Thread: Can you make your own 45 degree kaleidoscope ruler?

Perhaps one of the rulers you have, already have the 45° markings on it?

Many of us have had glass shops cut templates for us out of the same acrylic aka plexiglass as the rulers that we buy. Of course, those will not have any of the normal ruler markings.

You certainly can. There was a thread a few days ago about making them from plexiglas ... and that some quilters get them cut at Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, or local hardware stores for just the price of the plexiglas. I haven't tried this yet, but I did find some at an estate sale that were homemade.

Almost every ruler has a 45 degree mark. Many also have 60 degrees. There's often no need for a specialty ruler.

If you take a piece of paper that is square then cut it on the diagonal twice you have the 45 degree triangle for the kaleidoscope. You can use this as a pattern to take to a store and have it cut (be sure and tell them that you need the exact size as your template). To get the size you need, your square needs to be twice as wide as the size of triangle you need is tall. If you only need to use it a few times, glue it to some of thea template plastic and cut the template plastic with a "paper" rotary blade (you don't want to cut fabric with it after using it on the pastic so I use an old retired blade).

I made a kaleidoscope quilt using a regular ruler. I followed instructions in a book by Bethany Renolds.

I didn't bother with a fancy ruler when I made my OBW and that was a 60 degree angle. 45 and 60 are already on your big rulers. You just have to figure out which way to angle them for the cuts.

Originally Posted by judylg

Thanks for all of the advice, I had thought of using the marks on the ruler, the 45 degree triangle ruler allows you to cut on either side, where if you use the markings on my ruler, will have to flip over and move. Right?

Expense? or inconvenience? Plus you've been given some other options for the in between possibilities.