Free Motion and Ruler Quilting on a Longarm
It’s time to quilt our 10th block for the Friendship Quilt Along! I’ve picked Stippling and a Square Spiral to quilt on my Grace Qnique 21 longarm. Learn lots of tips for free motion quilting and ruler foot quilting on a longarm in this new video:
Click Here to find the pattern for this block. The Square in a Square Surprise block is perfect for showcasing four of your favorite fabrics in the larger square-in-a-square units. You’ll also get rid of lots of fabric in that super scrappy border!
Check out the Qnique 21 and Continuum Quilting Frame I’m using in this video. I love having this maximum amount of space to quilt these huge blocks!
Free Motion Quilting on a Longarm
Longarm machines are designed for free motion quilting. It’s basically the only thing they can do! You can’t piece quilts with a longarm because they don’t have feed dogs like a normal sewing machine.
When mounted on a frame, you can move the longarm machine easily in all directions and free motion quilt much faster. If your longarm has a stitch regulator, all your stitches will remain the same size and shape, no matter how fast you drive the machine. (Well, actually there is a limit to the stitch regulator so you shouldn’t try to drive TOO fast!)
When quilting Stippling on a large scale, my goal was to quilt the design consistently through the scrappy border of this quilt block. I wanted to keep at least 1 inch between the lines of quilting so the block would finish up nice and soft. Even though I can move the longarm very quickly over the frame, I try to quilt more slowly so I maintain great control over my quilting design.
Ruler Quilting on a Longarm
For the center of the block, I decided to quilt a Square Spiral. I’ve used this design many times before and here’s a video on how to quilt this using your walking foot.
This was a great choice because the straight lines of the spiral overlapped the Square-in-a-square units, but ended up lining up with the center square perfectly. I love how that worked out!
I’m sure you noticed right away I’m quilting with a brand new ruler! This is the Ditcher quilting ruler, and it’s specifically designed for stitching in the ditch, echo ditching, travel stitching on straight lines, and spacing lines like you saw in this video.
No, the Ditcher ruler isn’t available quite yet, but it will be very soon!
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
More Friendship Quilt Along Tutorials
How to Piece Square Units for the Square in a Square Block
Square in a Square Surprise Piecing Tutorial
How to Quilt the Square in a Square Surprise Block on a Home Machine
