Printable quilting stencils are paper quilting designs you print at home, place on your quilt, stitch through — then tear away. I developed the first printable quilting stencils in 2024 to help all quilters easily do edge-to-edge quilting on a regular sewing machine without special tools or marking.

Now you can finish your quilts on any sewing machine with soft, cuddly quilting designs and easy edge-to-edge quilting! These are digital PDF paper quilting stencils designed for you to:

• Download - Purchase the stencil designs you like and download the PDFs immediately to your computer.
• Print - Print out these quilting designs on paper as many times as you need on regular printer paper.
• Stitch - Finish your quilts easily with these quilting templates by placing one stencil on your quilt at a time.

Each stencil design is sold separately so you can select the designs that best fit your quilts and style!

Which printable stencil size fits my sewing machine?

We now have more sizes of Printable Quilting Stencils! Check out this chart to see which size will work best for you:

Do you have a small sewing machine? Click Here to find Mini Paper Stencils, specially designed for small home sewing machines!

What are Paper Quilting Stencils?

These printable quilting templates are made for free motion quilting on any style of machine - home machine or longarm. Quilting paper and your quilt at the same time is much easier and faster when you have a line to follow. Seeing the quilt stitching patterns allows you to focus on free motion quilting and getting your quilt done!

I've been quilting since 2005 and was thrilled by how fast I could stitch across each quilt stencil. In just 6 minutes, I'd stitched this pretty clover stencil across my quilt and was ready to line up the next row.

How to Quilt with these Printable Stencils on Paper

Using these free motion quilting stencils is so easy:

• Purchase one of our Printable Quilt Stencil designs.
• Download the PDF file to your computer. Note - This product is only available as a digital download.
• Print out the quilting stencils onto US Letter sized paper. Check your printer settings to make sure the document prints "actual size" so the quilting designs are printed the proper size.
• Print 20-40 copies of Page 2. You'll need lots of copies of the design page because you're going to quilt through the paper and your quilt at the same time.
• Trim off the extra quilting paper around the stencil using the dashed lines as a guide.
• Piece your quilt top, layer it with batting and backing fabric, and pin to create a quilt sandwich.
• Place the paper stencil on your prepared quilt and remove a few pins so it lays flat. Start quilting in the middle on big quilts or on the edge for smaller quilts.
• Quilt along the quilt stencil patterns in the direction that feels most natural to you. I like left to right.
• Tear away the quilting paper to reveal your beautiful quilting design.

What Quilters are Saying About These Quilting Stencils

This technique enabled me to get a professional look on my regular domestic machine!! I tried this technique and loved it. Yes there were some tiny bits left behind. At first I was using tweezers to remove them then the "aha" moment....put it in washing machine!! All the bits gone 😊

 ~Robin R on Facebook

How do you remove the paper after quilting?

This is the #1 question and concern from quilters about paper quilting stencils. Here are the steps to removing the paper after quilting:

1. Roll the entire quilt into a ball with the paper to the inside and give it a good squish.
2. Unroll, then ball it back up with the paper to the outside. This presses the paper against your stitches and begins to tear the paper away.
3. Working one quilted stencil at a time, tear the paper away from your stitches. If you followed steps 2 and 3 above, the paper will already be loosened and won't stress your stitches.
4. Try to tear the paper away parallel with the stitching line. This tears more away cleanly and leaves less small bits behind.
5. Don't agonize about every speck of paper. A quick wash in your washing machine and all the tiny bits will wash out!

More Tips for Tearaway Quilting Stencils

One key is to make smaller stitches as you quilt. When quilting with a home sewing machine, you can make your stitches smaller by running your machine faster and moving your hands slower.

On a longarm machine with a stitch regulator, select a smaller stitch length so you produce smaller stitches. Make sure to follow the instructions in the PDF after quilting to help loosen the paper after quilting too!

Helpful Tool for Removing Small Bits of Paper

Melissa P use the Wandering Clover stencil to quilt a beautiful table runner and had this tip to share:

Printable Stencils for Quilts of All Styles

Each of these printable quilting templates are continuous line quilting designs. Continuous line means the design starts and stops in the same horizontal line. You can keep quilting by placing another paper stencil right next to the first and the design will continue seamlessly.

All of the designs sold on this page are quilting stencils for beginners. They are designed with wide spacing between the lines of quilting so your finished quilt will feel soft and cuddly.

Janice C used the Stars and Swirls paper stencil and shared:

Thanks again for the design! It worked perfectly for my quilt. I got better at quilting it as I got towards the end. Believe it is called a learning curve... Janice C.

This method of quilting designs in rows across your quilt is called Edge-to-Edge Quilting. This is a popular style of longarm quilting, and now you can make your quilts look like they were longarm quilted with your home machine! 

Tips for Quilting with Printable Quilting Stencils

• Use normal printer paper - 20lb copy paper - works great! You don't need to spend extra on super thin or specialty paper.
• Move your hand slowly to create tinier stitches. The right stitch length for quilting is really in the eye of the beholder. Smaller stitches help rip the paper and make tearing away the stencils easier.
• Line up the stencil designs across your quilt to know how many you will need to cover your entire quilt. Print and trim the extra paper off all of your stencils before you get started quilting. This saves you from having to stop and do it later. You'll be surprised just how fast your quilting can go with these paper stencils!

Piece and Quilt Two Baby Quilt Patterns

Since launching our Printable Quilting Stencils, I've shared many videos on how to use these designs in real quilts. Check out the two free quilt patterns below and learn how to piece a baby quilt quickly from precut fabrics and quilt using paper stencils:

More Paper Quilting Stencil Designs

I've published a variety of printable quilting stencils so far, but many more are in the works! One thing I'm playing with is creating more designs to fit specific spaces on our quilts. This style of Custom Quilting makes our quilts more unique and interesting. It's also nice to honor our patchwork by quilting shapes that better fit our pieced blocks.