Cutting Jelly Rolls using our Gruuvy Let's Jam rulers!

Do you love quilting with 2.5" strips- sometimes called Jelly Rolls? We do, but sometimes using templates or subcutting them can be a slow challenging process. That's why we love these Gruuvy Let's Jam rulers. These rules have slots for easily cutting multiple subcuts- diamonds, triangles. Great for left handers also!

There are three rulers in this collection (sold separately), I highlight each below.

1. Let’s Jam: Half Rectangle Triangles (HRTs). This ruler is used for cutting half rectangle triangles from 2.5” strips
2. Let’s Jam: 45 degree. This ruler is meant to cut 2.5” strips at a 45° degree angle in any increments of ½”.
3. Let’s Jam: 60 degree. This ruler is meant to cut 2.5” strips at a 60° degree angle in any increments of ½”.

The Let’s Jam rulers were made to work with 2.5” strips easily (also called Jelly Rolls).  I created them as I found many patterns had me use templates when working with Jelly Rolls and I felt like there had to be a simpler way to cut many shapes out of a Jelly Roll at a time. 

Let’s walk through the layout first, to get your familiar as each ruler is similar. 

1. Lining up
   1. Each ruler has a solid horizontal rectangle where you line up your Jelly Roll. (#2 in diagram above)

1. Line up the edge of the jelly roll. You will have a small piece of waste depending on the shape you use.  You can line it up at the edge of the ruler, where the “0” is, but the cut will not begin until the 1” mark.
2. To cut: insert your rotary cutter into the tear shaped slot at the bottom of the line you would like to cut. Tilt the cutter to easily insert the blade and then tilt the cutter again so it is perpendicular to the cutting mat.  Apply even pressure as you move the cutter up to the full length of the slot.

2. Flipping the ruler over for Left Handed cutting
   1. The angles on the ruler when showing the black circle on the bottom are easier for a right handed person to cut. (angle is going from right to left).  It’s most effective to start cutting from the bottom and cutting upwards.
   2. If you flip the ruler over, you will see the numbers flip to show numbers at the bottom without the black circle and you can now cut at the angle more easily as a left handed person. (angle is going from left to right)

1. Cutting HRTs with “Let’s Jam Half Rectangle Triangles”
   2. Half Rectangle Triangles are common shapes. For a 2.5” wide strip, Half Rectangle Triangles are 5.5” in length, cut on a diagonal.  
   3. You can cut 8 HRT’s at a time using this ruler (16 if you have folded your Jelly Roll Strip in half)
   4. Cutting these requires one pass using the angle of the ruler, and another pass to cut the triangles apart.

2. Cutting 45° shapes with “Let’s Jam- 45 Degree”
   2. This ruler is meant to cut 2.5” strips at a 45° degree angle in any increments of ½”. Most of the time you will use this to cut every 3.5” to create appropriate shapes, but flexible enough to do other sizes.
   3. For a 2.5” wide strip, most shapes will be cut in increments of 3.5”, however this can be used to cut other increments every ½” based on your requirements.
   4. First, choose which side the right handed side with the black bubbles at the bottom or the left handed side with the numbers at the bottom.
   5. Next, line up your jelly roll (it should fit one 2.5” x 45” strip folded in half) within the line up window. Put the left side edge on the 1”, not the edge of the ruler.

Here is a video demonstration: 

1. Two of the most common shapes you will cut is a diamond and a small triangle.
   3. Here I’ve placed the final shape on top of the ruler so you can see how it is created. For this example I cut on the 3.5” line, then the 7”, 10.5”, 14”, 17.5”, 21”.  To create 6 diamonds.
   4. Once the Diamond is cut, you can fold the diamond in half and cut to create small triangles

1. You can also use both sides of the ruler to create other shapes. In this example. I’m created longer triangles with 45 degree sides. 
2. Step 1: Cut at the 6”, 11”, 16”, 21” lines
3. Step 2: DON”T MOVE YOUR FABRIC. Carefully flip the ruler over and line it back up again. Now cut at the 1”, 6”, 11”, 16” on the other side to create triangles. 

3. Cutting 60° shapes with “Let’s Jam- 60° Degree”
   2. This ruler is meant to cut 2.5” strips at a 60° degree angle in any increments of ½”. Most of the time you will use this to cut every 3.5” to create appropriate shapes, but flexible enough to do other sizes.
   3. For a 2.5” wide strip, a common size will be cut in increments of 3.5”, however this can be used to cut other increments every ½” based on your requirements.
   4. First, choose which side the right handed side with the black bubbles at the bottom or the left handed side with the numbers at the bottom.
   5. Next, line up your jelly roll (it should fit one 2.5” x 45” strip folded in half) within the line up window. Put the left side edge on the 1”, not the edge of the ruler. 

1. Two of the most common shapes you will cut is a diamond and a small triangle.
   5. Here I’ve placed the shapes below the ruler so you can see how it is created. For this example I cut on the 5.5”, 8.5”, 11.5”, 14.5”, 17.5”, 20.5” To create 6 diamonds.

These diamonds can also be cut into triangles: