Rulers and Templates

I was working on a block for my quilt guild's mystery pattern of the month for a small group called Pieces of Blue and I needed my large square ruler to square up the block to 12½". I was looking right at my 4½", my 6½", and my 9½" square Omnigrid™rulers and I knew I had larger sizes. I did finally locate my 12½" x 12½" Omnigrid™ Ruler and squared up my blocks from January and February.

The ruler had been stashed away in one of the long drawers in my cutting table ... somewhere amidst the chaos of a huge accumulation of specialty rulers – some useful, some not-so-useful, some still awaiting their potential-usefulness to be tested. I emptied those two drawers in search of my 12½" x 12½" and made a huge mess. Oh, well, since the coronavirus COVID-19 has me staying at home and social distancing, this is my golden opportunity to clean out yet another drawer, shelf, closet, box, etc. It is also a time for retrospection and evaluation of the clunkers or star performers among my tools of the trade.

I spread out my collection on my cutting table surface and sewing machine cabinet, consolidating the rulers near the sewing machine. I would later group them by type and evaluate them. Then I stared with dismay at the random stuff left over on the cutting mat. My first step was to remove the obvious from the cutting mat pile. That set of yellow nested star templates at the upper left – purchased at a quilt show for a great bargain price I am sure – was a loser that had to go. It is intended for use in longarm quilting but mine is a sit down machine, a Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen, and I have learned that only the smaller rulers and templates, those that are within the span of my hand, will work for me. It is difficult to hold a large ruler fixed against the quilt sandwich while moving the fabric-ruler combination under the stationary quilting head. I will give this to a guild member with a longarm where the quilt is mounted on rollers and the quilting head moves. What was a clunker for me may be a star performer for her. I suppose I could keep the smaller stars but why break up the set?

See all those used Ziploc™ bags on the upper right? They were stuffed all over the place within that drawer. They were no longer of a quality to be used for food and yet how can something so useful be tossed? Waste not, want not. They will need to be sorted by size and tidied. That rolled up appliqué pressing sheet in the bottom middle I  moved to be with appliqué supplies and closer to the ironing board. I am not a fan of appliqué and so have had  little opportunity to use it – but I plan to. I moved the cutting mat cleaner beneath the appliqué pressing sheet to a drawer of smaller notions where I will see it more often. I have never used it. Maybe if I see it more often I will be inspired to clean my cutting mat.

Those Perfect Patchwork Templates I moved to be with the rulers. Now to the rulers and templates pile near the sewing machine. I divided these into categories: Wedge Rulers, Triangle Rulers, Fancy Angles, Curved Rulers, Other Shapes, Templates, Trimming Rulers. Do I really need all these? No. Do I really want all these? Maybe, maybe not. Where I have made a project using them I have put a link or photo.

Wedge Rulers

Marilyn Doheny rulers are in the black and white packaging and Phillips Fiber Art rulers are in the blue packaging. All of these I have used to make projects whose pictures follow.

• 9° wedge 11/14/2011 Spiral Thanksgiving table runner
• 10° wedge 01/13/2012 Turquoise and Grey table runner  
• 10° wedge 12/28/2016 Vineyard Furrows wall hanging 
• 45° kaleidoscope ruler (no link, pre-blogging) Baby Quilt from 2004

Triangle Rulers

These rulers can aid in making hexagons or help in cutting setting triangles to set a quilt on point. I have never set a quilt on point but if I ever do I have the handy dandy tool to do it. 

• random triangle on upper left - never used and markings are too busy to figure out how to use it
• Fons & Porter 60° pyramid on upper right - used to make hexagon Mask Quilt 10/19/2011
• Fons & Porter Easy Diagonal Sets Ruler in lower center - ya never know when you'll need it 

Mask Quilt 10/19/2011

Later, I discovered that I also had a huge 20½" x 20½" Omnigrid™ Ruler squirreled safely away in the adjacent closet, on a high up shelf, overhanging due to its big size. That is a big thing to misplace. I think the markings on it would work well to make corner setting triangles and that the Fons & Porter Easy Diagonal Sets Ruler could be obsolete.

Fancy Angles

Here are six different rulers to help with cutting angles. I have used none of them. None. Although, the Omnigrids OmniAngle may have been useful in my Grinch quilt with its cattywampus Seussian block placement. As for the others, I will read or watch the instructions and  re-evaluate their value - other than probably a good price at a show - and decide to try them out or donate. The first three are

• Omnigrid™ OmniAngle - perhaps would have been useful for Grinch quilt 11/26/2011
• That Patchwork Place 8" Bias Square - definitely a giveaway - see instructions
• That Patchwork Place ScrapSaver - looks promising - see instructions below

Grinch quilt 11/26/2011

Instruction for 8" Bias Square

Instructions for  ScrapSaver

I have never used the next three

• Easy Twist by Terry E. Vogels - may have been useful on that Grinch quilt 11/26/2011
• Lazy Angle by Joan Hawley YouTube instructions - looks strikingly like the upcoming Hex N More ruler, which I have used, so I can maybe let this one go
• Feathered Star Ruler by Marsha McCloskey YouTube Instructions

Curved Rulers

Ok. I have used none of these. But I intend to!

• OmniArc
• Quick Curve by Sew Kind of Wonderful
• Ovals All Ways

Potential Blue Onion pattern for Ovals All Ways

Other shape rulers

• Hex N More from Jaybird Quilts - used one aspect for Whirligiggles quilt
• Super Sidekick from Jaybird Quilts - have not used but surprising similar to Lazy Angle - Jaybird quilts has many exciting patterns that interest me
• Clammies - excited to try this one with some of my fat quarter collections

Whirligiggles quilt 2/17/16 and Whirligiggles completion 3/23/20 

Templates for cutting out

Guilty again. I have used none of these. But I intend to!

• Storm at Sea by Perfect Patchwork - definitely try out this one. I want to make my own Storm at Sea since I made one from a precut laser die kit of batiks and loved it. So did my daughter. She now has it.
• Spiky by Perfect Patchwork - doubt if I will ever make these specialty blocks so I will procrastinate making a decision on this ruler
• Japanese Jigsaw by Tracey Brookshier - this would look stunning in batiks but where would I hang it?

Trimming Rulers

• BlocLoc  - I used the flying geese one in a Patchwork Math Workshop and found it useful enough to buy it in other sizes and shapes. Those half rectangles are simplified with this tool.
• Precision Trimmer 6™- I was introduced to this in a workshop making my Sunny Spring Frost Quilt (7/24/13)  and I was hooked. I used it often and have it in the smaller Precision Trimmer 3™size as well

Sunny Spring Frost block

I have another category of rulers, all those rectangular ones from Omnigrid that are the workhorses of cutting out. The sizes I own are 8½"x 24", 6"x 24", 3½"x 24",  8½"x 12", 6"x 12", 3"x 18", 4"x 14". The yellow ones are slippery on both sides but the green has a rubberized non-slip backing. I accumulate these because every time JoAnn's Fabric has a 50% off coupon and the rulers are not on sale and therefore ineligible, I add to my ruler stash.

I dropped and broke the corner off the one I use the most, the 8½"x 24"... bummer! I am not sure if it is the size or the backing that makes it my favorite. 

But enough of getting sidetracked. My memory is refreshed, I am inspired for future creations and my ruler drawer is much tidier. Linking up now with Cooking Up Quilts' Main Crush Monday #170 and getting back to sewing pillowcases.