Cutout rulers for the win!!

This week I have been continuing with Angela Walters’ Ruler Quilting challenge and was learning about cutout rulers. These are the ones that have an enclosed shape such as her Taj ruler….

The first thing that we did was use the inside shape as a filler pattern…..

This is okay but honestly, I would rather freehand a similar pattern rather than go to this trouble!!

Next, we used the ruler to quilt a narrow border. I really liked this!!

When I had tried using rulers for borders before I had always had a panic about how to turn the corner. As usual, Angela gently explained some basic rules and then reminded us that It isn’t really going to matter if the corners don’t work out perfectly!!

Finally, we used the cutout to make a motif design. Now, this is a lot like the Westalee Spin-E-Fex rulers that I have talked about before…..

….so using the cutout to make a motif wasn’t that big of a deal…..

What I did learn was to look at the block that I am quilting and see if I can change the motifs up so that they add more interest. In this case, we quilted some straight lines to split the plain block up into a smaller area and then do a partial motif in each corner…..

I would probably have put one motif in the middle and let that be it but this design has SO much more interest!!!

Hopefully, I can remember this when I get ready to quilt a large block!!