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4 great reasons to use the Lone Star quilt templates

by Jennifer Houlden

Today I’m starting the lone star quilt center using templates from the Trace’n Create Quilting Collection and as I said yesterday I haven’t worked with a lot of templates in my quilting. Mostly I just cut the pieces needed to make a quilt with the rotary cutter and a ruler. As I worked with the lone star templates I was very impressed with how fast and easy they are to use. This experience spurred the discovery of 4 great reasons to use the Lone Star quilt templates.

The 3 lone star templates

The 3 lone star templates

The 4 great reasons

Excellent instructions – the instruction sheet that is included with the templates is very detailed with both written instructions and graphics – perfect for the visual learner as well as the learner who does best with written instructions. I’m a visual learner and loved all of the graphics detailing how to use the templates step by step.

Easy to use & read templates – the templates are well marked and color coded for where to trace for the different sizes.

4 different sizes – the templates have 4 different sizes of the lone star block – 12″, 24″, 32″ and 36″. I decided to make the largest size as the tree this skirt is going to dress stands 7′ tall. A large skirt is needed for this tree indeed.

No inset seams to sew – my favorite reason to use these templates! There are no inset or Y-seams to deal with. Woohoo.

Using the lone star templates

The templates are marked A, B & C. A is the small half square triangle, B the diamond and C the large half square template. Each template gives the size of fabric strip to cut for the size of the block being made.

I started with template B – the diamond. I was to cut an 8″ x WOF strip of fabric but I decided that I wanted the red fabric to have a strip of the gray in it as well so I had to piece my 8″ strip. With the gray strip to finish at 1″, I cut a strip 1½″ x WOF and 2 red strips 3¾″ x WOF then sewed them together to create an 8″ x WOF strip.

In fact I made 3 of these strips and cut one in half in order to get the 8 diamond strips needed to create the jumbo lone star.

8" wide strip of gray and red fabric for the diamond template C

8″ wide strip of gray and red fabric for the diamond template C

To trace and cut the pieces the fabric strips are placed together with right sides facing. The wrong side of the fabric will be facing up as the cutting line needs to be drawn on the wrong side of the fabric. I used a Clover Chaco Liner to draw along the outside of the template to create my cutting lines. These chalk liners come in several different colors.

The outside edge of the template makes the largest size of block and it’s placed along the straight edges of the fabric strip. The template plastic is not ideal for cutting along so I do recommend drawing the cutting line with a marking tool and then cutting.

Notice the other lines are color coded – green, orange and pink – for each different size of block.

Template on wrong side of fabric strip with marking tool ready

Template on wrong side of fabric strip with marking tool ready

With a rotary cutter and ruler I cut along the chalk lines to create 8 diamonds – 4 of the 8 will be the mirror image of the other 4.

The diamond

The diamond

Templates A & C are done in the same fashion with right sides of fabric facing each other. The cutting measurements are found on these templates as well. Template A uses an 8¼″ x WOF strip and template C uses an 11⅜″ x WOF strip.

Below shows template A positioned on the background fabric and a red Chaco liner to draw the cutting lines.

Template A positioned on fabric with Chaco liner

Template A positioned on fabric with Chaco liner

All template pieces cut

All template pieces cut

Now that all the pieces are cut don’t you agree these 4 great reasons to use the Lone Star Trace’n Create quilt templates makes the job easier? I’ll see you tomorrow to do some sewing. Happy Quilting.

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2 comments

char almand December 27, 2018 - 5:13 pm

Where can I buy these templates?

Reply
Emily C December 16, 2015 - 6:37 pm

Very interesting. I don’t usually use templates, but these look fun.

Reply

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