Painters tape is one of my favorite quilt marking tools when hand quilting straight lines. I am sure many of you use this technique, but thought I would share how I lay this out with those of you who may not have tried it. I have nit used this in machine quilting, but I am sure it would work as well with the machine too, I would just be careful not to sew over the tape as it could gunk up your machine.
To put down the first piece to tape, it is important to make sure you have it straight, as all the other strips will be measured from that first strip.
I use the 45 degree angle on my ruler to line up on the outer edge of a border if I am wanting a diagonal line across the quilt. In this quilt that is the outer light blue border. The yellow block in the middle is set on point, and it will line up with one of the straight lines on the ruler.
Notice the tape on the ends of the ruler? That is to hold the ruler in place as I lay down the strips of tape.
One I have the first tape strip down, it is just a matter of lining up the ruler with the tape edge and adding another strip. I am spacing these 1" apart as my tape is 1" wide, but you could do them closer are further apart as you prefer.
I will quilt on both sides of the tape.
And here is the quilt all marked and ready to quilt. This is a small wall hanging, so I taped the entire thing.
The sunshine was shining bright into my dining room when I took this picture which explains the shading on the quilt. It had been days on end since we had seen that kind of sunshine, so I decided to leave the picture as is.
It is fun as I quilt to pull the the tape off as I finish a row and see my nice straight lines. Also a good way to see how much you have done, and yet to go.
I close with a picture of my sweet granddaughter, Tori. She was smiling at her Momma. The quilt she is sitting on is one I made for my mother. It is hand quilted as Momma did not believe it was a quilt if you machine quilted it..old school all the way. She was a great quilt maker and made many quilts for the family. When I gave her this quilt, she said it was the only quilt anyone had ever made for her. I miss you, Momma.
Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa
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