If you are a novice quilter, there are a few terms that you may find confusing: pantographs, patterns, rulers, stencils, and templates. Murky as the Missouri River huh? Let’s see if we can clear things up.

A pantograph is a continuous line design created specifically for a long arm quilting machine. The machine operator uses a laser light to follow the pattern on the paper while the machine stitches the pattern into the quilt. Missouri Star sells pantographs for you to use at home with your long arm machine.

A pattern is a set of directions for making a quilt, or garment, or stuffed toy, or household item. The pattern includes a list of the materials you will need, pattern pieces to use when cutting the shapes and sizes of material required for the project, and step-by-step directions for the project.

A ruler is one of the essential quilt tools used for accurately measuring and squaring up fabric. Because quilting is all about geometry, straight edges and accurate angles are important for helping quilt blocks align with each other. Therefore, rulers made specifically for quilting have guides on them for common block sizes and seam allowances.

Quilting stencils are used to transfer a line design onto a quilt to guide machine or hand quilting. The line design is first cut into thin plastic–the stencil–which is laid over the quilt. The lines from the stencil are transferred onto the quilt with a fabric marker or with a quilt pounce. Then, using the registration marks on the stencil, it is realigned to repeat the design in a continuous line on the next section of the quilt.

Quilt templates are reusable pattern pieces. Think about this for a moment. Remember that a pattern includes the shapes you need to cut out? What if those are hexagon or orange peel shapes and you need enough for a queen size quilt? It would be hard–or impossible–to cut these with a ruler. You could cut your own template out of cardboard. But how easy would it be to use your rotary cutter safely? Most quilters figure that an investment in a plastic quilting template decreases the chance of mis-cutting fabric or worse, cutting a hand with a rotary blade. Nobody needs an expensive trip to urgent care!

Okay–how are we doing? Is the muddy water getting clearer?

Don’t let this next part confuse you. Some gadgets are quilting ruler templates! That’s not an official name, by the way. They’re just both–a ruler and a template. For example, take a look at the Missouri Star Large Dresden Plate Template for 10” Squares. You will see that this template is ruled every ½” down its entire length. Although it is labeled for Layer Cakes, the ruler itself is marked for use with Charm Packs as well. Many of the acrylic quilting templates on the Missouri Star website are ruled this way so that they can pull double duty. We try to choose products that help you get the biggest bang for your buck!

We offer many sizes and shapes of quilting templates acrylic–tumblers, orange peels, rhombus, apple core, and half hexagon. You will find acrylic circle templates in addition to the more common square and triangle shapes. We also offer quilting template sets of different shapes and different sizes. If you are looking for quilting templates for beginners, one of these sets might be just the thing.

One more thing, some people look for quilting templates using the term quilt cutting stencils. Confusing huh? Stencils aren’t usually used to cut quilt pieces. This just proves our point that the terminology can seomtimes be confusing.

At Missouri Star, we love sewing and quilting and sharing our passion for those things with you. We strive to bring you the best notions available because they make quilting easier and more fun. Whether you are searching for pantographs, patterns, quilting rulers, quilting stencils, or the best quilting templates, we hope you will look to us for what you need. And we will try to make things as clear as glass rather than as murky as the Muddy Mo.