A New Ruler Does the Trick

It's been an odd year to be sure. The universe gave me lots of time during quarantine to quilt, read, walk, and eat more than I really needed to eat.  I think a lot of my mood was attributed to a long bleak winter and missing seeing family and friends.  I did manage to get some quilting projects finished and mailed to their new owners as well of getting lots of face masks sewn.  I have a large lap quilt that is ready for the hand binding on the back and then that pretty much completes the larger projects on my list.  The majority of projects completed just needed making binding, adding binding to the front and then hand sewing the binding to the back of the item.

Binding has not been my favorite activity but I was determined to improve how I created the binding strips and joined them together.  

I also had several jelly rolls that were just waiting for a lightbulb moment.  One jelly roll had been opened so I could see the colors of the 40 strips.  They really called to me!  I wanted to make a jelly roll race quilt which I knew I could make in less than a day.  But I was not looking forward to drawing 45 degree lines on the ends of each strip in order to sew them together.  There had to be a better way.  I have been striving to learn a new technique with each new project when possible so I explored options.  Then I found the perfect solution when I was binge reading You Tube quilting sites!  I discovered a new ruler by Creative Grids called a Folded Corner Clipper designed by Susan Nelson.  

This ruler will cut corners from 1 inch to 5 inches.  Lots of tutorials are available on the web, just use your favorite search engine to find them.

The jelly roll race quilt used 40 strips which means 80 ends to connect.  The ruler made easy work of this task! 

This shows the placement of the ruler for cutting 2.5" strips.

Once cut, the 2 ends fit together like pieces of a puzzle.  Then sew.  Once the ends are connected, just keep adding the strips together to complete the top of the race quilt.  This took me less than 3 hours.  Here is the top I made.  It now needs borders, backing and binding and will finish to a 50" x 65" quilt top before borders.  I will definitely use my new ruler to make the binding strips as well.  

This is the top so far, it's a Robert Kaufman jelly roll in Vincent Van Gogh colors.  I have 2 more jelly rolls that are ready for racing as well!  Now to search my stash for backing and binding fabrics!  

Enjoy your day folks, do something quilty!