Last week it was my turn to use my midarm quilting machine. I quilted a top that has been waiting for several years. Its fun to have it done, but I can surely tell that I have improved at piecing. If you look closely, you will see that several star points are lost. I hope I wouldn't let that happen now. The quilt's name is Oh My Stars.
Here is a detail of the quilting.
I gave a demonstration on rotary cutting to some brand new quilters (and some not so new) at a brand new quilt guild called Quilters Anonymous today. It's always good to be reminded of basics.
Line folded fabric up with a horizontal line on your cutting mat. The folded side should be towards your body with selvedge edges at the top away from your body.
With fabric to the left for right handers, place ruler on a line on your mat, matching top and bottom on the same line and cut with rotary cutter to square the end of the fabric. This insures that your strips will be straight when you unfold them.
Placing your index finger on the grooves on the top of your cutter handle will give you better control of your rotary cutter. Always cut away from your body and never saw back and forth with your cutter.
To control your ruler better, place one or two fingers of your left hand off the ruler and hold ruler in place with fingertips, not the flat of your hand.
With fabric to your right, align a horizontal ruler line on the bottom fold of the fabric and a vertical ruler line (in this case 2 1/2") along left edge of fabric. Then make a cut from bottom to top through all layers of fabric.
Remember to be safe and always lock your blade when not in use.
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