Rulers & Templates: Stay in place!

by Serena Smith

It has happened to me and I'm sure it has happened to you also. You have your quilting ruler or template in just the right place, your rotary cutter is halfway down the length of the ruler and your ruler moves! It's one of the most frustrating things that can happen and can have results that make you end of cutting another piece.

What's the solution? Try using scotch tape! Tear off a piece of scotch tape, double it over so it is sticky on both sides and place it on the underneath side of your ruler. Put several pieces of tape in different places under the ruler. Place the ruler on your fabric where you will need to be cutting. If you need to reposition, just lift the ruler and place it down again. You are ready to cut!

Sticking tape to the back of plastic templates also works very well. If you have a template placed on the fabric and then a ruler on top of the template to make the cut, the ruler and template tend to want to slide against each other. Just put on a couple of pieces of scotch tape, attaching the template to the fabric and the ruler to the template. Your sliding problem will just disappear!

You should be able to reuse the scotch tape on your ruler or template several times before the tape needs to be replaced. On some fabrics scotch tape can leave a small residue mark, so try using blue painters tape instead. Blue painters tape is just like masking tape, but does not leave a residue mark and is blue in color.

Give it a try and see if it works for you!

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Do quilting rulers and brands of quilting rulers have you confused? Take a peek at my favorite rulers and why I love using them!

See how you can make your own plastic template and still use a rotary cutter to cut your fabric!