Plastic Templates - a thing of the past?

How many of you have been quilting long enough to remember plastic templates?  I learned to make them out of tracing paper, old x-ray film and fine grade sandpaper when I took my first quilting class in 1974.  Rotary cutters, plastic rulers and rotary mats didn't exist then.  I made so many of these templates, then painstakingly traced around each one many times and cut out each piece using scissors.  My first quilt was a Triple Irish Chain with a plastic template 1 1/2" square.  I traced around it well over 2500 times, carefully cutting out each square. 

I stored them in carefully labeled envelopes so I was ready when I wanted to make the quilt.  Some were too big for small envelopes, so I stored them in the larger brown-gold-buff (or whatever you call that color) envelopes that I could fine at the stationary store (there weren't any office supply stores then.

I found all these envelopes in my filing cabinet when I was cleaning today. Several dozen of them.  I can't imagine they are of much use to most quilters today.  When I have something odd shaped I trace it onto freezer paper and then iron it to the fabric before cutting it out.  If it has straight sides - which most of these templates do - I just tape it to the bottom of a rotary ruler so I know what size to cut.  Or I buy a template suitable for rotary cutting if one exists (my preferred method!)

Different design companies came out with collections of templates to make specific quilts.  I subscribed to this one from Leisure Arts for at least a year.  The templates came printed on heavy plastic suitable for tracing around.

A definite improvement over gluing sandpaper, x-ray film and tracing paper together, though they didn't stick to the fabrics that well and could move while being traced.  This also didn't allow you any leeway in making size changes to the blocks.  You had to cut the lines straight to assure your pieces were straight.  Being the obsessive-compulsive quilter I am, I used a metal edged ruler and exacto knife to cut mine.

Obviously I never used some of them, as they were never cut out.

I really enjoyed looking through my quilting past while going through these.  No pictures exist of any of the quilts I made at that time, and my first quilt is the only one I still have access to.  I gave so many away to various aunts and uncles, and have no idea whatever happened to them.  Long before the digital era, it just didn't seem important to take pictures of my creations.  After all, film was expensive and developing even more so.  And being a stay-at-home mom with two preschoolers I had to squeeze every penny to make it squeal.

How many of you quilted with these things too?  I'd love to hear your memories - either in a comment or a blog post of your own.