teresa1957 Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 I would like some advice as to which templates and rulers everyone likes for the millennium. I know some are of different thicknesses so which is the best to not get caught in the hopping foot. I have only tried using a ruler once (it was way too thick) but if I used it from the front, it worked great. I really liked how it worked and the look I got from using it. Judy L., your work is stunning. You do the stich-in-ditch very well! I have lots of practice ahead of me!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyL Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Teresa: My favorite ruler is a little piece of wood that I cut from a strip we bought at Lowes. If you go back to the topic "Gone Quilting - Chat About Anything", there's a thread in there named "Rulers". I have a picture there of what I use most. My best advice though is don't go hawg wild buying rulers/templates. I spent way too much $$ on them and I rarely use any of them except the little piece of wood. Donita Reeve at http://lovetoquilt.com/ has a little ruler called "Accuguide" that is pretty neat to have. Thanks for the compliment on my quilting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teresa1957 Posted February 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2005 Judy, Thanks for the tip on rulers. We have a store here called Tap Plastics that I went to yesterday and bought some guides from them. I got 4 different sized circles from 3" across to 12" across. I also bought 2"x3", 3"x7", and a 3" x 10" clear guides. All for the whopping price of $15.48! I think these will really help with my practicing and I couldn't beat the price. Stitch-in-ditch here I come!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busybee Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 Hi there Teresa: I got a 2 rulers from A-1 in Springfield, Mo. That has a angled handle which is great. They have 2 sizes. I use them allot prefect to see what you are doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Linda S Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 I don't use rulers or templates much, but the ones I have that I really love are made by Tracey Browning of Constantine Quilts in Australia. I have some of her Continuous Curve templates which fit in your hand really nicely and make it easy to get a smooth curved line in blocks. The end part is perfect for triangles. These also have both concave and convex curves on them, so if you have trouble using a ruler behind your hopping foot, you're good to go with these. Another feature I like about Tracey's rulers is that they are relatively inexpensive compared to other rulers. I'll be taking one of Tracey's classes at MQX this year, so I'll get to know how to use them even better! Linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teri Posted February 18, 2005 Report Share Posted February 18, 2005 I also have Tracey's rulers, but the one time I tried to use them, I didn't understand how they worked! I have a practice piece ready to load; I think I'll give them another try. I do continuous curve quilting freehand, but it has a "free" look, not symmetrical. Teri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonflyquilts Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 I was wondering if anyone here has or has thought of making their own rulers? They sell 1/4 inch plexiglass at Lowe's and the cutters are less than $5. Was thinking about making some of my own. Any thoughts or suggestions? My other thought on this was that I used a ruler that was not 1/4 in thick. It got caught up underneath my foot and the needle took a chunk of it off. I think that was the beginning of my machine acting goofy at Christmas time. (threw the timimg off on it somehow). Long story short, if you are gonna used ones that are not thick enough, please be careful. Blessings and hugs, Tracey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teri Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 Tracey, Judy posted a picture of a piece of wood "trim" she made 3 rulers from. No exact sizes, but the picture says a lot. I found it by searching for her post on rulers. (Search: JudyL, then ruler) Also, I've seen here that people will glue one smaller ruler on top of another to make a thicker stack. Good idea! Teri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudyL Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 Lowes has these little strips of "good" wood (oak) that are varying widths and lengths (maybe 2.5", 3.0, 3.5" in width and 12", 18", 24" in length). They are plenty thick enough so there's no chance of the foot jumping them. They're very smooth and all you have to do is cut them into lengths you'd like. I have several but my favorite is about 3 x 7. I can slide it along as needed, my hand can kinda crawl from the back to the front of the ruler while I'm quilting. The strips of wood may be $5 (probably less -- been years since I made these) and if you buy the 24" length, you can get three from one strip . . CHEAP! I love these and you might ask why I have 5 or 6 of them?? Because I lose everything. Then when I clean the room, I find them all and I'm happy again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonflyquilts Posted February 19, 2005 Report Share Posted February 19, 2005 Thanks for the info, when I am ready I will have to look into that, DH and I could certainly get far more control of the cutting of wood then the cutting of plexiglass. Did not even occur to me to use wood instead of plastic. Blessings and hugs, Tracey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thequiltqueen Posted March 12, 2005 Report Share Posted March 12, 2005 I cut plexiglas with my bandsaw. It works great as long as the result does not have to be totally straight (as in a ruler) or a perfectly round circle. I guess what I mean is that it works to make a template for repeating shapes for your quilt. I like that I can see through the "template". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wernersgreenacres Posted March 16, 2005 Report Share Posted March 16, 2005 If you have access to a "roto zip" tool they have a circle maker and make wonderful plexiglass circles in all sizes - even 12"across. A good friend of mine loaned me his and I've been going crazy making all kinds of templates. You can cut wood or plexiglass with these and they're great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheryl Posted March 17, 2005 Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 I have Sherry's "Dainty Ditcher"....it is my favorite for stitchin in the ditch or just straight line stitching. It is about the size of a credit card....just a bit longer, and of course 1/4 thick. Very easy to hang on to, and I don't need an extended base on because it is so small. Since it was just under $8.00 I thought it was a bargain.....oh, and it is a neon green/yellow so I can usually find it!! Cheryl in Iowa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quiltaholi_518 Posted March 17, 2005 Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 Teresa, I have bought plexiglas from the hardware store before for other quilting uses, like cutting out t-shirt motifs, and squaring up odd sized or shaped blocks, but I can see that that would be too thin. How thick are the plastic pieces you got at the plastic shop? I have a favorite tool for SID, and that is a long add-a-quarter ruler. To make it "stick" to the fabric I roughed up the "lip" on the underside of the ruler with sandpaper, and it is much thicker than the average rulers are. LOVE IT! Caron Valley Quilt Studio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teresa1957 Posted March 17, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 Caron, I bought 1/4" thick templates. The only problem I have had is if I hold the ruler at the back of the hopping foot where it is angled down and it seems to catch on the ruler. Still learning how to use them I did a great quilt with mostly SID on all the motifs. I relaxed and realized that it would NOT be perfect and just went with it. The quilt if for my grandson and has rocket ships, robots, ufos and stars on it. Came out very cool and the best part is the back shows all the motifs. I am going to take pictures and try to figure how to load them someday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnQuilts Posted March 17, 2005 Report Share Posted March 17, 2005 Teresa, I had the same problem with using the ruler at the back of my foot. What worked for me was to take a round file that I bought at Lowes and filed down the weld at the joining of the shaft to the round foot so that my ruler fit back there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thequiltqueen Posted March 24, 2005 Report Share Posted March 24, 2005 Caron, I used the term "plexiglas" as a generic term. What I really use is a sheet of acrylic. It is 1/4" thick, and I bought it at Home Depot for $11.57(last year) for a 2'X4' piece. They had other sizes but this one was small (cheap) enough for me to experiment with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam Geary Posted March 29, 2005 Report Share Posted March 29, 2005 Originally posted by Teri Tracey, Judy posted a picture of a piece of wood "trim" she made 3 rulers from. No exact sizes, but the picture says a lot. I found it by searching for her post on rulers. (Search: JudyL, then ruler) Also, I've seen here that people will glue one smaller ruler on top of another to make a thicker stack. Good idea! Teri Dragonfly, Can you tell me more about the cutting tool that you mentioned? Thanks, Pam Geary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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