Top 3 Essential Quilting Rulers
When it comes to quilting, rulers are an essential tool. Cutting fabric for a quilt needs to be fast, easy and most importantly it needs to be precise. My top 3 essential quilting rulers will make the task of cutting fabric easier for all levels of quilters.
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There are hundreds and hundreds of different quilting notions on the market to make our job easier. But I find myself coming back to the basics when it comes to rulers over and over again.
My top three essential quilting rulers are:
When it comes to my sewing room, I’m pretty minimalist when it comes to tools. I spend a lot of time researching and figuring out what will give me the most bang for my buck. Because let’s face it, that gives me more dollars to spend on fabric! I also like my quilting studio space to be as clutter free as possible.
When to Use Each Quilting Ruler
6.5″ x 24.5″ Quilting Ruler
This ruler will be the work horse for cutting out full Width of Fabric (WOF). Typical quilting fabric is 40-42″ wide and will come folded in half on the bolt. This gives you a piece of fabric that is approximately 21″ wide to sub-cut your fabric into strips in the width that you need for your pieces. The 24.5″ length of this quilting ruler reaches from the folded edge to the selvage edge for a precise cut. It can also reach across the fabric in either direction if you are working with a fat quarter (18″ x 21″). I do suggest that you take care to move your hand position once or twice along the ruler as you make the long cut. This will keep your ruler where you want it to get the most precise cut.
6.5″ x 12.5″ Quilting Ruler
After cutting full width of fabric, the 6.5″ x 12.5″ is my most used ruler by far. I use this ruler on nearly all of my sub-cutting of strips and squaring up edges on quilt blocks. Once you have a strip of fabric cut, this ruler is the perfect size to cut the pieces out of the strip.
This size ruler also comes in handy when it comes to trimming down the edges of your quilt blocks to have a nice clean edge. I typically will trim off any wisps of stray fabric or threads on the edges of my finished quilt blocks to clean them up and make them easier to piece together.
If you need to cut pieces that are wider than 6.5″ you can simply rotate the ruler 90 degrees and have markings for up to 12.5″ on a ruler that is still easy to handle and keep your fingers out of the cutting area.
Pro-Tip: If you need multiple 2.5″ cuts, you can first cut at 5″ and then slide your ruler over and cut at the 2.5″ mark. This will give you more cuts before moving the fabric out of the way to see edge for the next cut. This works for other increments as well, as long as the multiple is less than the 6.5″.
4.5″ x 8.5″ Quilting Ruler
I use this size for trimming all of my smaller blocks and pieces. The smaller size makes it easier to line up across the edge of a block to trim it down. I find it especially helpful for trimming half square triangle blocks by aligning the diagonal line on across the diagonal seam on the block.
Bonus Must Have Ruler
If I had to pick one more ruler to have in your collection, it would be a 12.5″ square ruler. With this size you will be able to square up most of the sizes of quilt blocks that you will make. I find that I don’t usually use this method though, and instead just clean up each of the 4 sides of the quilt blocks individually. If I need wider strips of fabric, I will also usually just use the two 6.5″ wide rulers together to make the width I need from the edge of my fabric.
Other Considerations for Quilting Rulers
When it comes to brands of rulers, I suggest you look at several options to figure out what works best for you as a quilter. Most importantly on that list is which brand can you see clearly. Some brands, like Omnigrid, have a yellow or green tinted outline to help the lines show up more clearly, especially on dark colored fabrics. But for my eyes, I find that I can’t see the yellow very clearly at all.
Another thing to consider is slipping of rulers. Several brands have some sort of anti-slip texture on various areas of their rulers. Just make sure it is well placed and doesn’t obscure your measurement markings.
I have found that Creative Grids Rulers have the perfect balance of anti-slip and easy to read for me.
I hope this list of 3 essential quilting rulers is helpful to you, no matter if you are a beginner or advanced quilter.
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