With any trade, craft or hobby there are usually sets of tools and equipment that are distinct to it. In this article Id like to explore a couple that are integral to making a patchwork quilt, specifically, rulers and cutting mats.
Cutting Mats
As a general rule the bigger mats are good for cutting larger pieces of fabric and little mats are good for little pieces of fabric. Personally, I like to have one of each. My larger mat spends almost all of its life on my quilting bench whereas the smaller one works well for workshops and when Im low workspace.
I tend to like the soft self-healing mats over the harder mats as they provide much more control of the cutting process, and thus give more consistent, straighter cuts.
TIP: When working with a soft mat be sure to place it on a hard surface to avoid the matt bending when cutting.
Rulers
There are all sorts of shapes and sizes when it comes to rulers and as time goes youll without doubt build quite a collection of them. However , I do recommend that you begin with a big and small rectangular one as these are the ones youll use the most, so it's best to invest in these first.
Not all rulers come with a non-slip backing and as a result have a tendency to move around when cutting. I highly recommend that you consider one with a non-slip backing to stop the waste of chucking away good fabric simply because an uneven cut made it unusable.
It's also important to consider the color of the ruler. Most commonly quilting rulers are clear, however some have coloring designed to create contrast and make it simpler to see certain colored fabric through them. It's definitely worth holding the ruler up against the fabric you propose to use, before you buy it, to make certain that the contrast makes it simpler to see the fabric and not harder.
