Following my Stretched Star quilt and also the pillow I made recently I was searching for a grid stencil and simple stencils in general that one can use on baby quilts. Of course, I came across plenty (understatement!)...but not exactly what I wanted. I must say, I sometimes feel like living in the sticks over here Down Under...often cannot get very basic things.
I was after a 1/2in grid stencil and could only locate this in the US. In fact, most of the good stencils seem to be sitting in the US. After many hours of surfing the net, including Ebay, I decided on a different path. Do I really want to buy stencils?...chances are the ones I do get will not be the right size when I need them. Also, I really do not want to clutter myself with specific stencils and decided to investigate templates that would enable me to draw my own (which I do anyway).
Ordered a 1/2in grid ruler from an Australian supplier 'Punch with Judy' that will allow me to draw all kind of grids. This is the June Tailor Grid marker. This will be much more useful than just one stencil. Still waiting for it to arrive.
Also settled on some June Tailor shapes, i.e. hearts and leaves but could not get the feather shape anywhere...
Normally I draw feathers myself which is ok, but this can be time consuming to get the plumes consistent. So I thought it would be good to get a set of simple feather shapes to speed up the process. Remembered Anita Shackleford's Infinite Feather template (an oldie but a goodie) and starting hunting around for that. Again, no luck in Australia but was able to order it in US with reasonable postage. Should have bought it when I did see it at one of the shows here years ago but then I was not able to stitch feathers as yet. Together with some ovals and circle templates that I already have at home, and the various computer programs that help me change/resize/alter images, I feel pretty much set. Just waiting for the Infinite feather template to arrive now...
Karin
I don't think our American quilting cousins realise how lucky they are to have such a vast resource on hand, usually with free postage and much more reasonable prices than in the UK at least. On the other hand if I lived there my stash etc would need another room!
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