Do-It-Yourself Quilt Template

There are a couple posts on this blog that deal with the Brown Bag Challenge so I won't bore you with those details. Once joined the blocks had some nice white space to add a quilting design. The templates found online and in my books didn't suit, so I decided to make my own.Because I'm naming this piece "Winter Picnic", I wanted to carry the holly in the fabric throughout the design.

First I plucked a couple holly leaves from the bush by the driveway to use as reference. I measured the available white space - one square and one triangle.

With sketchbook in hand I drew the square and triangle out and sketched a holly design. If I was going to re-use the template I would have made it on cardboard (the inside of a cereal box works great) or template plastic, but I'm just using it for this one project so heavyweight paper sufficed. 

I placed the sketch on a cutting mat and used an X-Acto knife to cut out the designs.

 

 It just took a few minutes to cut them out and wallah! An original quilting template. The photos below show how the design looks on  the wall hanging.

I'm using high-loft batting in the quilt to give it a bit of depth. I think it's going to turn out really nice. Don't forget that the design should be lightly penciled on the fabric prior to basting together the quilt sandwich (backing-batting-quilt top).

It's another rainy day here in Northwestern PA. Great time to quilt! Hope you've found these instructions useful. Let me know what you think of this project. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Suggestions?