I use the Gypsy Gripper Little Gripper that fits on small rulers. It is 2 1/4 " round. I don't use a rotary cutter without a safety tool and this works great to hold the ruler flat and to protect my fingers. Grippy spray does a great job for smooth bottom rulers. With Quilter's Select rulers, which are my favorite, I use a ruler handle because they will not slide and the handle makes it easy to move the ruler on the fabric and of course protection.

I bought a little CG square ruler recommended by Bonnie Hunter, I believe it is 5" and has 1/8" markings. I like it a lot. I put Guidelines 4 Quilting gripper strips on the bottoms of all of my rulers. Can't hold a ruler in place without them.

I use the Westalee Design Stable Tape on the back of my rulers. Works really good, but is expensive. However, any ruler I've put it on, I haven't had to replace the tape yet. I cut it down to a 1/2" piece and put it on several places on the back of my rulers. If you do a search, you can find it in different craft / sewing online stores.

Most of you use a rotary cutter on small rulers without a safety device or glove on your ruler hand? One slip and your finger is right there. I did get a cut once and it wasn't severe but ruined a couple of days. Plus going through the drama. If I get cut again it will not be for lack of protecting myself.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. A nursing friend of mine gave me about 6” of co-flex bandage wrap and said to give it a try. It’s what they use in place of adhesive tape for keeping bandages on (for instance after taking blood from a patient they will wrap this around the arm to hold the gauze in place instead of adhesive tape. It sticks to itself and is very grippy. I tried it and it works great, almost exactly what I’m looking for. I was amazed at how well it gripped. The only problem is that it isn’t clear so I can’t use it for squaring up.

There’s a quilt show in my area this weekend, hoping I can find one of the above mentioned items there.

I spray basting spray on the back of my rulers. Then I 'dry' wipe most of it off. After that, It doesn't slip.

For squaring up HST's you cannot beat the Bloc-Loc rulers. A few years back, Santa (aka DH) got me a set of three and I can square up HST's from 1 1/2 inches to 6 1/2 inches. I love them!

I love my little 4.5, especially when paired with my small rotating cutting mat! A few years ago, l purchased 3 creative grids rulers in a set sold by Joann's. Included was the 4.5". 10.5 " and 12.5" . I've since lost the 10.5" in a move 😒. The 2 remaining are used constantly. I don't use grips, instead l have my cutting table set not too high, so l can easily apply some downward pressure. When trimming sewn blocks, l find doing one at a time the most accurate method.

I've never had a problem cutting myself badly using a ruler. I don't, however, use a ruler smaller than 6 1/2". The all have markings, if I want to cut smaller, I use the 6 1/2" ruler and just use the lines for a smaller ruler. It saves buying and storing so many rulers and as someone else said, you can see more that just that little square. I like that.

As to the drama, I guess I've worked with tools more and cutting myself causes no drama here. A bit of peroxide, slap and bandaid on it and I'm good to go. The only time I had any problems was when I sewed my finger and broke the needle off inside. I did have to go to a doc to have it removed, but I finished the jacket first! lol

I like to use the Bloc-Loc rulers when doing HST/flying geese/log cabin etc that they have rulers for. For squaring up regular blocks that I can't use the Bloc-Loc rulers for because they contain a mixture of blocks and I can't use the ledge to line them up, I use the Lori Holt Trim It Rulers Trim It Rulers Lori Holt for Riley Blake Designs - Bee In My Bonnet. I like to have the size of my block. Just center it on with the ruler markings and trim. They also have rectangle sizes as well.