New adventure - Ruler work on a domestic machine

Jackie on the hearts2hands group mentioned she was doing some ruler work on a quilt using her domestic machine.  That got me curious.  After watching a number of videos I bit the bullet and purchased a ruler foot that can be used on my Janome and Brother machines.  Westalee Designs make the ruler foot as well as numerous rulers.

There is no way I can explain the technique better than those at Westalee Designs.  So I won't try.  Watch their videos at your own risk if you are a quilter.  You'll want to give it a try.

Since I don't own an extension table for any of my machines I had to come up with some modifications.  A search on the Internet suggested using a Teflon oven liner.  Fabric would slide easily on it, and the liner would offer a stable platform for the rulers.  And an oven liner is a whole lot less expensive than an extension table!

Where to find one close to home?  DH isn't in to shopping on Sundays.  But I'm up for a walk.  The local grocery store didn't have one.  I checked the Giant Tiger close to home.  No luck.  I have to wait until tomorrow to get to a Canadian Tire or WalMart?  No way.  I want to play today.

Another search at Giant Tiger finds $4 collapsible boot boxes on sale for 50 cents.  They are made out of sturdy plastic.  Maybe that will work.  For $.50 I'll give it a try.

After cutting up the box to get a single sheet of heavy plastic here is what I get.

A bit small but wider than the rulers that came with the ruler foot.
Now to mark where to cut so the needle area is open.  And the bobbin case.  I don't want to have to move the plastic each time the bobbin needs to be changed.

Scotch tape will hold the plastic in place for this first test.  Next to get a practise quilt sandwich prepared.

 Of course I wouldn't start with anything easy.  After adjusting the height of the ruler I started trying to sew with curved lines.  It didn't go so well.

In fact it's pretty terrible.  Next up, straight lines.  Within minutes I could see an improvement.  I have a long way to go.  Stitches need to get consistent in length.  And I need to figure out how to guide the fabric and keep the ruler straight at the same time.  But it sure looks better than the curved stitching!  And this is in less than five minutes of practise.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the bobbin ran out of thread and I took that as a sign to stop for the day.