Printed Paper Stencils
 

Recently I tried paper stencils. You purchase a master copy and then print on your home computer as many as you need, line them up on your quilt and quilt on the line. I tried the free motion meander for three rows on my current quilt. It took me almost 12 hours to rip everything out. Once you have to tear the paper off it distorts the stitching, making it loose and likely to rip out on it's own. Stitching on the back of the quilt looked good (kept checking it), but the front was a disaster. Maybe if you have a stitch regulator on the machine it would be better. For me, I'll never try these again.

I stitch through paper a lot to get my desired patterns. I use parchment paper I get from the dollar store and draw my own designs. Warning, white thread sewing into black pencil graphite can transfer the color. The parchment paper is comparatively easy to take off -- but it makes a mess!

Picture 1 is me! taking off an edge to edge pattern, that's the dollar store parchment.

Picture 2 is newsprint -- you can draw your image and then set up stacks of paper and sew through -- no thread obviously. You then follow the punch points and being perforated once, the designs come off easier.

You need to sew with small stitches, and the paper will almost fall off.

Dampening the paper also helps in the removing process. I use a small paint brush.

I just make my own stencil, then mark with washable marker. I would like to know of a place that would custom make stencils for me. If anyone has info for such a service, do tell!

The paper I have found to work best, for me at least, is examination table paper or deli paper sheets if doing smaller block stencils. The stencil I am currently using is 12”, the examination paper is wider so I cut off the excess and save it for when quilting borders. Both of these papers are a little stringer than tissue but tear off easily. And if I have some smaller areas hard to get to a little bit of water helps. I bought examination paper online and the deli papers my local restaurant supply store.

I tried the paper stencils once. Never again. Using the paper was pure joyless.

I agree or use a moistened Qtip

I think the biggest problem was trying to use standard white printer paper. Think of using it for paper piecing, you have to get the tiny stitches to break it apart. For quilting most of us want the larger stitches and we want them to hold so getting the tension right (along with quality thread) is really important. If you can break your thread apart, you don't really want to use it for quilting through paper.

Not all home printers work well with newsprint but you can buy reams of it as well for reasonable prices. Larger amounts have cheaper pricing but do you really need 500 sheets to start??

A very light spritzer bottle spray can also be good, or even a mostly dry sponge. You definitely want slightly moist without being wet. A favorite tool of mine was a popsicle stick. Along with the big bag for the shavings!

One of the big advantages of sewing through paper is no one can see where you wobbled off the lines. For me with my vision issues, I can't really follow or mark well a scrappy top to see the lines, much less follow them.