~ Making Progress using DIY Acrylic Templates ~

Hello Quilting Friends!  I'm still working on a new quilt pattern.  Many of my quilts use the stitch, clip and flip method for snowballing fabric corners.   Those cut off corners can be saved and used as half square triangles(HST's) in another quilt.  But for my new quilt pattern they'll be squared up and used in the quilt.  

Both the green HST's and the pink are clipped corners from this quilt.  I managed to work in all the pink cut offs and most of the green into the quilt pattern.  It was a fun challenge to design a quilt around one block idea and it's own leftovers.  As you know I live in a rural area (Podunk) and going into town can take a big chunk out of my day and wallet.  Planning ahead is necessary when you only go into town once every week or two.   So I try to be prepared at all times for just about anything.   Instead of running into town for just the right quilting ruler I keep Score and snap Acrylic on hand to make my own templates.  Below is two templates I've made in past year for other projects.  One is a 2.5" square and the other is 3.5" square that was used for Bonnie Hunters En Provence Mystery quilt last year.  All the lines on the 3.5" square were not needed for this project, but the middle diagonal line worked perfectly for the pink HST's.

When making your own templates there's two handy tips you should know.  

1. To make the lines permanent you need to score the acrylic with a razor knife then use a permanent marker to fill in the score line.  If you don't the lines you draw will wear off with usage. 

  BONUS  The diagonal score line for the HST's is a little bit raised.  This raised line will lock up against the diagonal line on the HST's!  Homemade block loc ruler....shhhh don't tell our secret.  It's not as raised as the real block loc rulers but it does help.

2.  Because there is no paint on the templates to help with slipping adding something to make them less slippy may be necessary.  I use a piece of tape.  If your real thrifty just scratch the Acrylic with sand paper or make a few scratch marks with the razor knife.  My 3.5" has enough scored lines that it does not slip.

This is a Bonnie Hunter tip that she uses for all her quilting rulers.  One of the best tips ever!  It's cheap and one roll of this stuff will last for a lifetime in your sewing supplies. 

Over the year I've made several different templates.  How many times have you had an odd size flying geese or Dresden blade?  Dresden's are one of my favorite quilts to make and they come in so many sizes.  Using the paper template that comes with a pattern to make an acrylic template makes the cutting process so much easier.  Sheets of Acrylic can be purchased at just about any home improvement store.  I find my best deals at Home Depot.  They have a nice variety of score and snap. That's the key...MAKE SURE IT'S SCORE AND SNAP ACRYLIC.  The thickness you can guess is about the same as any other ruler you have in your collection of rulers.  Another tip when making your template is to score the same line about 4 times, pressing hard.  This will make the perfect snap every time.  To get perfect measurements use your quilting rulers for scoring the acrylic.

Ok!  Now that all the trimming up is complete I can get this Big Ole Beauty made into a top.  See you soon for the reveal!

~ Lea Anne ~

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