Monday- New Tool Review

 "If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it." ~ Lord Kelvin
"Measure twice, cut once." ~ English Proverb
"Measure seven times, cut once." ~ Russian Proverb
"Better measure short of seven, than spoil all at once." ~ Gaelic Expression

As you can tell from the above quotes, measuring has been an important part of creating for a very long time. Here at OTS, we use a few different ways to measure, and always follow one of the above adages. Today, I'll share some of those measuring tools with you.

A standard 120 inch tape

The tape that gets used the most is this standard 12-inch measuring tape. The length is important as many of the quilt tops we get run from 90-110 inches in length. We always measure the quilt top and back as well as the batting when we receive a quilt and then re-measure before it goes up on the frame. Everything is written down on our intake paper, but it's always good to be sure.

  

The second tape we use is this 14' centering tape. It is really helpful when having to adjust the size of quilt backs before they go on the frame as well as making sure everything is centered once it's ready to be quilted.

The spring tape measure

Another tape measure that we don't use a lot in quilting but in other sewing is the little spring tape measure. These generally aren't very long, but they're similar to a construction tape measure in that they will stay at a chosen length once pulled out. You simply retract the tape when you're all finished.

The FabriCalc

Jeanette has had one of these Quilter's FabriCalc for a while in the studio. It's a huge help for figuring out how much fabric you need for backing, binding, etc. when you're putting a quilt together. 

The Robert Kaufman Quilter's Little Helper

Nanci's newest favorite measuring tool is this quilting calculator from Robert Kaufman Fabrics. It's a free app (available on the app store) that helps do the same sort of thing the FabriCalc does, but it is much more user friendly. 

We're sew happy we were able to share some of our favorite ways to measure with you today. Thanks for stopping by On The Stitch!