CAUTION!!!!!!

[janbee]

I have an Easy Angle Ruler that is great for cutting half square triangles. Love it!! I do NOT have a Creative Grid ruler. The pattern I am using calls for using a Creative Grid ruler or "similar ruler". I learned a hard lesson while beginning a new quilt. The Creative Grid Multi-Size 45/90 ruler markings and the Easy Angle Ruler markings are NOT the same. They are both used to cut half square triangles but the markings are totally different!!!!

With the Creative Grid ruler you line up the ruler on the 2-1/2" strip using the number for what the FINISHED block size should be. In other words on a 2-1/2" strip, the ruler is placed on the bottom edge of a 2-1/2" strip but on the 2" line. Now did that make your head hurt? Mine did!! The picture in the pattern shows a 2-1/2" strip with the 2" line of the Creative Grid ruler on the bottom of the strip so I cut my triangles with my Easy Angle Ruler on the 2" line. WRONG!!! My triangle blocks were too small. With the Easy Angle the ruler is placed on the 2-1/2 strip with the 2-1/2" inch line on the bottom of the strip for a finished 2" block. I ruined two jelly roll strips figuring out this difference. To me at least, this was totally confusing. The term finished is what I did not understand. Does finished mean when you sew two triangles together or did it mean after all the other blocks have been sewn around the two triangles? Obviously these designers consider the finished block to be after all the pieces have been sewn around the triangle block. The pattern I am using is Star Sampler Quilt out of the "Jelly Roll Sampler Quilts" book by Pam and Nicky Lintott.

I admit that quilt "math" is not my strength, heck I'm a wimp in this area. It took me hours to figure out that the rulers were the problem and that my interpretation of "finished" and the authors interpretation were worlds apart. I hope this keeps someone else from making this mistake. Now I have to purchase additional yardage to make this quilt and I have just gotten started.

[klgls]

Bummer!! Thanks for sharing your hard-earned experience with us though!

[JCY]

I have several Creative Grid rulers & have never had a problem. I love my CG rulers & use them all the time. Have the rulers been re-designed? JCY

[janbee]

I have several Creative Grid rulers & have never had a problem. I love my CG rulers & use them all the time. Have the rulers been re-designed? JCY

No, they have not been redesigned. The key here is that the CG numbers are for the FINISHED size. The Easy Angle numbers are placed on the CUT size. 1/2" difference there which is huge in a quilt with a number of small pieces.

[bubba]

I have only ever used the Easy Angle and have never had any problem with it. The one you used might make my head spin!

[GuitarGramma]

First, I'm so sorry to hear about your ruined jelly rolls. That's a bummer.

Moving forward, it's true that the term "finished" isn't at all clear. Unfortunately, the quilting industry thinks it's perfectly clear, so they don't often explain it. I suspect this causes a lot of expensive grief for a lot of quilters.

I own a lot of Deb Tucker rulers (studio180design.net), and I have to be really careful about the little word "finished." The easiest way to think about it is with, say, charm packs. Charm pack squares are 5 inches on each side. Now, imagine that you've sewn a whole pack together to make a quilt, including the binding. In other words, your quilt is "finished. " If you measure your charm pack squares, they'll all measure 4-1/2 inches now. So their "finished" size is four and a half inches.

The simple calculation to determine the "finished" size is to subtract 1/2 inch from each direction. So the finished size of a layer cake is 9-1/2 inches. The finished size of a jelly roll is 2 inches by 43-1/2 inches. If you cut a 3" by 5" rectangle, its finished size is 2-1/2 inches by 4-1/2 inches.

By the way, the size you cut your fabric is called the "cut" size. So when we talk about charm packs being 5 inches, we're really saying that their "cut" size is 5 inches.

Again, I'm so sorry your jelly rolls were ruined. Can you sew those smaller triangles together to make a scrap quilt?

[Terry L]

I can't stop my head from spinning, when I run into a problem I call my Mom. She's the math person in our family hope it all works out