Geri B

If you are only thinking of crazy quilt templates - there are many paper patterns on Pinterest that you can use, and YouTube probably has videos on doing a sort of "stack, cut, flip" way of doing CQ.....

Wanabee Quiltin

If your template has straight sides like squares or rectangles, I go to Lowe’s and have them cut it for me out of their plexiglass. If it has curves, then I get my son to cut them out for me. It cost me about $1.50 to get a nice template that I use with my rotary cutter. I ask them to use their leftover plexiglass as my pieces are rarely larger than 10 x 10”.

Quiltlady330

I used to use them more than I do now. So much is done with rulers now, but in the past I used sturdy cardboard and plastic as well as the template plastic. I learned to quilt when we lived on an island in Alaska and didn't have a fabric store or anyplace to get so many of the supplies that we use and can readily get now. I can remember cutting Flower Garden hexs from milk jug plastic. That wasn't fun to me but I did it to get the tool I wanted. It worked! LOL

I haven't heard of using linoleum before but if you know someone who lays tile you might ask for broken pieces of leftovers that they are going to discard. These wouldn't have the adhesive on the bottom. You might even stop by a house under construction and ask the contractors. Bet they would be glad to give you a few if they're using that.

sewvicki

I go to my local hardware, take them a pattern or tell them the size I want and they cut 1/8 inch plexi glass templates for me. I use a permanent marker to make an " X " thru the middle to easily determine the middle of my block. This would only work for basic circle, rectangle or square shapes and, of course, doesn't have any other accurate markings. The cost is usually under $5....less than commercial templates.

mac

I went to Tap Plastic and got some templates made. The were geometric shapes, squares, rounds, etc (simple shapes). However, I never asked them if they could make more intricate shapes.

Also took a class from a well-known quilt teacher (so well known that I can't think of her name at the moment, I need more coffee!) and she made templates out of the laminate plastic that you would glue onto a kitchen counter. She said that her husband cut them out with a jig-saw. They were well-made and I still have them 30 years later.

AliKat

I go to a local plastics company. They are so great. I had them make my DSM table tops as it was much less expensive than a sew steady table, and I could have the tables the size I wanted.

stillvnu

We have a Tap Plastics near by so if I intend to use the pattern more than once I usually take my template pattern to them and have them make me an acrylic template ... usually fairly inexpensive ... If it is a one time use I use template plastic from Joann's or cardboard.

Tartan

If you can draw out the pattern pieces with the seam allowances on a piece of paper, you could get a couple of peel and stick 12 floor tiles from the $ store. Peel off the paper and stick your pattern pieces on it. You would need heavy duty scissors or an exacto knife to cut out the shapes along the seam allowances on your paper. This should give you your pattern pieces to use with your rotary cutter.