Prepping the Ruby Royale
I installed the Open-Toe Free Motion
Spring Foot on the Ruby Royale. Then
I selected the appropriate free motion
technique. In this case, Free Motion
Spring Action.
Next up – load the quilt beneath the
needle and pull up the bobbin thread.
Ready, set, quilt!
Notice that for the design that I was
quilting, I started at the bottom of the
quilt and worked my way to the top.
Sometimes, it's easier to see the design
that way. If what you have just quilted is
behind the needle, it's hard to see where
to quilt.
When you’re doing your practice stitch
outs – try starting at the top, then try
starting at the bottom. Which direction is
easier to see and quilt?
Just in case you are wondering about my
thread – I was using a cone of thread so
it was sitting on an external thread stand
behind the Ruby Royale.
I placed the Ruby Royale in my sewing
cabinet, making a nice flat surface to
work on. I have the extension surface on
the left hand side (it’s under the quilt)
and you can see as I was pulling the quilt
towards myself, the quilt is very nicely
supported by that extension surface.
You absolutely need something to support the quilt on the left. Otherwise, you
will struggle to support the quilt.
For some reason as I was quilting, I kept
hitting the screen and I was afraid of
changing a setting. It was easy to set the
Lock Screen function so that it didn’t
matter how many times I touched the
screen, no changes were made unless I
wanted them.
I love this feature. It’s brilliant!
The design
Let’s talk about the design. I’ve been contemplating confessing this to you and I
finally wrapped my brain around the fact
that I need to fess up. It's (was) a good
learning experience for me and hopefully
you won’t make the same mistake.
The quilt that I chose to “practice” on is
the one for the What’s Good for the Gal,
is Good for the Guy Challenge. That was
my first mistake.
It would appear that QUILTsocial has
become my confessional. While I’ve done
many hours of free motion on a domestic sewing machine, I’m out of practice.
I’ve been quilting smaller items on the
domestic sewing machine or quilting
on a long arm. So if I'm out of practice,
what possessed me to pick this one to
experiment on? Obviously – I was having
a delusional moment!
Let’s just say that I wanted an overall
design of vines and leaves on the quilt.
Note the word OVERALL. What do I tell
my students? Break up the quilt into sections – it’s harder to do an overall design
on a domestic sewing machine. It can be
done, but it’s harder.
Select the appropriate free motion technique
The other thing I tell the students – think
about density. I love dense overall quilting, but NOT on a lap or bed quilt. Gu W70