Originally Posted by
GingerK
I have found that it is all in the placement of my hand. If my hand is ONLY on the ruler, it tends to drift. If I place my ring and little finger on the fabric to the left of the ruler (yes I am right handed) then the fabric and ruler seem to stay where they are meant to.
But if your ruler is that old, honey give yourself permission to get a new one!!
I agree that hand (or finger) placement makes a significant difference in the ruler shifting or not. Interestingly I was having a relevant conversation with another quilter about this just a bit ago.
In addition to the above, I tend - even with cutting the same measurement repeatedly - say 4 strips 2" wide or whatever the measurements - I tend to sometimes use the right side of the line; sometimes the left side; sometimes the center. When having these conversations I always think to myself...I really need to just put a piece of tape on the ruler so I am cutting more consistently. Of course by the time I get from the computer to the cutting table, I've forgotten and continue my lack of consistent cutting. Perhaps that might be part of your issue as well??
I also have little rubbery sticky dots on the 4 corners of my rulers. It helps tremendously with keeping them from shifting but the finger off to the side is still really helpful as well. The sticky dots can be picked up at any craft store or your local hardware store (if they even exist in most towns).
BTW, Welcome from NJ.