Quilting With Rulers: Ruler Creep and Giveaway Follow Up



Here's a look at my pile of rulers I'm using right now as I quilt. The noise my sons make as they paw through their Legos has nothing on me at the moment. It's like a pile of crystals in the sun from my window.

The turquoise gems in the center are DIY handles. You can't pick up the ruler with them, but it's a little something to keep side to side motion reduced. Plus they're pretty. Pick them up at any craft store. I found these in the scrapbooking section.

I was out of town Friday and my inbox filled up with comments and questions on the TrueGrips post and giveaway. I'm going to try to answer some of them real quick.

First, if you want to get in on the giveaway, click on the link above and leave a comment or email me. Make sure you're not a no-reply commenter or leave me a way to contact you. Sorry, US residents only.

The giveaway is for the TrueGrips, not any rulers.

You don't have to have any extra grips on your rulers in my opinion IF you use good quilting gloves and use your fingertips to anchor the ruler. But they do help. There is always the risk of ruler creep.

Ruler creep?!
Not that kind of creep, plus that's my cooperative hubby. He looks slightly crazed (I think I drove him to it) but he's definitely not a creep. I'm talking about the creeping of the ruler as we stitch. (I have a weird sense of humor, but I needed the laugh!)

There were a lot of questions about the class I'm developing. The samples are the same for an in-person class as they would be for an online class. A Craftsy class would be a blast, wouldn't it? I would love to do one. But most of you know enough about the internet to realize that if I was working on one, I wouldn't be able to tell you anyway.

I will offer up that I'm willing to do a little travelling for a good sized class. I live in south central Virginia and am about 2 hours away from Raleigh Durham and Greensboro which is do-able for me. This is a bit of a niche technique so it's hard to get a good-sized group together at this point.

There were a lot of comments from people who were thinking of dabbling with rulers. Let me just say: Dive on in! Yes, rulers can be quite the investment, but they don't wear out and you can do a lot with just a good straight ruler and a curved ruler. Such a great technique for beginners and experienced free motion quilters alike. For beginners, the rulers take out the anxiety of "Where do I go next?" For experienced quilters, they can help you develop a frame work that let your skills really shine.

By the way, you'll notice my advertisers on the sidebars of my blog. Their support helps me keep going with this blog. Please check them out, in particular TopAnchor Quilting Tools and Sew Steady. Sew Steady is the distributor for Westalee ruler feet and rulers in the US. They have a dealer locator on their site.

11 comments:

  1. Hahaha! Did you husband know he was modeling to be your "ruler creep" for all the Internet to see? He is a good sport, indeed! :-)

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  2. I am thinking your husband looks as though he is thinking of other uses for those rulers...maybe you should start locking them up!

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  3. I recently purchased a large number of Westalee rulers and quilting templates. They are fantastic but I am frustrated in that I don't have a stockpile of sandwiched quilts ready to use them on. I foresee my hubby doing the cooking for a while. Will let you all know how I go.

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    1. Gotta love a hubby who is willing to cook while we do our quilty thing!

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  4. Amy, please do a Craftsy class! I think that would be fantastic. I am blaming you for my addiction to ruler work because you gave such good info on your blog. I'm going to do a mini demo at my guild meeting this month, and there seemed to be a lot of interest in it.

    I'm enrolled in the Westalee Ruler Foot online course and I'm learning so much. I've watched all of Leonie's free YouTube videos, but she is adding so much more on how to use the rulers and templates in multiple ways. My only complaint is that there's too much time between lessons.

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  5. Rulers rock!!! I loved seeing the pic of all your rulers, made me drool like Pavlov's dog. But I seriously laughed out loug (multiple times went back to look and laughed each time) at your hubby!! I agree with Sylvia, do a craftsy class, and have the pic of your hubby be for the class. He's not a creep, he's adorable and perfect for this post (and your future class). Brilliance I tell you.

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    1. Thanks Sue. He's a keeper! I giggle each time I see the pics we took.

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  6. Great idea to do a class on FMQ on a DSM with rulers Amy! I agree it may be tough to get the initial word out but once people see what you are doing, I think they will be interested. Maybe ask to do some live demos in shops before offering the class to gauge interest? In addition to Craftsy, don't overlook the Annie's catalog site and Creative Bug as other possible places to host your class. Annie's has recently issued books on making quilt projects with rulers so a quilting with rulers class would be a perfect complement to that.

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    1. Thanks Vivian. I recently heard some buzz about Annie’s classes. I’ll have to check them out.

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