Welcome to the first installment of our new video series – Penni’s Pointers.  The goal of this series is to share all those little tips and tricks that I pick up in my travels. Some of these tips were provided by own research and trial and error.  Some are provided by my fellow designers and industry professionals as a handy hint when teaching classes and demos in front of the crowd.  My favorite are those little tips and tricks that are provided by my customers. Quilters are super smart and pretty handy. You never know what little tip you will pick up while socializing with quilters that will change your quilting life forever.

This week I chose to share a tip I picked up recently during a multi-day travel teaching trip. I was teaching an All Scrapped Out! quilting class to the Loose Threads in Williamsburg, Virginia when one student mentioned that she couldn’t keep her templates from slipping while cutting. This is a question that I get a lot at classes and retreats and which that I had this answer in my back pocket all those times I pointed my students to all those harder to find products. Below is the easiest solution I have found for stopping those pesky template slips.

Stop those pesky template slips and cut accurately.

Most of the time in class when a student asks me what to do about ruler slip I tell them there are lots of products available on the market and in your local quilt shop to help combat this problem.  You can head over to Amazon.com and search “ruler grips” and find a host of products as I have done HERE. They vary in price and size and should work just fine.  But what if you need to stop the slips on your tiny EPP rulers with the 1/4″ halo? Or you need to put something on your rulers but still want to see the lines through the ruler? Check out this handy tip.

Have you ever thought of this?

One of the students in my class was a nurse and showed her friend her awesome solution.  Nexcare tape.  She purchased Nexcare grip tape from local pharmacy and placed it on the back of her rulers and templates. It was genius. You see the tape is clear but has little grips on it.  Those grips not only keep your rulers from slipping they also allow you the ability to perfectly tear the tape into exactly the size you need for your template, making it very easy to apply the tape to the edges of an EPP halo as shown.

I had to immediately go test this theory in the studio and it works very well.  You can create exactly the size you need every time. I placed large strips on the back of my longer rulers and small strips on my EPP templates for fussy cutting.  It also works great on the petal templates when cutting those curves.  I also made sure that it could be removed easily when I wanted to remove it but why would you. It works great.

As you can see here, you can purchase this clear flexible tape at your local pharmacy for a reasonable price and it will last you forever.

Want to see how well this works? Check out my YouTube video for a quick demo.

Penni’s Pointers: Episode 001

Quilter’s Toolbox Moment

This is the perfect tip to add to your Quilter’s Toolbox and while you’re at it… put it in your actual toolbox in your sewing room to easily solve any ruler and template slipping that you’re experiencing on the fly.

Thanks again for stopping by the website. Be sure to be on the lookout for more Quilter’s Toobox tips and more of Penni’s Pointers in upcoming blog posts.

Happy Quilting