In the Fall 2012 issue of The Professional Quilter, Mindy Wylie, our Longarm Forum columnist, shared her thoughts on purchasing templates. As a longarm instructor, she often teaches classes that are either all about templates and designs or that include some template work. Students in class always ask her which templates they should buy when starting out. Since templates can be pricey and obviously buying a lot of them at once would take quite a bite out of the budget, she suggests starting with three different tools. In this excerpt from the article, here are her three:

1. A straight edge is a necessity. You’ll need this tool to do stitch-in-the-ditch, piano keys in borders and many other designs. Straight lines are impossible to accomplish without one! You’ll find lots and lots of options on the market. I prefer a tool that just fits my hand because it’s easier to handle. Many straight edge templates also have other registration lines or markings on them. I prefer to mark my lines with chalk and stencils or rotary cutting rulers first.

2. A circle template is my next purchase, and the templates come in either solid or nested templates. Circle templates are perfect for many quilting designs such as spines for feather wreaths, egg and dart, fans and more! Solid circles are easier to work with, and they’re more expensive. Nested templates are much less expensive and they are a little trickier to work with. Markings on your templates are a personal preference.

3. My third basic purchase is an oval template. This shape is perfect of arches, simple swags, oval wreaths and continuous curves. Ovals are very similar to circles. They come in a variety of sizes, either solid or nested and with our without markings.

If you would like to read more of Mindy’s article on templates for the longarmer, it’s included in our Fall 2012 issue of The Professional Quilter and available to IAPQ members. The International Association of Professional Quilters offers resources and networking opportunities for you to create a success from your quilting business. Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership and join here.

What are your favorite templates? Please share them below.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 at 5:55 am and is filed under Quilt Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.