What I use most frequently probably would be called rulers rather than templates. My absolute favorite is 2 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches. I've usee it so much that I wore the corners off it and have been unable to find a replacement. The templates that I have actually used are the Marti Mitchell 7 piece basic set and a 2 piece set of templates for the drunkard's path. That set is called EZ by Wrights. I just happend to find it at the base exchange about 10 years ago. I also get a lot of use out of my 6 1/2, 8 1/2 & 9 1/2 inch square rulers.

the most useless template i have is a brick (rectangle). what was i thinking??

I love, love, love, my Marti Michell Templates. I belong to a Marti Club at my LQS where we have a demonstration of a template set every month and get a detailed pattern booklet to go with it. I’ve collected most of the sets, and whenever I see a quilt pattern I want to make, I just go to my templates to match them up with the pattern or block and I’m set to go.

I am right now working on the Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt from the book by Laurie Hird using the conversion chart that Marti has available free from her website to go with the book to cut out all the blocks using her templates. Only a few sets are needed for the quilt, but with a lot of template tricks that she illustrated on the charts, I was amazed at how much more each set can do. I cut out all the blocks at once so I would have something to work on while I’m recovering from ankle surgery and so far have hand pieced 86 of the blocks. It would have been way too much work to make this quilt without the Marti templates.

Someone mentioned here that cutting the little pieces off the corners with the templates to make the pieces match seemed silly, but actually it is so very fast and easy, and it gives amazing accuracy when piecing.