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Before I jump into this week’s “topic”, I just have to share an email I received from Peg:
“This is a great post. I do have a question. Can’t you simply measure the diagonal of the raw edge blocks, average them, and cut your squares that size plus 1 1/2?”

My response? – I wish I’d thought of that!!! So, instead of laying out 2 blocks and measuring the space between their points (as in last week’s post):

you’ll get the same results by simply measuring the diagonal of an unfinished block:

Either way the result is 8 1/2″ for these 9 patch blocks and 1 1/2″ can be added to that, resulting in 10″ squares that will be cut on both diagonals! Thanks Peg!

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And now for this week’s topic!

A number of quilters have recently asked about my Quilt Float system. It’s not a medieval torture device, but rather a great way to make quilting a large quilt less stressful.

The time to revisit this topic has arrived! I wrote my original post back in 2012. Many of you weren’t reading my blog back then, so this is for you 😊 – or for anyone who’d like a refresher.

The idea behind this contraption is to “lift” the weight of the quilt so that it doesn’t pull and drag as we quilt large projects. It works with any sit down machine. My studio is finished so I can’t hang things from the ceiling, but if you sew in an unfinished basement, you could easily hang the chains from nails in the rafters and avoid the support structure altogether.

To “build” your Quilt Float I’m reposting portions from that first post in 2012 here, along with some updated photos. It begins with helpful set up hints for quilting large projects:

“Before we get to the actual frame, there’s a few tips I’d like to share. If your sewing machine is in a cabinet – great. It is also helpful to have some support to the left of the machine. If you don’t have any, placing an adjustable ironing board there is a good solution.

If you don’t have a cabinet you will want to find a way to avoid “sewing on a mountain”, ie: with the machine perched on top of a table or desk. Even table extenders don’t solve this problem with a large quilt because pins and folds of quilt get caught on the edges. My best suggestion is to place a card table in an “L” against your kitchen table or a banquet table. Then set the machine on a tv tray in the inside corner with enough magazines to make the bed of the machine flush with the tables.

Now you’re ready to float the quilt. All of these supplies can be purchased at your local hardware store.”

2 Lengths of Chain (approximately 18” long – links should be 1 ½” long)

2 Bull Nose Clips (1”)  These can be found with office supplies. They are inexpensive and will clip and unclip the chain together very easily to adjust the height of the floating quilt.

2 Spring Clamps (6” long) These are plastic, fairly inexpensive and have holes in the handle ends for attaching the chains. They squeeze to open.

2 Slide Clamps (36” long)  Both the old fashioned “C” clamps that screw to tighten or the deluxe new ones that pump tight will work.

Choose the best quality clamps you can afford. I took my husband shopping and thus I own the Cadillac of clamps, but I did wait until they were on sale. They are very easy to use! It’s important to have a hole in the bar at the non-clamp end for a rod or bolt to go through.

1 Top bar – you’ll want the “Quilt Float” positioned about 1 ½ feet behind the sewing machine. Depending upon your space, you’ll need to choose a “top bar” option:

1. If your table/cabinet is less than 6’ wide and more than 1½’ deep you’ll want to place the clamps on the sides (as in the clamp photo above). For this arrangement you’ll need: 2 bolts and 2 wing nuts that will fit through the holes at the ends of the Slide Clamps, and a length of aluminum slat that measures at least a foot longer than the width of your table/cabinet, with holes at even intervals along the length (mine had no holes so my husband drilled them to fit my table – he also painted it black 😊).

2. If your table/cabinet is more than 60” wide and less than 2 feet deep, you’ll want to place the clamps along the back of the table. For this arrangement you’ll need to buy a ¼” diameter Steel Rod (4’ long). This is the arrangement I used at retreat:

The rod will slide through the hole in the end of the long clamps.

And that’s it! Attach your support frame to the table, place your quilt under the machine, reach back and grab a handful of quilt with the spring clamp (as in the photo at the top of this post. Voila – your quilt is floating and the process of quilting will be much more enjoyable. I guarantee it!

And just out of curiosity – are any of you using a Quilt Float of this design? Please comment or email me at .

In November I posted about the fun I had using rulers to quilt our new, king size bed quilt. After finishing it I wanted to machine quilt some more – can you believe it!?!

We have a friend who is going through a particularly difficult time right now. He recently showed quite a bit of interest in my quilting, so I decided to go through my pile of unfinished class projects, layer one with plush fleece, and finish it to keep him warm this winter.

This ricochet method will work well with a walking foot on a domestic machine, but I had fun using it with a ruler on my mid-arm. I know quite a few quilting friends who have purchased the ruler foot for their home sewing machines, along with the necessary quilting rulers, but they have been hesitant to try them out. I highly recommend jumping in – but do it on a lap sized or smaller quilt 😊.

The lap sized top I chose was in my favorite warm shades of orange and brown, and was made up of oodles of half square triangle blocks.

I could have gridded the entire quilt on my home sewing machine with a walking foot, but this time I decided to have some free-motion ruler fun! I quilted all the long diagonals on the quilt with my channel ruler, connecting the corners of the blocks “free-motion”.

Each time I completed stitching the diagonal of a square, I’d slide the ruler down to the next intersection and continue the quilting line.

Now here’s the fun part – when I reached the edge of the quilt I simply repositioned the ruler on the perpendicular diagonal and “bounced” up in this new direction, as if the stitching was ricocheting off the edge of the quilt. If you are using a walking foot on your home sewing machine, the quilt would simply need to be rotated in the new direction.

I continued to bounce around the quilt in this manner and only had to stop and restart 4 or 5 times to complete the quilt. In a matter of a few hours it was done! I trimmed the fleece around the quilt at 1″, and folded it up to make a nice soft self-binding.

And here’s the quilting from the back. I think the quilting looks great on the fleece.

We gave it to our friend and he seemed quite pleased! What a blessing to be able to give a gift of love and warmth. I know so many generous quilters who make quilts out of love for others and I’m sure you all understand the joy that comes from giving a gift from your heart! Praise the LORD!

I’ve played a bit with bobbin work over the years, and have even taught a few classes on this fun technique.

Recently we held a small challenge in our ThreadBenders group entitled “Thread Bending”. The idea was to make a small whole cloth quilt using stitching only – no piecing or appliqué.

A while back I’d begun a class sample to show the students in my Open Lab class how to stitch from the back of a layered quilt sandwich, directly on the motifs in a fabric with a large print. My back was covered with beautiful butterflies.

I decided this would be a great piece for the challenge. By placing a decorative thread in the bobbin, and changing it for each portion of the motif, lovely butterflies appeared on the front.

Once the decorative outlines of the butterflies were stitched, I turned the quilt to the front, filled in more of each butterfly with free-motion stitching in thinner, bright colored threads, added my own funky flower, and then quilted with echoing and spiraling.

I have learned over the years that red quilts are difficult to photograph – and this quilt was no exception. The colors are as bright and cheery as you can see in the detail photographs, but the intensity of the red background overpowers the background stitching, so I toned down the intensity to allow the quilting to show in the full view above. I hope you get the idea 😁.

If you decide you want to play around with bobbin work I highly recommend making a sample sandwich to experiment on, as getting the tension correct takes a bit of fiddling.

Purchasing a separate bobbin case for the non-drop-in bobbin machines can be very helpful. Mark it for bobbin work, and feel free to adjust the tension to get the right look on the quilt top. Sometimes I skip the tension spring on the bobbin altogether.

Drop-in bobbin machines are a little trickier. Begin by threading as usual and checking the top often. If the thicker threads don’t work, try not putting them through the spring and see what happens.

If you’ve done any bobbin work in the past, I’d love to see a photograph or two! Send them to me at: