Quick Cut Tool...

Someone asked me what a Quick Cut ruler is a couple weeks ago, and I forget to answer- I meant to... A quick cut ruler is a very cool thing. It takes a little work to get used to it, but once you figure it out- wow! what a time saver it can be. I love mine.

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I don't know if you can see it clearly in the first picture, but it is laying on top of my fabric. It is a large squarish ruler that has slots cut into it. These slots are in different increments- depending on what ruler you have. Mine is called a Shape Cut Plus, by June Tailor- it allows me to cut strips in quarter inch increments. Most are slotted in 1/2" increments. So you lay the ruler over your fabric and just put your rotary cutter down into the proper slots for the size strips that you need. Skip-counting is a plus- 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5... Zip, zip, zip. You just cut 7, 2 1/2" strips- without ever having to lift the ruler. Cool, huh? So fast and very accurate. No resetting the ruler and having to make sure that you have it on the fabric's straight edge. The ruler is only 13" wide, so 45" wide fabric does need to be folded in half, but I've not had a problem with that. There are reference lines on the ruler to help you keep everything straight and true.

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While cutting strips with the Quick Cut ruler is fun... it's nothing as fun as sub-cutting. When strip quilting, you know how you often have units of long strips- maybe like three 2 1/2" strips sewn together to make a 9-patch? And you need to cut that long strip into 2 1/2" units? Well you just lay the Quick Cut ruler over the strip and cut all of your units. I can cut about 7 layers, easily. That soldiers' quilt flew together because it was full of strip-cut units that I was able to use the ruler with. love it! And cutting binding is a cinch, too. I know how we all love binding...