I found a new favorite tool!

I just had to share a new favorite tool I stumbled accross and have added to my toolbox.  A couple of months ago when I was online, I saw a picture of the tool below.

 I had no idea what it was for, but I knew exactly what I wanted it for … marking quilting designs of course, lol.  When I clicked on it, I discovered it is for making Tuffets.  It is called the Not So Tuff – Tuffet Tool Ruler by Bouncing Bobbins Quiltworks.  There is nothing I love better than a tool that can be used for multiple things!  I decided to  order one, hoping it would work for what I wanted to do with it.  When the ruler arrived, I was MORE that happy, it is thin plastic (for marking), and it WAS going to work just as I hoped.  So, I grabbed some fabric and started to play.  I marked a few basic things on fabric, and as I marked the first few designs, I could not stop thinking of more and more designs that I could mark with it.

This is just stitching the basic ruler lines marked twice in opposing directions. The cool thing was that you can stitch the lines crossing in the center and continue on to the other side of the design.

Once this basic shape is stitched, OMG, do you see the possibilites???? Filling some of the spaces with other designs??? Omitting some lines leaving room for other fills/designs??? I decided to just keep it simple and just add some additional lines as you can see in the following pics.

And a couple more ideas I tried.

I absolutely love this thing, and I can’t wait until I have a little more time to play with all of the other designs you can make with it.  Seriously … can you say “just the tip of the iceburg”, lol.  I will be adding this to my Straight Line Quilting with a Modern Twist class from now on!  If you will be in my Straight line class at Houston Quilt Festival (fingers crossed that my order arrives in time) I will have some of these for you to play with in class.         Happy Quilting!