Creative Grids: Stripology

As many of you know I absolutely love Creative Grids Rulers. The markings are very clear, and the non-slip grip built into the ruler is just right, I have tried others that are too grippy and they tend to stretch the fabric out. The Creative Grids slide smoothly across the fabric until pressure is applied. All the markings on the rulers are very accurate, and they have a great collection of rulers in the basic range, excellent trim tools for popular blocks and specialty rulers for some other fun blocks. There is also a video tutorial for each ruler that provides instructions on how to use it as well as some tips to go with it. At Chicken Feed Quilts we carry nearly all 128 of the Creative Grids Ruler, our goal is to have all of them but we do run out of stock on them occasionally, usually an event that we do, like Demo Days, or retreats that we attend.
With all this mind I have decided to run a blog series on my favorite Creative Grids Rulers, I will share what I love about them, patterns that accompany the ruler and links to video tutorials. The first one is the Stripology Ruler, a ruler that I love and use almost daily!

At Quilt Market last week, Esther and I attended a number of lectures, one of them was by Gudrun Erla of G.E. Designs. She is the designer of the Stripology Rulers for Creative Grids, and also has a line of patterns that utilize the rulers. There is now three rulers in the Stripology Collection, the original, the squared and the mini. Each ruler has slots for your rotary blade that make cutting for your projects, straight, accurate and quick.
I have two of the three rulers, the original and the mini. I generally use them for cutting strips from yardage, and if a quilt calls for a lot of squares or rectangles I will use them for that too. I can cut 8 strips of binding with the original Stripology without even moving the ruler and cutting squares goes incredibly quick. I keep my Original Stripology tucked under my cutting table, where it is easy to reach. It is definitely a ruler that you need to make a habit of grabbing and using, and the more you use it the more you will love it.
Aside from cutting strips and squares, you can make your own precuts, cut diamonds, square up blocks, trim Half Square Triangles, and subcut pieced strips and blocks.
Gurdrun has done up some tutorial videos to go with it, that are very informative on how to use the ruler. You can view them here, and I highly encourage you to do so, you will not regret it. She goes over how to fold and line up your fabrics, what type of rotary cutters to use, and what all the markings on the ruler are to be used for.
During the lecture last week we were shown several of the patterns by G.E. Designs, all of them were so neat, and using the Stripology Rulers make them so much easier. We have many of them in stock, and some of those that we do not have are on order and should be here in a couple weeks.
In her booth at Quilt Market, Gudrun had a mini quilt called Lil' Alberta made using Elizabeth Hartman's fabric collection, Arctic. I fell in love with it and have decided to make a lap size version of it using the same fabric and the Alberta Pattern.
Do you have any Stripology Rulers? Do you use them or do you forget to grab it when you are cutting for your quilt?
If you would like to see the Stripology Ruler in action come visit me at the store this coming Tuesday (May 28) sometime between 10am and 2:30pm and I will show you how it works, and answer any of the questions you may have regarding the ruler this also goes for those of you that already have the ruler and need a refresher on how to use it, or need to be inspired to pull it out more often.
Kayla
.

Binding

SXLLM​​Binding, it’s the final stage of putting your quilt together. It also often seems to be an after thought. After buying all the fabric for the top and than the backing people often forget about getting a binding as well. And again when putting it all together, you get the borders on your quilt, get it quilted and than oh yeah I need to bind this yet. 

I personally love binding. From choosing the fabric that pulls the whole project together, to hand stitching it in place. 

I love stripes for binding, I like the effect the stripes have, and that their are multiple colours from the quilt included in the final step. If there is no stripe, or the stripe isn’t calling my name I will choose a darker color, or a small print, something that you won’t notice grime from fingers on.  

MLXLS​​

I always do a double fold binding that I cut at 2.5”. I use my Stripology Ruler from Creative Grids to cut my binding, it’s quick and accurate and I can cut 8 strips without moving the ruler at all. I only cut my strips on the bias if I have rounded edges on my project, everything else gets cut selvage to selvage. 

SXLLM​​

Do you like to sew your strips together straight across or on the bias? I generally will do bias seams, but every once in a while I will sew them straight.

Once I have a long enough piece to get around the whole quilt, I take it to my ironing board and press it in half along the length, wrong sides together. I know not everyone presses their binding strips but I prefer to. I find it easier to work with when it is pressed. 

I almost always hand bind my quilts in the evenings while watching a favourite tv show with my husband. I machine stitch the binding to the front of the quilt and than flip it to the back and hand stitch the fold down. I use The Binding Tool by TQM products or the Creative Grids Bias Binding Simplified Ruler to join my final ends. Both are great and both have you tube videos on how to use them. 

MLXLS​​

I machine stitch to the front because than I know I have a nice consistent seam allowance on the front which is seen more than the back of the quilt. 

In the past few months I have machine bound a few quilts, and I must say my first one left something to be desired but practice makes perfect and the most recent one I did yesterday turned out much better. I prefer hand binding but sometimes time gets the better of me and machine binding is the answer. Also it never hurts to know a few different techniques. 

SXLLM​​

When machine binding I stitch my binding to the back and than fold it over to the front and use one of the decorative stitches on my machine or a simple zig zag to tack it down. 

My wonder clips work great for holding the binding in place while hand or machine stitching.

Esther recently came across some fusible thread. This also works great for holding down a binding before you hand stitch it. It works best in the bobbin, when placed in the top it is very hard to get nice tension. You sew it as you normally would, than give it a press and the the heat causes it to act like a glue. It works great for hems and installing zippers too. 

So how about you, do you prefer a certain fabric pattern for bindings, bias binding or not, machine or hand finished? 

I have four quilts that need to be bound so my husband and I are going to turn on a movie and I will get to work. 

Kayla