Quilts in the Garden

I've only missed getting one of my monthly UFO Challenge projects finished so far this year, and that was the month of April.  Well now I've remedied that, and I'm happy to have my mini Jo Baskets quilt from one of my Jo Morton Clubs finished...even if it is a little late :)

I've never done any ruler work when machine quilting so I decided to play with some rulers when quilting this one.  I used these two HQ Handi Gadgets, the Versa Tool and the mini scallop ruler.  (They are thicker than regular rotary cutting rulers to work with the hopping foot of my HQ Sweet 16.)

I used the straight edge of the Mini Scallop ruler to do the stitch in the ditch work.  Once I got going I found it pretty easy to just hold the ruler in place and move the quilt along with the ruler, keeping the hopping foot along the straight edge of the ruler.  The Versa Tool has a straight edge too, but the Mini Scallop ruler has a little longer of a straight edge, without it being too long to handle. 

Both of these rulers have a stop on the end so that I don't run off the edge of the ruler, and the little line on the stop helps to line up the ruler with the seam line automatically allowing for the width of the hopping foot so that my stitching is right in the ditch.
 

Then after marking a center line with chalk, I used the concave curved edge of the Versa Tool to quilt  these little leafy shapes.  It moved along pretty quickly once I got the hang of placing the ruler about 1/4" away from the line to allow for the width of the hopping foot.  (I do recommend a little practice on a scrap piece before starting any machine quilting project.)

I do this shape a lot when machine quilting, but this tool allowed me to make them so symmetrical.

Then I played with the same kind of shape on the little baskets. 

It was a beautiful day out today so after I did some weeding I couldn't resist a little photo shoot in the garden ...

Don't you just love the look of quilts in the garden ~ this one just may have to hang here on the back gate on pretty days just to make me smile :) 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn