Monday, June 9, 2008

Ride the Wave with Me~~~~~~

This is my new best friend: June Tailor and her Fancy Frame Ruler . (She has nice nails) Every quilt I make, I say to myself: Self, you need to get some new skills and try out that scalloped ruler. But I put it off because I'm afraid to do the math. Confession Number 72: I'm not very academically inclined. Corrie Dawn is. I'm not even sure what that really means, but I'm sure some insensitive adult said that to me once and it's stuck. So for this quilt, I went with the lesser of two evils....the wave. I'm sure I should have thought more about the mathematics of it all, but I decided to throw care to the wind and go forth with faith. I shall now tell you how I accomplished said feat.

Fancy Frame Ruler: One side is for scallops.(scary Rated R part) There are 4 different sizes you can choose from. And I'm sure with a calculator and a little mathmatical genius, you will be able to scallop your way to success. But that's for another day. The OTHER side is for a wave.(June is showing us the wave side) I went with the wave. The ruler is such that you can just use your rotary cutter and 'ride the wave'. I decided to use the 'wave' to mark my quilt first with my handy blue water soluble pen, to see how the corners would match up. I went around the whole quilt lining up the edge of the ruler about 1/4" in from the edge.
Corners: I just placed a dinner plate on each corner, again lining it up 1/4" from the edge, traced around it about half the circle and then fudged a little to meet and match up with the wave ruler markings. This is fudging. Once it was marked, and the corner and wavy sides met up okay, I cut on the blue line with my scissors. Blue pen will dissolve with water. Whether you wash it in washer or spritz with spray bottle. It WILL go away.


I thought I was going to have to do some major thinking and rearranging. Guess what? I didn't. It just totally worked. I have no idea why. But it looks fabulous. Each corner may not be exactly like the others but you cannot even tell. And believe me, it if was YOUR quilt, I'd be checking out your corners. I would not be able to tell. I folded it up to see if my corners were all different and dorky and HELLO?? it looks like I spent hours figuring this all out. Honestly, people. Don't be afraid of waves. Even on an overcast day in Idaho, the waves are 'bombin'! (yes, I just googled surfer slang and I find that there are quite a few parallel's to surfing and making waves on borders) Scallops..........well, that's a marine mollusk and I'm still not going there yet, but maybe someday.
With any type of curve you will need to do a bias binding. Lots and lots of places on the world wide web for instructions to make your own. Hmmm....I think I'll have to show you sometime how I do my bias tape. I love it! Or better yet, take your quilt to the store and BUY already made bias tape to match.


Good Luck! If I can do it, so can you. It was fun and now I'm going to put waves on EVERYTHING!!~~
UPDATE:6/14/08 My friend was able to find this ruler at her local Joann's for $17.99 US.

17 comments:

  1. You've inspired me! Whenever we get to where we are going sometime this month (we've leaving tomorrow) I'm going to do that on Sara's quilt, if I don't forget! Beautiful job!

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  2. Love the wave! I think I need that ruler, I know I need that ruler.

    Maybe it's the rebel in me but I'd love to see a rated "R" edge. Come on, just one edge can't hurt ;o).

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  3. Love it. I have to get one of these rulers now. It's really a perfect edge on a feminine sweet quilt like yours.

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  4. Thanks for the instructions and pictures. This is fabulous! So...why didn't you cut the wave with your rotary?
    Are you going to sell the rulers in the store at some point? I am not sure I am quite up to it yet but it is intriguing.
    cjnid at niwb dot net

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  5. Hmm...I didn't cut the wave out with the ruler because I wasn't sure it was going to work on the corners. So I opted to draw it out first. Then I was lazy and didn't want to go around and line up the ruler with my pen markings. The ruler is an awkward shape and it's long. Most of the shipping is with priority mail envelopes and boxes and the ruler wouldn't fit. So I don't know if Quilt Taffy will carry it or not.

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  6. Thanks for the tutorial! This kind of edging has been my fear forever. This actually makes me even think about trying it. Any suggestions on where to get it in Idaho? Do you carry it at the store? Liv your blog!

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  7. I confess I have that tool too! But never used it. My smart engineer daughter has used it though and so she doesn't need tips like I do. My husband's an engineer too. So with my (easy for him, hard for me) problems I usually ask one of them. I will do the wave. Thank you very much. It looks easy and its really cute on your quilt. I do want to do the scallops, too but eek. That scares me. You do it first!

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  8. i love your blog but usually only lurk...=(...so funny - i just posted about the fancy frame ruler yesterday...was wondering why the scallop markings aren't big enough to fit a marking pencil in? now i must try the waves thanks to your tutorial! the scallops can wait...=)...thank you! p.s would it be alright if i added your blog to my faves?

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  9. Purple: Good Point on why can't we mark the scallops with a pencil. Hmm...someone should mention that to June. :) You are welcome to add us to your list! Thanks!

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  10. Love it. I have been meaning to get one of those rulers to make some smancy fleece scarves. Now I have another reason to get it!

    Kimberlee - www.thespunkydiva.blogspot.com

    your newest follower

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  11. I do apparel sewing, not quilting, but I will say that scallops are a LOT easier than they look.

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  12. Did you cut before sewing on the binding - I've seen other tutorials that sew before cutting the scallops and I didn't know if you had an opinion on that. Thanks so much!

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  13. Yippeee! Can't wait to try this after completing my first handmade quilt that I am now working on. Thank you, thank you for this post.

    Lyric
    http://www.sewandcro.com

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  14. My daughter is having my first grand baby in a few weeks and I've been making receiving blankets, quilts and burp rags. I love this quilt and will be making it my next project! Thanks for sharing!

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  15. My daughter is having my first grand baby in a few weeks and I've been making receiving blankets, quilts and burp rags. I love this quilt and will be making it my next project! Thanks for sharing!

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  16. I have had this ruler for years been to afraid to use it followed your steps by step inst was easy and fun will use this again thank you

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  17. Thanks I have this ruler got it on clearance for $4.99 then had Joann Fabric coupon and got 20% off that price. Anyway that was over a year ago still in package LOL thanks I like how you used the plate. Now I know I can master this also THANKS

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