Quilting Toys - Souveniers from the US

What did I bring back from the US as a souvenier? Quilting callico? Sure! More about that later.

While we were in the fabric store I wandered through the "gadgets", too, and found these stitching templates. They were so inexpensive (compared to what I pay for templates in Australia) that I couldn't resist!



Stitching templates are fabulous. They help you to make a quilt more interesting, especially if there are large spaces of plain fabric. The designs add interest.

But, with some of them, there's a price to pay.

I was delighted to find the leafy vine one and the one shown in the middle here excites my imagination, too. But... I have to admit that of these 3 there's only one that I'm likely to truly enjoy using, and that's the bottom one.

Why?

Because with the bottom one, you can see there are clearly continuous lines, and no "switchbacks" in the design. With both of the upper 2 templates there will be only a few stitches and then a complete stop - or - a point where the stitching will have to turn and head in the other direction.

I'm still working on my Japanese print quilt (Quilt 10) - and on that one I've chosen to have a swirling-pattern template (shown below). The results look stunning but the going is sloooooow. I have to keep turning the darned thing everytime I come to a place where the swirl turns around. It looks lovely, but frankly is a bit of a pain.