The main purpose of a medium ruler is for cutting shorter strips and smaller pieces of fabric as well as trimming quilt blocks. So ideally our recommended size for a long ruler would be 8 ½” x 24”, but like I already mentioned, if you have limited space then a medium-sized ruler (see next section below) might be preferable. With the wider width, we can essentially cut strips of fabric up to 8 ½” without having to use the mat to make the measurements. I can tell you now that we both prefer to use the wider 8 ½” ruler. These are the two quilting rulers we use: We have 24 ½” rulers with two different widths – one measures 6 ½”. In other words, just make sure the ruler isn’t longer than your mat as it will just be hanging over the edge.Īn important thing to note is that the width of these rulers can vary. You’ll see more on that in the next section. Of course, if you don’t have a lot of space and you have a small cutting mat that won’t fit a 24 ½” ruler then go with a medium-sized ruler. You can see in the image below how the long 24” ruler takes in the entire width of the fabric as it comes off the bolt so I don’t need to fold it over to cut nor do I need to slide the ruler up in order to cut the entire width of the fabric.
The main purpose of a long ruler is for cutting strips and trimming fabric. If you only get one ruler, this will be it.Īnd when I say ‘long ruler’ I mean one that is 24” long. This is a must-have in my opinion and it is the one ruler we use about 90% of the time. I will go into them in more detail further on but in a nutshell, we use the following:Īnd here are our recommendations in a nice easy table but if you scroll down you will see more detailed information on each of these which will better help in your decision making. This leaves those that we use consistently and there are only four of them. We have a multitude of rulers between the two of us but most are only used for specific tasks. So which quilting rulers do you really need? So let’s get on and show you what we actually use and recommend. There are thousands of different shapes and sizes to choose from and this can be really overwhelming for someone who is just starting out.
So our only real issue these days is deciding which quilting rulers we actually need. It meant that we no longer needed to use scissors to cut fabric for quilting which also meant that we had more accurate cuts. Now obviously rulers have been around for thousands of years but it wasn’t until the rotary cutter was invented that the quilting ruler really came into its own. The quilting ruler is one of those amazing gadgets that I love using. Personally, I’ve only been quilting for about 7 years so I have had the luxury of using all of those wonderful modern tools and gadgets that make it all so much easier but I have much respect for those that didn’t. Remember back in the olden days when quilters only had a pair of scissors and a tape measure and they still managed to make amazing quilts?
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