Quilting: Squaring Up Material

Quilting: Squaring Up Material - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Squaring up is just once you have done your initial, either the full top or it is just a square like one block of the quilt top that you want the edges to be perpendicular so that you are working with an exact square. And I have to say sometimes it is kind of fun to not square up and have your quilt be a little wonky and off-kilter. But if you do want to square something up, that is when it is really helpful to have a rotary cutting mat and then quilter's rulers, because they really help you line up edges and make things precise. So this block is just a 6 inch square in the middle, and then I just kind of did not measure, I had roughly added these border edges of various lengths. And say I wanted this to end up 12 and a half inches by 12 and a half inches exactly - so you would take, it helps that I have a rotary ruler that happens to be 12 and a half inches square exactly. So since the rotary cutter is clear and has all the measuring marks on it, you can kind of line it up with the edge of the inside square so that you make sure you do not end up with a larger block with your square kind of off-kilter in the middle. Although, I mean that is a fun different look, but if you are going for it to be more centered, you would line up your marks here with the edges of the square so you make sure it is perfectly centered in. In this case I was making a bunch of blocks where I wanted the square to be not exactly in the middle of it, so just sort of line up to decide how much thickness you want on each edge, and then just cut along the edge of the ruler. If you are using a rotary cutter, you will need a rotary cutting ruler. You might not having something that is the size that you wanted. In that case, again, that is when it is helpful to have something like the mat, because you know this is a straight edge at least. So I would line that up with the straight edge that is marked on the mat and then you want to make sure that you have got a cut along here that is exactly perpendicular. You sort of line the ruler up with the lines in the mat and cut along there or you could also line up the edge of the ruler with this edge of the fabric, make sure it is perpendicular, and cut along there.