Rulers

I thought this month that I’d focus on technical stuff.  I saw on UKQU Facebook group that people ask for recommendations for various quilt making items.  I think that it is an individual thing because of what quilters make and how they work.  Over the years as well as amassing fabric, I’ve also gained a lot of tools.

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So for this post I will be looking at Quilting rulers.  Starting off with the first ruler that I had along with my first cutting board, then I went larger with both. I’ve placed my rulers against the wardrobe door. The original ruler is 2nd from left.  You will notice that I have washi tape on the ruler as I marked where I had cutting lines. From left to right are 24” x 6”, 18 x 6”, 12 x 6” and 8.5” x 4.5”.  The last one I find really useful when cutting small shapes and especially when trimming postcards.

Another type of ruler is the square ruler and I have 2 sizes, 6.5” and 12.5” for squaring up quilt blocks. 

Recently when cutting strips for my friend, she had a June Tailor Shape cutter, which has slots every half inch for a rotary cutting blade.  Having found this useful I bought one myself from Amazon and it is so easy for strip cutting and as you will see it has angles like most rulers have, so it’s useful for cutting bias strips. All the rectangular rulers are stored in between the fabric boxes so they are accessed easily.

I also have some specialist rulers too, which I’ve gathered over the years.  These are mainly different type of triangle ones. They don’t seem to be used that often but they do have their uses. 

Here are my collection. I’ve put these shapes on my block board, so please excuse all those threads!

First is my 60 degree equilateral triangle ruler.  Again, I found that placing washi tape is useful for marking and it also identifies that it’s my ruler. Comes in handy when at workshops.

Above is a 2 peaks in 1 ruler, turning around for the half triangle. This may look a little like to the 60 degree one, but laying one on top of the other the angle is narrower- it’s 57 degrees. Often used for rectangular shapes.

 

The above pic shows a half square ruler, an Easy Angle ruler, which I don’t use often the markings are on both sides of the ruler.  I also had a free one from Today’s Quilter from a few years back.

A few different rulers this time. At the bottom is a Dresden plate ruler, which is found useful for tumbler blocks too when using the wide end measuring up.  There’s another washi tape marker.  I’ve also got a hexi ruler, but unfortunately it measures the height of the hexi not the side measurements. 

I’ve got a couple of rulers that I bought on a whim, but are hardly used and these are half circle and half heart.  I find them easier to use with a pencil in the slots then cut with scissors or free rotary cut.

All the shape rulers are stored in a small Seasalt hessian bag along with their instructions.

So that’s my ruler collection.  How do you use yours?