Rulers with domestic machines
 

Do any of you use rulers (those designed for longarms) with your domestic machine quilting? There are so many of them now and a few look like the might make life easier than having to mark all the time.

If you have used them, what rulers did/do you use and what is your experience?

Dray

I quilt on a longarm, but thinking of where your hands must be to quilt on a DM would make me think you would need another hand to hold the ruler/template as both of yours are guiding the fabrice under the needle, whereas I can use one hand to guide head and the other to hold ruler, etc...but I may be thinking wrong.

Unless your DSM is on a frame it would be hard, really hard.

I tried it once and scared myself silly. I have heard that some people are successful with it...

Try it and see if it works for you.

Possible but would sure take some practice.

When I went to the quilt show in Des Moines last year I tried the sit down quilting machines (HQ Sweet 16 and Baby Lock Tiara - same machine). The HQ dealer had a long arm ruler on the HQ table and I asked if I could try it, and I did! Now, I was not wearing gloves like I normally would when FMQ on a domestic, so that made the whole experience a little more difficult, but I DID use the rule and I DID get *some* straight lines. It WILL take practice, just like FMQ but it can be done.

I have no idea which ruler it was, but I know it was a ruler made for a long arm because it was much thicker than a rotary cutter ruler. It was the length of my palm, and about 1/2 as wide. I positioned most of my left hand (ring finger to thumb) on the ruler with fingers pointing to the needle and the flat edge from pinky to wrist was off the ruler and on the quilt.

Quilt with rulers often
 

I quilt with rulers on my Janome quite often. It can be tricky to get used to it, but very do-able. There's a ruler foot for Janomes (for use on a frame system, but I use it on my stationary machine) that really helps reduce the chance of getting the ruler under the needle which is disasterous. There are several posts on my blog (www.freemotionquiltingadventures.blogspot.com) that show how I do it. There are even a few videos!

Using a long arm ruler is great for cross-hatching!

I need to get a few more rulers to try, but I have a straight ruler, a double curve ruler by Rhonda Beyer (both available from Quilter's Rule) and a few odd ball rulers. Straight lines and gentle curves work best, semi circles for continuous curves and pumkin seed patterns work well too. Having good non-slip spots on the ruler is essential!