, tips and other useful information.

Coming up next.

Okay, this is kind of a comical little note here from Lila Reaper of Packwood, Washington.

She says, I have a really hard time layering my quilts, hanging everything over the table, and praying it all ends up smooth and comes together.

Not to mention an aching back just wasn't any fun at all.

Forget about curling on the floor.

I'm too old for that, she says.

I went vertical, I attached the backing to two by two boards.

Yeah.

I placed the top boards on brackets and let gravity help me do the work to smooth and straighten.

I use fabric adhesive on the upper part of the batting to hold it up and in place, and I roll the layered quilt with the top board until my job is done, she says.

The only wall I have to do this on is in my husband's workshop.

He is very supportive of her quilting and she is very supportive of his poker.

Funny how that works.

Cute, right?

That's very good.

Sara, this one is really ingenious.

This is from Anne Eden from Shreveport, Louisiana, and she says, if you're running, if you're trimming a block down with a bumpy center seam, your ruler could rock and cause miss cuts.

So she says three layers of paper towels with a center cut out.

Put that over that bumpy seam and that will help that ruler stay stable without slipping in that bumpy seam doesn't get in your way.

That is an excellent idea, I like that.

Thank you so much for sending in your tips.

We would love to see the tip that you have, and we love.

Props to.

Thanks for watching.

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Funding for Love of Quilting is provided by.

The Bernina 990.

If it can be imagined, it can be created.

APQS longarm quilting machines allow you to express your creativity.

APQS quilt forever.

The Warm Company manufacturer of battings and fusibles is for quilts, crafts and wearable arts.

Panasonic, maker of the 360 degree freestyle, cordless iron, magic quilting and crafting collection, ironing sprays, and more.