Patsy Thompson January Online Workshop

Lesson 5 of Patsy Thompson's January 2018 Ruler Work Winter Course included stitching out some arcs with tapered and parallel lines to create some channels.

The tapered channels were no problem, but when I tried to stitch out the parallel lines I realized that my ruler would not be that helpful. I have got one the Handiquilter Arc Rulers

As I was quilting the arc I realized that I needed the inside arc to complete the channel. Well, with this ruler that obviously was not going to work, so I had to work from the inside out, i.e. marking all the channels in with tick marks and then starting on the inside...this is how that worked out...the offending arcs are in blue

This had not occurred to me before...could not believe it! I tried to put some tick marks in to complete the channels from the inside out but as soon as you start doing that you introduce a margin of error which becomes more obvious the more channels you put in. Also, doing that amount of marking to put in a few channels pretty much defeats the purpose of a ruler (in my mind they are supposed to make life easier, not harder). So after all this I realized that I needed a different type of ruler, one where I have the curve on the outside as well as the inside.
So I searched the internet and ended up ordering 2 arc rulers, called the Pro Echo Rulers,  from Lisa Calle's online shop. Had come across her rulers before and postage to Australia was reasonable. Also looked at Patsy Thompson's starter package. That would have been perfect too, but I already got several straight rulers, so do not need the included straight ruler. That package is perfect I reckon, when you start out...well worth considering.

There seems to be a lot to learn about rulers and which ones you need to use for what, and what size. As I have just found out, this seems to be a bit of trial and error. Probably the best thing for quilters who are just venturing out to buy some rulers is to have a think about what they are going to use them for and then research on the net the variety of rulers that are available...there are a lot of different types of rulers out there and you really have to think that through carefully and probably have to accept that you will get it a bit wrong every now and then, like I just did.

Karin