Tuesday, August 30, 2011

necessity ...


... it really is the mother of invention, isn't it?! I mentioned recently that I'm working on a braided scrap quilt. I've pieced most of the braids for the quilt face, but the next step involves trimming the outside edges of the braids parallel to the points where the fabric strips meet down the centre. To do this a quilting ruler is required. Have you seen them? They are basically a piece of clear plexi several inches wide and a foot or more long with grid markings silkscreened onto the front. And they are hellishly expensive. I was looking for one about 8" x 24"; over 50 bucks at my local fabric store! Kinda defeats the purpose of a scrap quilt doesn't it!

The lady at the fabric store did kindly suggest that I could wait until a "members only" sale, buy a membership to their sewing club that day for $20 and then purchase the item for half price. Pay $20 to save $25? That's still not bringing it into the affordable range as far as I'm concerned.

But then I got to thinking. We have scraps of plexi at work - these are just over 7" x 24". We can print in large format on clear adhesive laminate. And I can create a printer ready file with the grid markings exactly how I want them. I think I just unvented a cheaper quilting ruler! I'll let you know how it works out.

3 comments:

Wanderingcatstudio said...

Great idea! I just steal my mom's quilting stuff - she's handy like that!

Unknown said...

Go girl!!! The thing I like about my ruler is the lip that butts up to the mat so I keep it lined up.

Alisha said...

i think that same lady offered me that deal when i sort of hummed and hawed about the price of a fabric i was looking at a few weeks back ;)....i don't shop there near enough.

or rather when i do it is for the sale stuff ...not regular priced and I think the card can only be used on regular priced stuff or .....i'd never sew if i bought regular price from there....even with the discount their regular prices are high. i'll wait for their buy one get 2 free deal to snag the fabric i was eyeballing!!

i love my favorite discount fabric store....great fabric at half the price of theirs. perefct!

great idea you got there too!