Originally Posted by Roxanne
I have discovered another problem and hope someone can help. I can' t seem to get an adequate tracing line on my fabric using dressmakers tracing paper. I have tried different colors and press down real hard, but the lines are very faint. I use chalk to go over the line so I can see it.
Have I gotten 2 bad packs? or is there a secret to it?
I have that same problem, Roxanne. So I started printing half the block on freezer paper, then ironing that onto a second layer of freezer paper and cutting out a 1/4 section using the center lines marked on the design. Then I start by cutting around the outside of any design pieces and laying the 1/4 of the design on the front of my fabric and tracing around the outside edges. For instance I just did Block 22. I used the section that had 5 and 6 in the corner. Cut inside the outside black lines of 5 & 6. Layed that piece into where it would fit on 1/4 of my block using the center lines I had marked on the fabric (actually, I mark them and then stitch with a basting stitch so I can use them to straighten up my blocks later). After I mark all four sections with the outside line, then I cut inside the black lines on the inside section of 5 and 6 and the outside section of 19 and 35. Do you see where I'm going here. Then the pieces you have cut out (5, 5, 19, 35, etc. become your templates for your applique.
It's probably as clear as mud, but it works for me. I am not good at tracing the lines with the lightbox and, like you, the tracing paper doesn't work at all for me, so this is what I have come up with.
Some of the real intricate blocks I am doing with the backbasting method, so I use this system on the back of the quilt. I may have some blocks that end of backwards if I forget to turn the pattern over, but who will know, but me, unless I tell them.