Making my own stencils

So, I've decided to make my own stencils. I saw someone do it on TV or in a magazine article and am just sure I can do it too. The person I saw do it used a simple U-shaped wood carving tool to cut the plastic along the lines she drew. That was a couple years ago. If I'd looked online for updated instructions, I'd have found that Olfa makes a stencil cutter now with replaceable blades that's pretty cheap. I'd have probably ended up with that, but instead, I took the family to Hobby Lobby to look for wood carving tools. I found exactly the tool I was looking for, but above it was this electric carving kit and after a long discussion in the store, Rob talked me into buying it. Okay, please don't tell him, but he was right. It's like a soldering iron, but with lots of fancy tips.

I gave it a try this morning. My first stencil is going to be the spine of the feathers I'm putting on that log cabin quilt I blogged about last Friday. I've got the back and the batting cut and am ready to pin baste it tomorrow morning, bright and early. If I'm going to use a stencil, I'm going to need it quick to satisfy my manic need to get working on a quilt. If the feathers here go like the last two sets of feathers I've made, I should have this quilt finished lickety-split.

In researching how to cut stencils, I learned that the thinner template plastic is easiest to cut, but tends to warp from the heat of the tool. This thicker sheet that I had on hand worked perfectly, tho. You can see my doodles where I drew a line with an extra find sharpie and then cut it out. I tried almost every tool that came in the kit before I found the combination of tools that worked best. First, I used the blunt tip tool that looks like a little piece of copper to the left of the black iron unit. That gave me a good first pass in the plastic and was very easy to control, much like writing with a pencil. But, because the tip is slightly rounded, the first pass was like a rounded trench instead of a perfect cut. The actual cut through the plastic was only the width of a hair and not thick enough for a pencil lead. So, I took the hot craft knife blade and ran along the edges to clean it up and I came up with a perfectly smooth cut and the original trench shaped cut gave a boundary that kept the hot knife from slipping. I'm looking forward to getting more plastic this afternoon and making the real template tomorrow and am feeling really confident that I can make just about any shape stencil I want.

NYresolution update...

Spend more time with the family - Okay, I spent time with them, but they probably wish I hadn't. I was in the most foul mood all week and am not sure why. Maybe it's because there were no behavior events and I could afford to be in a bad mood because there was nothing to really be in a bad mood about. So, I stomped around with a frown on my face and did my best to keep my mouth shut.

Work on unfinished projects - This quilt I'm getting ready to start is an unfinished project. And, I'm working on an afghan to donate to project Linus that I started...oh, two years ago???

Lose 15 pounds - Okay, I'm down a total of 5. And, really hoping that's not what contributed to my foul mood. It was extremely hard to be in a bad mood and not turn to food for comfort. But, I did it. If I can keep that up, the next 5 pounds should be a breeze. The 5 after that are basically vanity pounds and from what I hear, they're gonna be heck to lose. Good thing I didn't give myself a time limit :-).

Take care and have a great Friday. My work team end of year event is tonight and Rob and I are gonna pull out our cowboy clothes and have dinner with all my co-workers and their significant others. No kids allowed (whoohooo! we do not spend enough time kidless).

Lane