Creative Grids Stripology XL

Though I have purchased several quilting rulers, I've generally only purchased them at a discount. So my investment in rulers is pretty small.  Creative Grids recently came out with the Stripology XL.  I do not own any Creative Grid rulers; however, I felt that this one was a must have.

It combines two rulers...a square up ruler that squares up blocks as large as 12.5" and the strip ruler with markings that allow you to cut at 2.5 or 1.5 increments.  And with some minor adjustment, you can cut on the fourths.  You can read more about it here.

Linda McGibbon's Safari Nights

After much consideration after working on a current project, it occurred to me that though this ruler is expense at $67 ish, it will save a ton  of time while ensuring that accuracy is optimized.  I bought my ruler from Keepsake Quilting.  To get free shipping ($75), I added a couple of quilt patterns.  I don't typically buy patterns, but purchased a couple.  Sometimes I make my head hurt trying to come up with "stuff" on my own.  I'm really looking forward to making the Safari Nights quilt pictured.  I have Paper Art Safari by Wyndham fabrics.  I bought it as it was on sale, though I had no specfic project.  I think that I have that project now.

Paper Art Safari

In the quilt that I'm making now, I wanted to use up the fabric that I had.  I had a melange of fat quarters, a jelly roll and a layer cake that had this magnificent fabric that was just beautiful  I had purple, greens blacks, yellow and blues...and I just fell in love with the fabric line.  I don't know who the designer is as none of the fat quarters have a selvage that identifies. I made the purchase at Tuesday Morning.

I made the front guestimating a pattern called "French Vanilla" that I saw that Pat Sloan was making with Christmas fabrics.  I thought that pattern would showcase the fabrics...basically the layer cake is cut at 6.5" and 3.5" so you get a 6.5" square, a 3.5" square and a 6.5 x 3.5 rectangle. Each unit gets sashing and each block is sashed.  So a nice use of white space with the fabrics.

I had purchased another fabric to go on the back.  However, I had so much of the original fabric left, I decided to do a medley of "stuff" on the back to include strip triangles, snowballs and nine patches...fussy cutting some of the lovely motifs of roosters inside the snowball.

Those 9 patches I made from strip sets....let me tell you, it is alot of cutting even when using the strip sets.  Having undertaken (an mostly finishing) that endeavor, when I saw the Stripology XL ruler pop up on You Tube, I knew that I had to have it.

The right tools--cleaning, cooking, quilting, carpentry, painting etc make all of the difference.  They are an investment in a good outcome and greater enjoyment of the process.