Originally Posted by rryder

I've done a lot of ruler work on larger sized quilts--over sized Double bed quilts and also 1 Queen. I have a Brother PQ1500s, (9" to right of the needle) that I'm now using for most of my quilting but before that I did ruler work using my vintage Brother VX560 (6-7 inch to right of needle) and also on my Brother PC420prw (7 inches to right of needle). I've used both the Westalee foot (on the smaller Brothers) and the Janome convertible free motion foot with the ruler foot attachment on my PQ1500s. As long as you have good support on all sides of your quilt and are comfortable managing the bulk of the quilt (I like to just squish or "puddle" it around the machine) it's no harder to do ruler work on the large quilts than it is to do regular free motion quilting on larger quilts. There is a learning curve since you need to remember to keep the ruler against the foot and you have to estimate a quarter inch space away from your intended end point, but really, if you can already FMQ, then you can do ruler work on your domestic machine.

I use the rulers as a way to avoid having to spend much time marking, and also I have a couple of the neat specialty ones that make snowflake patterns and curlycue patterns--those are fun to just plop down on the quilt. There are also some marking tools that allow you to quickly mark out parallel lines, or radiating lines and you can use those marks in conjunction with the marks on your rulers to do lots of cool things.

I like to use a combination of ruler work and FMQ, so for example, I might use rulers to make a nice straight line grid that I then fmq some fillers for texture. Or I might use a ruler to make a nice curve to be the spine of a feather, and then freehand the feathers. I've also gotten to where I prefer to just leave my ruler foot on all the time--I find that for me the visibility is every bit as good as with even an open toe quilting foot because I know exactly where in the foot the needle is going to land and I know that the edges of the foot are exactly 1/4" from the needle all the way around--this is great for echoing (which is a good way to keep your quilting continuous line while moving around the quilt).

You can do designs that require lots of stops and starts, or you can move straight from a ruler design into a freehand design without breaking thread once you learn and get comfortable with some freehand filler and background patterns. The main thing is lots of practice with quilt sandwiche and practice doodling with pen and paper. Even though you are moving the quilt, not the machine, doodling designs with pen and paper helps your brain figure out how to move from one area to another without breaking thread (continuous line doodles) and that is a skill that will enable you to move all around your quilt without breaking thread too often.

Rob