Marking a Black Quilt Top
 

I have just completed a mostly black quilt top. It now needs to be marked for quilting. I need something to mark it with that will come out of the quilt when I am finished. (I really don't want any light colored lines left over on the quilt.) What is the best available tool or method for the job?

jb

I used a piece of white snow. Look what I wrote because I was listening to the amber snow warnings. I meant a piece of white chalk or a white tailor chalk. Must concentrate on. One job at a time.

I use a white artists pencil called Swan Stabilo All Stabilo. It looks exactly like a regular pencil and leaves a straight line like a regular pencil. It is water soluble, and comes out completely. Unlike chalk it will not rub off until you wash your quilt (which I always like to do, since I think it makes them cozier) If you don't wash your quilts it will come off with a damp (wetish) cloth.

You can buy one at any art store or any place with a good selection of art supplies. It costs about a dollar.

I use the Bohin mechanical pencils with the white lead. Never had an issue with these marks coming out. Sometimes a little too quickly but I'm a hand quilter and the quilt gets moved around alot. I've learned to only mark as I go. With ANY of the marking tools that I've used.

Bohin, Fons and Porter or Collins mechanical white pencil. or Multi-Pastel Chalk pencils from General Pencil Co
or the pounce type Miracle Chalk. All have worked for me on black.
Then get one of those plastic lint brushes from the pet supply. It appears to act as both an eraser and brush. Gentle brushing with this takes the lines off.

I have used the little slivers of bar soap we have.

this is what i do as well. i use a stiff brush to remove the marks afterwards.

I use the Clover fine line white marker. The marks stay until they're quilted, and come off with washing or ironing - and they don't come back. It takes a few seconds for to be able to see the lines develop.

I marked crosshatching on my latest quilt - I did the marking over a year ago and I can still see the lines (I'm hand quilting). I can't really see them once I quilted over them.

Janet

White mechanical pencils from Fons & Porter.

If you're quilting it yourself by hand or on a home machine and the design isn't *too* complicated, you can use pieces of thin muslin or featherweight sew-in interfacing to mark the pattern so that you'd sew just along the edge of the muslin without catching it in the stitching. Either fabric sticks pretty well, just need a few pins to anchor it. No lint from sew-in nonwoven interfacing.