Cutting wide strips with a narrow ruler

If you piece quilts with wide borders or large areas of negative space in the background, you have probably encountered the need to cut a width-of-fabric strip that is wider than your widest ruler.  Cutting large squares to cut setting triangles when setting blocks on point also often requires wider cutting.  What's a quilter with narrow rulers to do?

I have two methods to share with you.  For either method you'll need to start with a straight edge.  

Note:  I'm right handed so these instructons are right-handed.  If you are left-handed you'll need to reverse left/right directions.

Straighten the cut edge of the fabric

Fold the fabric in half along the length, selvedge to selvedge. 

Position the fabric with the edge to straighten on the right.

Lay your ruler over the fabric to extend across the entire width of fabric, from fold to selvedges, lining up a horizontal measurement line with the fold (highlighted as a red line in picture below).  The precise measurement doesn't matter.  You just want a straight line aligned with the fold.  That will give you the 90 degree angle at the corner where the fold and the ruler's side meet.

Trim along the right side of the ruler.  You should now have a cut straight edge that is perfectly square with the folded edge.

Turn the fabric or rotate the cutting mat 180° to position the straightened edge on the left.

METHOD 1

In this example, I'm cutting a 11"-wide strip.  The 6" width of my 6" x 24" ruler is clearly not wide enough.  I can turn the ruler 90° and use the 11"  measurement.  (You may notice I swapped my 12" ruler for the 24", because it's less cumbersome but still long enough.  If I needed to cut a strip wider than 12", I'd stick with the longer ruler.)

As always when measuring strips, I make sure a horizontal marking aligns up with the folded edge, and the measurement I'm cutting (11" in this case) lines up with the straightened cut edge.

The ruler doesn't span the distance from fold to selvedge.  That's OK.  I cut along the right edge of the ruler, stop before I run out of ruler, move the ruler up, again measuring 11", and cut again.  I repeat that until I've cut all the way up to the selvedge.

I now have a 11" strip, ready to use for borders, or subcutting, or whatever the pattern calls for. 

What if you don't have a ruler long enough for the width?  See Method 2 below.

METHOD 2

This method pairs multiple ruler to add up to the required measurement.  In this example I'm cutting an 8.5" strip.  I could have cut this using Method 1, but I wanted to demonstrate Method 2. The smaller scale is easier to photograph to show detail, so I'm demonstrating with a 8.5" strip width.  This method would be most useful when you don't have a long enough ruler to use Method 1.

There's a tiny bit of math next, but it's simple arithmetic so even if you're not fond of math, don't panic.

Subtract the width of one ruler (let's call this Ruler #1) from the required strip width.  In this case I'm using my 6" x 24" ruler to span from fold to selvedge, so the width is 6".

8.5" - 6" = 2.5"

The resuting number, 2.5" in this example, is the measurement to use with Ruler #2.  I position my Ruler #2 to measure 2.5" from the cut edge.

Next, I tuck Ruler #1 up against this one, on the right, over the fabric.. The measured 2.5" on Ruler #2 plus the width of Ruler #1 on the right add up to the required 8.5".

When using a longer ruler on the right, I have the option of sliding the left ruler up along the right ruler before I cut, making sure to not move the right ruler, to double check that the edge is square and the width measurement will be accurate all the way up to the selvedge.

Uusing a 24" long ruler on the right I can cut along the right edge and be done.

If my ruler was shorter I could cut, move both rulers up, and cut again, as in Method 1.

Which method do your prefer for cutting wide strips?  Please share your tips and suggestions in the comments!

Happy quilting,

Joanne

PS: This fabric used in this tutorial is "Smoke" from the Codici collection, one of White Owl Textiles' Funadamentals collections, their colour basics.   I love the Codici dots!