Thanks everyone.
The Hickory Nut templates are made by a local quilt shop here in Arkansas. They have a website (
http://www.hhqsewingcenter.com/ ) but it's pretty basic and doesn't offer items for sale. But I think they would surely do mail order if you contact them. They have an e-mail link on their Contact Us page. If they can't or won't, let me know and I'll be glad to go by there and buy a template set for you. By the way, they come in 3 sizes, small, medium, and large. I used the small set for the topper I did, which is about a 2.5" finished block from top to bottom. The medium set which I also have is 3.5" finished size top to bottom. Large set (which I don't have) is about 6", I think.
Here's a pic of the small template set:
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The small set was $6.25 and the medium set was $8.75. Not sure how much the large set is, but thinking it is probably about $10. They do come with directions, and they are actually incredibly easy to do. They could be done by hand, but I did mine all by machine. But I think they would make a really good project to just sit and hand-sew as well. And they are much like a cathedral window block in that they are complete once you finish the block. You then just stitch the blocks together to make it however big you want.