I have never been able to find a product to keep my ruler from slipping. I've tried sand paper (pulls the fabric if I'm not doing it perfectly), strips of colorless tape didn't do a thing, those soft round circles you put under vases so they won't scratch furniture helped a little, but wore out after a time.
My husband was the one who freaked out about the rotary cutter (which I couldn't do w/o!). He bought me a long plastic wedge (looks like those things they put on highways to keep oposing traffic from crossing over, but only an inch or so high). These wedges have adhesive already on them and you take off the protective film and place it down onto your 6x24" ruler. If your rotary were to "jump" it would hit this wedge. You can get these anywhere that they sell quilting supplies.
Another thing he got me was "that funny looking tool with suction cups on each end and a holding thingy in between" mentioned above. It doesn't have any ruler etched on it, but I saw a man demonstrating it at a quilt show and he simply used the regular ruler to mark the cutting line (on the right side for right handers) and put this straight edge up against it on the left side, removed the ruler and sliced! This last gadget has a very high handle and nothing can slip as long as you press down on it.
Also, getting a large self-healing mat is a must in my book, too! Have fun.
Last edited by Sierra; 11-24-2012 at 07:46 AM.