I was catching up with Edyta Sitar's fabulous YouTube channel, Quilting Window, the other day. Firstly, a little about Edyta: she's a prolific quilter, designer, author, product innovator and teacher. That last word is very important, because her ability to explain challenging techniques with clarity and warmth makes her one of my favourites. I've taken all of her Craftsy classes and watched the series of brilliant tutorials she made for The Fat Quarter Shop. The latter are completely FREE to access, so run...
Edyta is well known for using applique in her quilts and often uses a light-box to prepare her work: a piece of background fabric is laid over a paper template and the applique pieces then be positioned using the template as a guide. And then it occurred to me: I have a few patterns that include a template for marking and I usually cut them out and place them on the fabric. But if I used a light-box, I could just place the fabric on top of the template. No cutting? No problem.
If you don't happen to have a light-box, you could use the light on your mobile 'phone to illuminate a transparent plastic storage tub. And I think we all have one of those rattling around at the back of our kitchen cupboards...minus the lid of course. My light-box has clips to hold the template in place, if yours doesn't secure the template with washi-tape.
EDIT: If you have a tablet device, like an i-pad, there are a number of apps you can download to turn your tablet into a temporary lightbox.
I've updated my Triangle-in-a-Square tutorial with this new technique, as well as adding a round-up of the acrylic templates on the market now. So that's three different ways to do the same thing - I love that about quilting - just take your pick...
Nicola xx