The Sewing Place
The Emporia => Patchwork & Quilting ... Welcome to the Darkside => Topic started by: supergran on January 18, 2018, 22:44:31 PM
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Has anyone tried quilting with rulers? I've been watching some youtube videos about it and now I'm fascinated. If anyone here has tried it I'd be grateful for any feedback as it seems to be a bit expensive if it turns out to be a bad idea. Thanks in advance. :D
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Sewing Quarter have done a few demonstrations of quilting with rulers, I forget the name of them. You need a special foot to fit to your machine. It looked successful from what I could see. Not something I fancy doing though. :vintage:
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I bought a set of Westalee rulers but haven't had time to play with them yet. I'm aiming to try some cushion covers soon so will report back.
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Thanks ellabella, that's them Westalee rulers :)
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I have a set of Bernina rulers and foot which I bought at FOQ last August (they were my 2016 Christmas present) and have had a little play so far. I think that it will take some time to get fully proficient with them but my initial practice doesn't look too bad. Manipulating a larger piece or a full quilt will take some doing or plenty of practice. One thing I learnt very quickly was that I needed to bring my Horn cabinet away from the wall as once the ruler hits you don't go anywhere.
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I would like to be able to try them out as I'm really not sure whether or not I would take to it. With the very, very little I've done I feel I'm leaning a bit more towards fmq.
On Cotton Patch (the only place they're available in the UK) a ruler foot and one curved ruler is £54.95 and a sampler set of rulers is £74.95. That's quite pricy if you're not sure. I'm tempted to try just the foot with the one ruler as there could be a lot of possibilities with just a straight and curved edge.
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The ruler foot for Bernina machines is £79.50.
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I recently bought the Handi Versa Tool by HandiQuilter. It’s quite small but has straights and curves on it. I am still at the stage of practicing with it, but it’s a good size for my small hands.
I didn’t want to go to the expense of buying the larger, more expensive rulers, in case I couldn’t ‘handle’ them, especially on a large quilt.
I also had to buy the 2pack of special feet for my Janome (about £25 if I remember correctly)
SG, one day I will make it up your way and pay a visit to Kate’s shop. Do you know if she sells basting spray?
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Do you know if she sells basting spray?
Empress Mills have a good Sale on at the moment ... they are offering 2 x the large size of 505 (usually £12.50 upwards in Emporia) for just under £20.... which is a fab price if you want to buy anything else (do Bears bare ??) to mitigate the £4.50 postage.
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Thanks for the replies girls. Blue Cat, Kate does sell 505 spray but it's very expensive there and I got my last one from Amazon for less than half the price. The Empress Mills one that Iminei mentioned is a good buy as well.
I'm still debating the rulers. I have a Bernina and their prices are so high! Cotton Patch only seem to do the Westerlee rulers, but Quilt Direct have more choices. They sell the Clarity ruler foot which is only about £28, although I'd still have to buy a Bernina shank for £17, then at least one ruler. I priced it up at £63.50, which is still cheaper than just a Bernina foot. I also looked at Silesian Quilt who have an online shop and also sell through Amazon. There's are amazingly cheap, £16.90 for a foot and £10 for a Bernina shank. They are based in London but their warehouse is in Poland. Don't know about the quality of them though. Maybe too cheap to be any good? I'll have to give it more thought. -<
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SG...from Amazon plus postage comes to around £14....is that about right?
Iminei...Empress prices are dearer (£12.50) plus £10 for EU postage
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Sorry BC, I thought you lived over here .. no clue in your profile box.
maybe you should have .... Sipping Sangria In Spain .... Or is that SG's moniker ?
It goes quite a long way at least two or three large quilts ... usually the nozzle bungs up before it runs out (clean with very hot water) but it does depend how you use it.
I always have 2 at home so I have advance warning of when I need to reorder.
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Blue Cat, yes it was something like 9.99 for 500 ml. I usually add one if I'mbuying something else as well. Might be worth getting a couple if you don't use Amazon very often and the postage should be the same for 2 of them.
Iminei, what a PITA! I hate it when you get show through. I don't like messing around with the tension either but if you remember exactly where you started from and just move the dial a little until you get it right, it should be ok? Does going slower while using the wide stitch make any difference?
Oops sorry Iminei, I'm on the wrong thread with this one.
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I usually use one can of 505 per quilt :|
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The large size 500 ml one? :o
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Blue Cat, where did you get your handiquilter ruler, and is it suitable for a rather small machine? I've got a Bernina 350 which has quite a small harp but I've got a large extension table on it so plenty room at the left of the needle and at the back.
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Think I got it from The Cotton Patch £22.50 plus postage.
It is nice small size (for small hands like mine) about 7x4 ins, and i think it’s suitable for any home sewing machine.
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There is this site
http://alysstitchyfingers.co.uk/
I saw a programme on Hochanda before Christmas where there was a demo.
I'm still toying with the idea but no closer to a decision.
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I'm still toying with the idea but no closer to a decision.
Likewise Maliw. Sometimes I'm dead keen and then I wonder how often I'd use it. -<
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Creative Grids have 4 Angela Walters quilting rulers for sale, each has a demonstration video on the website. They seem to be comparable in price with both the Westerlee rulers from The Cotton Patch and Hochanda, and the Alys Stitchy Fingers rulers. They also have a non-stick sheet for your sewing machine bed which is much less expensive than the one sold by Westerlee.
Might be tempted, I get 10% off at Creative Grids :devil:
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Thanks for that Kad, I'll have a look at those. I think I can get a discount at Creative Grids as well. I've been watching Youtube videos and am getting more keen on the idea of the rulers, but keep reading conflicting info on the thickness of rulers you should use on a short shank machine. Some say you should always use 1/4 inch thick ones even though they don't actually fit behind the foot, yet some of the Westerlee videos show them being used on the same machine as mine with no problem. What to do???
I actually had a little go using my ordinary free motion foot and a straight ordinary ruler (yes, I know they say not to) and with care it worked ok. Better to have the correct ones for regular use though.
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I'm still debating the rulers. I have a Bernina and their prices are so high! Cotton Patch only seem to do the Westerlee rulers, but Quilt Direct have more choices. They sell the Clarity ruler foot which is only about £28, although I'd still have to buy a Bernina shank for £17, then at least one ruler. I priced it up at £63.50, which is still cheaper than just a Bernina foot. I also looked at Silesian Quilt who have an online shop and also sell through Amazon. There's are amazingly cheap, £16.90 for a foot and £10 for a Bernina shank. They are based in London but their warehouse is in Poland. Don't know about the quality of them though. Maybe too cheap to be any good? I'll have to give it more thought. -<
Supergran, did you ever do anything about getting a ruler foot and rulers for your Bernina?
I have just found out that a local sewing machine shop is hosting a ruler demo in a couple of weeks. I am tempted, depending on how I feel when I see the demo, but am very reluctant to spend £79.50 for the Bernina foot.
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I posted earlier re Angela Walters rulers at Creative Grids, but I ended up buying the Janome Ruler Work Kit, (with 6 rulers plus a Cross Hair Ruler), designed by Leonie West, of Westerlee Rulers. They came with instructions, a dvd and a pattern to make a holder for the rulers.
I've practiced on a 3'square quilt sandwich and have just started on my latest quilt - takes a bit of getting used to especially on the larger quilt - all the demos that I saw used a small sandwich - but I think that I'm winning
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@Sewingsue I ended up biting the bullet and getting the Bernina foot as I saw a couple of youtbe tutorials that said some of the other brands wobbled a bit and I didn't want to risk damaging my machine. I got the versa tool by handiquilter at the same time and managed reasonably well with it on some parts of the mystery quilt. Then I got a couple of the ones by Silesian Quilt (look at them on Amazon) and the two I got worked very well, but you have to be careful how to position them on a small machine like mine. I would like to get the feather ones, but looking closer at the Silesian ones, they don't seem to have enough placement marks on them, so I think the Westerlee ones would be better. Tell us how the demonstration goes at the shop.
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Thanks Supergran, I wish you hadn't agreed with my concerns about buying other than Bernina.
I will wait until after the demo (although I have been watching the YouTube links) and then decide if I can justify the costs.
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I bought the Westalee Ruler Foot and some rulers to use with my Juki. After practising for a while I forgot to make sure my foot was completely lowered before lowering the needle......made a shocking noise when they collided and ended up needing a trip to the technician. It scared me so much I've packed the ruler foot and rulers away and doubt I'll use them again. And now I have a new Janome 8900 I'm even more terrified of damaging things. I just can't trust myself to remember to do things in a certain order when I have never had to do it before....."old dog, new tricks". :'(
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That must have been an expensive mistake RW. No wonder you don't want to use them again. Janome has it's own ruler foot, so it might be worth checking if you can lower the needle before the foot on the new machine. The Bernina one is made so that you can do it without risk, so a good reason for buying it I think, as I would be bound to forget at some point as well.
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I've managed to 'sew' my presser foot twice now with my 'new' machine. Nothing to do with quilting rulers, just blatant stupidity! I really need to read the instructions! :| :(
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I now have more info about the ruler demo on Saturday.
It looks as if she is using the Westerlee rulers and apparently they are offering a 10% discount on rulers ordered/bought on the day.
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The Westerlee ones seem to be the most popular and they make some beautiful designs. I hope you enjoy the demo.
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Was the demo today @Sewingsue ? How did it go?
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Was the demo today @Sewingsue ? How did it go?
Really good, thanks.
I was the only one in the morning so ended up getting a one-to-one demo.
They are going to check which adapter I need for my Bernina (none of us could work out for sure from their information) and I am getting the Westalee starter set. Carol who was doing the demo (I knew her from when she worked at a much missed quilt shop) showed me the next set and another make which she also uses, but she thinks and showed me that you can do a lot with just the basic set.
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Sewingsue If you go onto the Westalee website you can type in your machine brand and model and they will tell you which ruler foot you need and whether you need the adaptor shank as well. I know I needed it for my Bernina 710. I think the adaptor shank was foot number 77...not super sure, it was a while ago and I have since sold the Bernina and bits.
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I had looked @rubywishes , but I wasn't 100% sure about buying the generic foot plus adapter as I had heard concerns about going that way.
Carol said there had been a problem with another foot (can't remember the brand) not the Westerlee so I decided to go ahead and it only seemed fair to let the shop order. After all they are local and building the business and, with the promotion discount, not much more than I would have paid on-line.
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Yep, Sewingsue I agree...... nothing like having a good relationship with your local sewing place.......priceless and very, very handy! 0_0