22.5° Wedge Ruler

Welcome to the 3rd installment of the Nifty Notions Cut For the Cure Ruler Series. This months ruler is the 22.5 degree wedge. And my friends from Brewer are sponsoring a great giveaway as usual!

For some reason I have never used a wedge ruler before. I have always admired Dresden Fan and Dresden Plate quilts, but was always intimidated by the applique part of it. Then I tried it and am totally hooked! This week I'll be showing you different ways to use the ruler to make beautiful quilts and other projects. But first here's how to use this awesome ruler.

The 22.5° wedge ruler is used the same way as the other 2 rulers we have seen so far. Once you decide on the size of the fan/plate you want...you cut strips and then use the ruler to make your wedge pieces. The size of the plate/fan is calculated by figuring out what diameter you want the circle to be. For those of you who failed HS geometry the diameter is the size of the line drawn thru the center of a circle.

Once you know how big of a fan/plate you want you can figure out what size pieces you will need. It's a pretty easy formula:

Take the diameter and subtract 2 and then divide by 2. So if you want a 12" plate/fan it works this way...
12-2=10 10÷2=5, so you will need a 5" strip to cut out your wedge pieces from.

Now that we know what size strips to use it's time to cut the strips. If you are using 2 different fabrics for the plate/fan cut your strips the desired size and then lay them out one on top of the other with right sides together. Place the ruler on the strip with the Logo face up (so you can read it). Line up the top edge with the line that corresponds to the size of the strip. Trim the left side and cut along the right side to make your first wedge.

Then flip the ruler over so the small edge is at the top. Line the left edge of the ruler with the left edge of the strip and cut along the right side of the ruler.

To figure out how many pieces to cut divide 360 by the degree of the ruler. In this case
360 ÷ 22.5 = 16. So you will need to cut 16 pieces or 8 sets of wedges. This formula applies to any wedge you are using. 

You will now have 2 cut pieces like this. And remember that since the strips were placed together you are all ready to go to your machine and sew them together. 

One very important thing when making a plate/fan is to be sure to sew the same piece on top each time that way you will have every other wedge be the same.

Today I will show you how to put a Dresden plate together, since it's the easiest of the 2 Dresden's. Tomorrow I'll show you the fan.

For the plate you will be sewing along the right diagonal side of the wedge. Starting at the small part sew down along a quarter inch to the longer part.

Sew them in pairs of 2 and press the seams open. Then sew 2 pieces together to get sets of 4 and so on. I suggest pressing the seams open after you sew them, this is much easier than trying to press them open when you have a full circle sewn together.

Next you will need to fill in the center with a circle. A 3" circle works well for any size Dresden made with this ruler, but you can use any size you would like to. I machine appliqued the circle in the center using a very small blanket stitch. This was a first for me so if I can do it so can you! I used a piece of fusible web to hold the circle in place. To hold the Dresden plate in place on the backing I cut a large circle of fusible web, almost the size of the plate to hold it in place.

One thing to be careful of is to keep your Dresden plate flat as it will go while sewing it onto the background. For some reason I didn't and got this mess. If you know what I did wrong please let me know.

But even with that small mistake I am happy with the outcome of my first foray into Dresden plates. After I had it all sewn on the background I decided to do a little decorative stitching. I used a kind of a swirly stitch.

And here's the back.

Now for the fun part! Brewer will be giving a Nifty Notions Cut For the Cure 22.5° Wedge Ruler and a Nifty Notions Cut For The Cure 4' x 14" ruler to 2 lucky winners!

As usual you must be a follower of Craizee Corners to be eligible (but you don't get an entry for that, it's just a pre-requisite).

This month all you have to do is friend or follow Brewer on facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/BrewerSewing
And while your there you can tell them Sha sent you!
Then come back here and tell me you did that (leaving a comment is not necessary, just follow/friend them for your chance).

This giveaway will run thru Friday January 20th at 11:59 pm CST. I will pick 2 winners on Saturday morning once my coffee has kicked in :)

Come back tomorrow to see how to make a Dresden plate.