My multi template tool - DIY

Hello quilty friends!  So glad you stopped by Podunk for a visit.  Grab a cuppa whatever and pull up a chair while I show you what I've been up to the last few weeks.   I've been participating in the Bonnie Hunter Enprovence Mystery quilt.  With each clue given I found a need to square up the units.  So the tool you see below slowly evolved.  I've shared in the past how to make your own rotary cutting tools from sheets of Acrylic(or as I like to call it Plexi-glass).  It can be purchased at your local home improvement store. (I wait until it's on sale as it can be quite pricey)  Just make sure you get the kind that can be scored with a razor knife and snapped into shape.  TIP:  score your lines on the template with your razor knife and use a fine tip sharpie to fill in those lines, the black markings will last almost forever.  The red arrow below shows a score mark before using the sharpie to fill it in.  

The first clue in the mystery was the red Tri Recs units, I used the tri recs tool, later came the blue ones. Sewing with a scant quarter inch so so there would be a little wiggle room for squaring up the unit.  Then I needed a quick way to square them up, so the 3.5" template was made and I drew a line 1/4" away from the top of the template.  

And then came the oodles of 4 patches.  Might as well keep sewing with the scant 1/4 inch.  The four patch lines were added to the template.

I was so glad when I realized that all the units were going to be 3.5, I could just keep on adding lines to my template.  Again I followed Bonnie's directions for making the HST's, but my handy DIY tool made squaring up the HST's a breeze!  

The Quarter square triangle(QST's) can be made in several ways.  But I wanted to work with the strips and scraps, so I had to do it the way Bonnie suggested.  No time for shopping, and I didn't want to order another ruler that I may only use once.  So I had to pull out my thinking cap.  And after a epiphany I started cutting for the many QST's.

So how did I do it?  I used my EQ7 program to draw a 3.5 " QST, then printed the template, cut it out and taped it to my 3.5" square.  I scored my line and TADA!

Here's the shape on the template.

And here it is in action, ready to be cut.  How's that for thrifty?!  Whoohoo!

Still stitching together using the scant quarter inch so I can trim to perfection.

And the last unit in the quilt was the yellow 3.5" patches.

I used the one DIY template to square up every unit in this quilt.  So after making all my units and using a couple other rulers I started thinking, is there a way to make the triangle in a square block with the Tri Recs tool?  I'm sure you could use the DIY Plexi glass method if you had the paper templates for your pattern.  The little notch at the top might give you some trouble.  So anyone gonna give it a try?

Well all my units are complete and I'm ready to start placing them on the design wall.  See you in a couple days with a sneak peak!

~ Lea Anne ~

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