I use a Sewline propelling pencil, where the 'leads' are available in different colours, i.e. regular grey colour, white, yellow etc. They are similar to a fairly hard ordinary pencil, and draw with a nice fine line. There is also a propelling type holder for a length of eraser that works very well as long as you haven't pressed too hard with the drawing in the first place, though I recommend you testing it on a scrap first. If you want to needle turn, then you have several alternatives to hold the top fabric in place while you stitch. You could pin it, but they drive me crazy, if you can only do that, then I suggest you try pinning from the back, where your sewing thread is less likely to catch on all the pins. You could tack the top fabric down, which is time consuming, but that's what I did with my avatar blocks. I tacked about a quarter inch away from the sewing line, trimmed my top fabric to just less than a quarter inch where I was planning to sew, snipped the edges on curves, then tucked them under and sewed down a bit at a time. Don't trim them all at once, as they could fray, just do an inch or two ahead of where you are stitching. Then the third alternative to pinning or tacking would be the newest one to me, and that is to use a small amount of Elmer's School Glue to hold them in place. I stress use only the SCHOOL version, as that is washable (and by that, it might need two hours of soaking to remove it all, but just leave it for that time, and it should all be out). If you can get the fine tips, then all well and good, or perhaps use a fine paint brush to apply, then put in place, and heat set with an iron. The glue will hold in place while you needle turn. I hope that helps.