Rhythmical Ruler Work

To me it is a bit like a dance.  Line the ruler up, stitch the line, repeat.  I started out the morning stitching each triangle individually.  Now that was tedious.  Cutting the thread at the end of each triangle took time and wasted thread.  I wondered if I couldn't figure out a different way to avoid all that wasted time and thread.

When I FMQ on the domestic machine I would simply move the quilt to a new starting point without cutting the threads.  It worked there, I figured it would work on the frame.

I started in a common corner of several triangles.  I stitched all the way around and then I put the machine on the longest stitch and stitched over to the center of the corner of the adjacent triangle, set the stitch length back to normal and went for it.  Heck I could do up to five triangles with that method.  It worked great.

First I stitched along arrow 1, across arrow 2 and back to the starting point along 3.  Then I would baste stitch to one side and because I would end up almost back to the same corner, I could jump over to the other corner of the third triangle.  I will  have some trimming to do at the end, but that would be a whole lot easier than starting and stopping that machine many, many times.

The small 6 inch ruler is a nice size but the Quilter's Apothecary ruler became my favorite for this job.  It has useful, visible markings.  The smaller ruler doesn't.  The angled handle is nice, too, but sort of weighed it down at times.  I just can't get the hang of the Dritz stitch in the ditch ruler.

 I finished two blocks.  I have four to go.  I am sure that with experience I will get faster but ruler work is just slower than Hand guided free motion.  It is a simple fact.  But it doesn't matter.  Every time I quilt, I learn something new.  Sometimes, it is just about racking up the hours.