I {heart} ruler quilting – read this and you will too!

The heart wall quilt is almost complete! In yesterday’s post we assembled the top and started to quilt this pretty wall quilt. The PFAFF performance icon continues to impress with all its features, making it enjoyable to add texture and creativity at each step of the process. Now it’s time to add even more quilting using a quilting ruler.

I removed the accessory tray and attached the extension tray so there would be a larger flat surface for the wall quilt to move across when using the ruler.

PFAFF performance icon with extension table attached

I attached the Ruler Foot to the machine. Take a close look – it has little cut-outs on the circular part to make it easier to see the needle.

Ruler foot

The PFAFF performance icon is a free-motion quilter’s dream! It has several options to use different presser feet to allow for a variety of quilting designs. Each foot comes with information on which option to select, but the name of these options is also pretty clear.

TIP To leave the free-motion setting on the machine, go to the machine settings screen (press the gear) and deselect the setting by clicking on the checkmark beside the free-motion setting. The feed dogs will come back up when the next stitch is selected.

Free-motion options menu

I used the heart ruler from the INSPIRA Ruler Foot Template Collection and the PFAFF Ruler Foot to add a circle of quilted hearts to the left side of the heart. I used the seam lines on the wall hanging itself as guides to start the ruler work.

I used the seam lines on the wall quilt as guides for the ruler work.

Heart quilting done with ruler.

I changed to the Clear Open Toe Foot for IDT System to add a row of stitches around the hearts to give them more emphasis.

Echo quilting around the hearts

I felt there were still a few spots that needed stitching inside the heart, so I used the larger, symmetrical Serpentine Stitch 2.2.10 and Presser Foot 8 to sew a few rows on the heart surface. On the left side I started a line of this stitch and stopped it when it touched the echo quilting line around the hearts, then I restarted it below. I used the larger Serpentine Stitch in the selvage HSTs as well.

Large Serpentine Stitch quilted in the heart.

Trim and bind

I originally planned to do a facing on the wall hanging, but I found this light purple large polka dot fabric in my stash and thought it would be perfect for the binding! I trimmed the wall hanging, made a hanging sleeve, and started to pin the binding to the back of the wall hanging. I sewed the top edge of the hanging sleeve under the binding as I went. Then I folded the binding over and pinned it in place on the front edge, covering the stitching line from sewing the binding to the back.

I used the standard presser foot to sew the binding to the front. I like the guide marks on it; I used the inner left red guide as my sewing line guide. It’s pretty impressive how easily so many layers of fabric feed evenly on this machine. I’m always impressed by the precision and power of the PFAFF performance icon!

Sewing binding to the front of the wall hanging

The binding went on so smoothly! I still need to hand sew the bottom edge of the hanging sleeve to the backing, but I will get to it (for now pins work!). I included this photo so you can see the large Serpentine quilting stitch on the selvage background fabric, and my neat binding corner:

Large serpentine quilting in selvage background fabric.

This week I’ve enjoyed the creative challenge of embellishing the heart wall quilt. The PFAFF performance icon provides a wealth of options and makes it easy to use them too. I hope I’ve inspired you to be creative with your quilting too!

The heart wall quilt

This is part 5 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 4: Stitch in the ditch – it’s what you use, not what you know

Print this page or save as a PDF