Machine quilting templates
 

These popped up on my instagram feed and I'm wondering if they are worth buying or not. I don't send things out to longarm so all I can do now is a straight stitch when quilting. I'd really like to be a little more fancy, often it's the quilting pattern that really makes the quilt shine. I can't find the exact ones that showed up but here is something similar I found on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Motion-Q...ps%2C58&sr=8-1

The video made it look so easy, but I wonder, is it really?

The ones on Amazon are only 1/8" thick. They will slip right under the foot, break the needle, possibly mess up your machine's timing, and scare you silly. If you want to do ruler work, you need rulers that are 1/4" thick. I can't speak to how easy they are to use on a DSM, since I quilt on a longarm, but many people use them.

videos always make things look easy! I am not sure I would want to quilt a whole quilt with those, as it looks like it would take very frequent readjustments. I would expect that these would be very good to help get you comfortable with free motion quilting so that you can progress away from stencils. but as dunster said, make sure it is compatible with your machine. DSM and long arms have different ruler requirements.

First off these are cheap knockoffs of rulers from Sew Steady and most people who have bought them are unhappy with them as they are made poorly. I have several rulers/templates from Sew Steady and have done several quilts with them. Janet Collins and Angela Attwood have designed quilt tops that are wholecloth done with rulers. If you are using a domestic sewing machine there are different ruler foots and rulers that each machine uses, check Sew Stead website for your particular machine. I have 2 Pffafs one uses a low shank and the other uses a medium shank and both use the low shank ruler/templates. Angela Walters also sells rulers in both 1/8" (low shank) and 1/4" high shank, the height of your shank determines what height ruler you need.

I am attaching photo of Janet Collins and Angela Attwoods quilt that I completed. Quilting with rulers is fun but like FMQ it takes lots of practice and patients but there are lots of videos by quilters teaching the process.

Don't order them!!! I did and they are a floppy, thin piece of trash! They are more like stencils. They come from China.

I second the ones from Sew Steady. I luv's them. I have multiple ones in different sizes and sets as well as single ones, and after a short practice on one practice block (made a pot holder for practice block) I was good to go! I have done full quilts with them. You do need a foot to go with them, but the Sew Steady sight gives you the information you need when you put in what quilting ruler you want. It asks you what your machine is, etc! I really really love their site and products! Their quilting rulers are excellent and there are tutorials as well for them!

If you want to continue to use a walking foot with feed dogs down, I would recommend the book Walk by Jacquie Gehring. Her instructions really open up additional possibilities for quilting with a walking foot. Definitely beyond stitching just in a straight line.

If you want to learn free motion quilting, which drops the feed dogs and uses a darning foot or similar, I would highly recommend the Free Motion Quilting Academy taught online by HollyAnne Knight of String and Story. Amazing class designed to give you confidence to quilt on your DSM or a long arm. I have attached a few of the motifs I did on the sampler we did in her class.

Thank you for the info, especially about Sew Steady. I will take a look at their web site. Lots to learn in doing this it seems. Sounds like it would be good for smaller projects like table toppers, because as someone said it takes a lot of readjustments.

The link I posted wasn't one I was going to purchase, it was just a sample of what I was talking about. It's the first thing that came up when I googled machine quilting templates.

Your samplers are beautiful!!!!!