About Westalee Design

In 2008 with my husband Bill, I began Westalee Design, we design and manufacture Patchwork and Quilting Rulers and Templates.

The story of Westalee Design really began months early.

As a patchworker and quilter for over 30 years, I had learned that there are 3 steps to beautiful piece - CUT ACCURATELY - SEW ACCURATELY - PRESS ACCURATELY. Well, I could sew accurately using a SCANT QUARTER INCH SEAM ALLOWANCE and I could press accurately, but cutting with the rulers that were on the market always left a bit to be desired.

I was making a quilt with 1200 3/16th Bias strips and as I was cutting the strips I was so frustrated with the inaccuracy of the resulting strips (caused by the ruler slipping and printed lines) that I decided to make a ruler with a guide, this was prototype 1. It worked, I now had perfect  3/16th  strips every time, but I needed a ruler with a guide that I could cut any size and not just the standard measurements. A number of prototypes later the Adjustable Ruler was made, a ruler with a guide to cut any measurement from 3/16th to 6 1/2".

I had invented the first Adjustable Ruler with Locking Fabric Guide for patchwork, a ruler to make it easy to cut accurately every time - without the usual problem of ruler slip.

A selection of our Rulers

2008 saw the launch of our rulers for patchwork and we soon found out that there was a growing need for many other tools and we now had the machinery and the desire to fill the gaps.

In July 2008, I appeared on the New Inventors Show and won the Grand Final Viewers Choice Award for my invention. 

Bill designed the Crosshatch Guide for long arm quilting machines. One of the most difficult designs to stitch is angled crosshatching and this tool makes it easy.

Westalee Crosshatch Guide

2009 was the year we introduced our Guided Templates and our unique key system for quiltng templates.

2010 we sold our first pin and disc located, rotating template, Circleworks and our Pinwheel Tool Set templates.

Circleworks

Circleworks can be used to design your own circular foundation patterns and quilting designs.

2012 In March we sold the worlds first Located Rotating Templates for longarm machine quilting. I designed the Spin-e-fex range to give beginner and experienced  quilters the ability to easily create their own rotating designs. Recently we added the Circles on Quilts series of templates Wreaths and Wheel designs with more than 90 templates, it is also our most extensive,  such as wreath and wheel.

I love to design new tools, it usually begins with seeing a need, creating the artwork, making prototypes testing and finally holding the finished product. Our Ruler and Template will keep growing and evolving filling the needs of quilter's.

In this blog we will be talking about piecing and quilting, new tools and techniques. 

For more information on our tools visit http://www.westalee.com.au