Who marks their quilting pattern?
 

While doing some actual quilting this afternoon with my Janome 1600P on a frame, I wished I had gone ahead and taken time to mark the stipple pattern. My stipple isn't the best in the world and is done free hand. If you mark your pattern do you do it before hand? With a stencil or a pounce pad line by line. Wanting something that won't take a whole day to do and makes my quilts a little more presentable.

I used to. I have a lot of stencils and pounce and various marking tools. For me it took too long. I also had some of that printed paper that I would quilt over. Mostly the meander one. Then I decided to try and do a few free form ones that I am comfortable with. I also tried ruler quilting and decided I don't like that either. I use a Brother PQ 1500 not on a frame. I am thinking there is a wide variability on what we all do so will look forward to more posts.

Depends on the pattern. The center vein of feathers or ferns is marked. If a motif needs to be evenly spaced, it’s marked. straight lines are usually marked.

organic patterns are not usually marked

I do mostly organic looking free motion quilting. I do not like marking at all. I have done it when I am trying to balance things in a border. I don't like so don't put borders that need this type of quilting on my quilts any longer. My first few meander quilts where pretty rough looking but as time went on, my curves got smoother and I got better at figuring out where to go next to maintain a fairly even amount of quilting. I guess what I am saying is if you don't enjoy marking, don't. But do keep on quilting, over time it will begin to make smoother looking motives. When I am putting in things like bubbles, leaves, swirls into my meandering, I do try and make them in different sizes and directions. I really want them to look organic and like they were not stitched out by pantogram or computerized quilting. I did try to do the classic customized quilting with things being perfect and organized. It is not me and I do not enjoy it. I think for me, I do this for fun, not for money and so I do what I want and what I can do without driving myself nuts.

I try to mark as little as possible, but in my current quilt I found I needed to mark where the overall background disappears behind appliqué. Marking the partially hidden lines also helps my brain figure out the best way to quilt them without too much backtracking. I mark a section with washable blue markers, quilt it, then wash off the markers. When the quilt is finished, I will wash the whole thing again in water only, then a second time with detergent.

I will only mark if I am quilting with a walking foot and need lines very evenly spaced. Or, as someone else mentioned, I will mark the center line of a feather. And when I mark, it's with Crayola washable markers. I've never had any difficulty with them not washing out. Other than that, no. I have done both meandering and also a sort of free-hand feather border. Though my FMQ has improved over the years, it's never perfect, and I really don't care. I love and enjoy my quilts just as they are. Even when doing hand quilting I avoid marking like the plague, but will use a hera when necessary.

I've mostly machine quilted with different rulers/shapes. But now I'm doing FMQ using the Pounce Chalk and using stencils. I put the pattern on and then spray it lightly with Best Press to keep the chalk from getting rubbed off as I do the FMQ. I like doing it this way because I can just follow the lines and don't really have to think much ahead. It's pretty much stress free for me doing it this way. I know before I start how my pattern is going to look.

Thanks for the idea of spraying with Best Press over the chalk. I'm going to try it.

Linda, I have done several quilts using stencils and washable markers. Those quilts look good. My other attempts at FMQ w/o stencils or rulers do not look so good lol.

There's no use for me in marking, I can't stay on the lines. It works better for me to just relax and go with the flow. (Fortunately, I prefer a simple to a formal quilting style. My quilting skills are still in the rudimentary stage.)

I do mostly ruler and fmq quilting. For borders with repetative elements, l give myself registration marks, l measure/ mark...eg: a tick mark for center of each spiral, a slash line that's the center vein of a leaf motif. I use a white chalk holder on dark fabric, and the air erase purple marking pens on lights. These are markings l do with each advance.
if doing a whole cloth effect, l'd use the blue water erase pen and mark the skeletin of the entire top, then fill in more detail if neede with air erase ( or chalk).