Inexperienced Quilter, But Learning!
 

I recently completed a wall hanging. I want to fill in the "white" space with hand quilting. I am an avid scrapbooker and used chipboard to cut a design I could find in my home rather than going out and purchasing a pre-made plastic template. I need to draw the design. I have read numerous reviews of chalk, so-called disappearing ink, etc. A little scray. I did not wash the fabric before using. I am afraid if I apply water for it to dry away, the fabric dyes may run. What suggestions can you share with me? Thank you. Karen

I love your wall hanging! It is darling. Sorry, can't offer advice on marking for quilting.

There's a quilting marker that just fades away on its own. I think they're the purple ones. Wal-Mart should have them.

you can pick up a fine point (ceramic lead) marking pencil --- i think Fon's & Porter has one out- that has an eraser with it---after marking/quilting you simply erase the marks...i used one on a white whole cloth- used the green lead- it erased away quite easily....now it is my favorite marking tool!

My wonderful husband gave me some great marking pens for Christmas. They are called Frixion by Pilot and come in a variety of colors. You can mark your fabric for quilting and then remove the lines by going over the quilt with a warm iron. It's magic! LOL The funny thing is that my husband was at my local quilt shop buying a gift certificate and happened to see these pens next to the register. He had no clue what they did, but knew that I always love quilting gadgets. I had 3 pens in my Christmas stocking! I love them.

Sewline mechanical pencil. Green, pink, yellow, white, and black ceramic lead refills. Many of our favorite online shops sell them. You could get the refills and use any .9 mechanical pencil. I prefer the real thing as it has some weight to it and is very comfortable to use. Comes with 'special' eraser for erasing the ceramic lead markings. Walmart sells a white pearl eraser that works fast and easy.

Thank you so much. I have no clue what I am doing. I get ideas and run(sew) with it. I learn as I go. This is a wonderful place to learn from you the experts. I thought about leaving the empty space...empty. Just feel like I need more hand stitching on it.

The purple ones do not get good reviews on the internet searches. Have you had good luck with them?

I love your design! I'd go with the sew line pencils too.

Thanks to all. Please also share suggestions on what could have been done differently. Like for example the school house should have had a higher roof than the house next door. Colors are AWFUL on the first house. It will not hurt my feelings at all. I do love my church.

I would use the disappearing ink pen! Beautiful work!

If you are using a stencil, tie a little cinnamon in a small piece of cloth and dab on the quilting lines. I have never had a stain from this and smells nice while quilting. For dark colored areas use the same method, but use baby powder in the cloth. My grandmother who was born in 1891 taught me this many years ago.

I have a purple marker that does fade away on its own, and I have had excellent luck with it. My only complaint is that I use it so much it's drying out.

I wanted to say to the OP to make sure you READ THE PACKAGE INSTRUCTIONS. Pressing will cause some marking products to disappear and other products to be permanently set in. Keep your instructions so you don't forget.

I am a hand quilter and I use Sewline pencil for marking small projects and Roxanne's silver pencil for large projects on light colored fabric because the marks seem to stay visible longer than Sewline. These will have to be washed out. Unless you have a lot of red in your project you shouldn't have a problem with bleeding. However, just to be safe I'd wash in cold water with no detergent and two or three of the color catcher sheets. I have never used the blue pens on hand quilting projects because I'm usually working on those for several months, even years and am unsure if the blue ink will come out. However, I found some machine quilting sample pieces I had marked a couple years ago and sprayed a spot with water and the ink disappeared. So, I intend to try a very fine blue pen on my next project. It will be much easier for my old eyes to see. Happy quilting!