This ruler came about because I kept losing my small circles when I wanted to stitch just a few clams along a border or sashing, or the circles didn’t come out “right” because the circles moved during stitching.

The Mini Clam has 4 different sized half circles (or clams) – one on each side of the ruler – 1", 2", 3" and 4".

There is a marking line along each of the sides which allows you to line the bottoms of the clams up with the edge of your border or any other straight line you want to follow. Note the design of the ruler allows you to stitch right to the edge of your seam and takes into account the size of your machine’s foot.

The whole ruler looks like it is a funny shape, but it is big enough to do those little 1 inch clams without having to manipulate ½ inch circles, and not so big that you can’t hold and secure it with one hand easily. Along with straight clams, you can do lots of other designs with this simple shape – you are only limited by your imagination.

The Mini Curve by Belinda Betts, Eucalypt Ridge Quilting

Curved Cross Hatching in small places

This ruler came about because I was quilting a quilt which had small triangles with 2” sides and I wanted to do a curved cross hatch without too much marking and which would be quick and easy and preferable continuous.

It has parallel lines a ¼ inch apart, along with a line indicating the centre of the curve. I marked the centre of the edge I wanted to line the edge of the ruler up against, lined up the centre line of the ruler with this mark, and then the very top edge of the curve with the edge of the side.

This meant that the first line stitched was ¼ inch from the side. Then the ruler is carefully moved forward to the next line, lining up both the centre and the parallel line up where they are supposed to go. It sounds complicated but you’ll get into a rhythm.

You don’t need to tie off after each seam, but stitch carefully to where you think the next seam with start and line up the ruler. You may need to take another stitch forward or back but you’ll soon work out the number of stitches between lines – I think my machine does 4 stitches between each curvy line.

The other side has a shape which can be used to continuous curve the inside of a square or triangle; or used to provide a basis for a small feather spine – there are many possibilities! Just use your imagination.