DO YOU REALLY NEED SQUARE UP RULERS FOR QUILTING?

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When I first starting quilting, I was pretty sure I could do everything I needed to do with one, single ruler. I had a 24" x 6" Omnigrip, and if I needed something cut, I figured out a way to make it happen with that ruler. It worked out pretty well, I mean I've done almost a dozen quilts now, and it wasn't until very recently (the baby quilt I'm working on now) that I purchased not one, but TWO rulers specifically to make things a little easier. So, let's talk square up rulers. Do they help enough to justify the cost, or are you only saving a little time for the expense? (read more)

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SQUARE UP RULERS FOR QUILTING
​THE VIDEO

As always, if you'd like to hear me talk about this rather than read the post, you're welcome to. Here's the video, I hope it helps.

​The post continues below. 

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SQUARE UP RULERS FOR QUILTING
​HOW THEY HELP

Basically, if you've got a quilt that needs a bunch of blocks trimmed and squared, a square up ruler will help. 

That's not to say you can't get it done with a regular ruler, you certainly can. It's just a matter of how much time you want to spend, whether you think you'll use that particular square up ruler again, and how much money the square up ruler costs. 

Would you rather spend time or money?

That's how I break it down when I make decisions on purchases like this.

Most of the time (I've made almost a dozen quilts and have never purchased a new ruler) it's not worth the money (for me). However, when I started making a baby quilt, I ran into three "blocks" that (for me) seemed like they'd be a giant headache.

Two of those were center triangles and side mirrored triangles. If you want to see how I approached that, you can read my post about why I decided to purchase a Deb Tucker V Block Trimmer Ruler.

The last block was 110 each of an hourglass unit. These needed to be trimmed and squared to 3 1/2 inches. 

I just really didn't want to do that with my trusty old 6" x 24" Omnigrip.

It can be done, and I'll show you how, but it wasn't something I wanted to mess with. For me, spending the $10 ish dollars on a 3 1/2" Omnigrip Square Up Ruler was something I decided to be alright with.

Squaring up with the square up ruler is simple. As you can see in the picture below, you just place the ruler on top of your block, make sure the center meets up with the center of the ruler, make sure the black diagonal lines fall where your seams are, and cut. 

Easy peasy.

There's me showing you the "L" that marks the center of my block.

WHAT DOES A NEW QUILTER REALLY NEED?

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SQUARE UP RULERS FOR QUILTING
​THE DOWNSIDES

There are a few downsides to using a square up ruler. 

First off, it's a very specific ruler, so it might be awhile before you use it again. I can't see much use for this ruler until I have another 3 1/2" block to square up.

The other downside is that it can be slippery. It is a non slip ruler, but since it's smaller than my block (by necessity) it is resting only on fabric and can move fairly easily when I cut it with my Olfa rotary cutter.

You could probably purchase some little rubber feet to put under the ruler, thus making it more likely to stay put, but that would increase the height of the ruler, and that might make it difficult for me to cut through the material with my cutter.

I am actually going to order some rubber feet for quilt rulers, since they are only 0.5 mm thick. That might be a quick fix, and it would certainly help, because the slippage is the biggest downfall of a square up ruler, in my opinion.

WHAT IS GLUE BASTING?

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SQUARE UP RULERS FOR QUILTING
CAN YOU USE YOUR REGULAR RULER?

I don't know what kind of ruler you typically use when you cut material, but I'm just going to assume (even though I know what assuming does) that it's some variation of an Omnigrip. I am making this assumption because I have quilted with some hard core quilters and that's what they use.

So, let's say you've got an Omnigrip like my 6" x 24", can you use that to get this 3 1/2" block squared up?

You sure can!

Is it easier than using a square up ruler? No, not in my opinion. However, if money is tight, a square up ruler is not a necessity.

Here's how I was able to square my blocks with my 6" x 24" Omnigrip.

Let's start by looking at the two rulers side by side. Notice the points where my fingers are. See how those angled lines are identical? That's how I knew I could square up my block.

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If I lay the rulers over each other, you can see that those diagonal lines are perfectly aligned on top of one another.

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SQUARING UP WITH YOUR NORMAL QUILTING RULER

All you need to do is find an angled line on your regular Omnigrip ruler. By that I mean find a line that nestles into the seams on your block. 

Once you've found that line, all you need to do is count to the halfway point across and up (or down, whichever you like) so that you find the center of your size block.

So for me, this would be 1.75".

There is a dot at that point that, if I lay it over my block, shows me the center point. All I need to do is lay my regular ruler over my block, center the dot where my hourglass shapes meet in the middle, lay the line diagonally with my seams, then cut the edge that's hanging off.

Do this four times and my block is squared.

Let's talk "trimming" vs "squaring", because they aren't the same.

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You can trim a block to 3 1/2" very easily. All you need to do is count out 3 1/2" and then cut off the rest. 

The problem is that while the block will be trimmed, it won't necessarily be square. 

If your center dot doesn't match and your diagonal lines don't nestle up, your quilt is going to turn out a little wonky.

​So this would be wrong.

​Yes, it'll be 3 1/2", but from where? Not from the center. That means my hourglass shapes won't be uniform, and that's not what I'm after.

HOW TO USE A V BLOCK TRIMMER RULER

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THE UPSIDE OF USING A REGULAR OMNIGRIP TO SQUARE UP

Of course there are downsides, it's large, it's cumbersome, you have to do a lot of moving and spinning, it takes longer, etc. 

There is an upside though, and that's because a regular Omnigrip is likely going to be larger than the block you're squaring up, and that means it'll rest on your cutting mat instead of resting entirely on material.

Resting on a cutting mat means it doesn't slip as often, and that's a big deal, really. 

Another upside is that you likely already have a trust quilting ruler in your arsenal, so you don't have to go out and buy a new one. 

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FINAL THOUGHTS

I'm not sure I'll buy another square up ruler, it'll depend on the size and on how many blocks I have to square. I would not have made the purchase if it were 10 or 20 blocks, but 110 was an entirely different story. 

If you've got the money and you've got the space, rulers are great, and time saved is more quilts you get to make in a year. 

If you are looking for a ruler stand that can be wall mounted and out of your way, I love my wall mounted quilting ruler rack. it holds something like 20 rulers or more, because some (like my 3 1/2" square up) can be placed side by side in the same slot. 

I hope this post helps, and if you have any questions, please ask. I'm happy to help, if I can. If you'd like to see all of my favorite quilting things together in an Amazon list, just click the button below.

Be a square!
Ty

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