I have this great June Tailor ruler that you just lay on the 2 1/2 strips, line up the marks and you can cut 2 1/2" squares even cutting one strip at a time in no time at all, probably less than 15 minutes, I had cut more squares than I needed for this project. This is probably my favorite ruler, it makes cutting squares totally painless. It also works to square up squares from 1 1/2" squares to 6 1/2" squares. It was $12.97 well spent at Walmart.