I so sorry this happened to you. How did you ruin it??? I am making 4.5 inch 9patches in a quilt of my own design at the moment. I did not want to square down, so I plotted out a paper template that when three strips are put together it is a perfect 4.5 finished block. I had the paper template made into a plexiglass ruler yesterday. My ruler is 1 + 27/32s inch wide, and I had it made 12 inches long. The paper template was working fine, but I had the ruler made to preserve the template because it makes the perfect 4.5 finished block.