Originally Posted by
Justquilting
I found a pilot gel pen at an office store. It's thermal sensitive. Instead of water it disappears when it's ironed. It really works. It comes in blue, red or black. If you look on the back of the package. It will say thermal sensitive. I've left it in a hot car & thought it was wasted. But I put it in the frig & voila....it works again.
This is the Frixion pen. First of all, let me say that I really like these pens. I use them for my flying geese, HSTs and QSTs, but I have not marked a top for quilting with them.
Now, let me tell you what else I've heard. I've been told that it hasn't been on the market long enough to know what it will do over time. I've also been told that if you mark something, remove the mark by ironing it, then put the piece in the freezer, the cold will bring the marking back and you will be able to see where it was marked. Since I don't expect anyone to ever put one of my quilts in the freezer and since it only gets below freezing a few times each winter, I'm not going to worry about that. If I lived where it stayed below freezing for weeks at a time, I might worry, but I don't, so I won't. I did notice that where the fabric was marked, when it is ironed, there is a faint line where the mark was. This is left by the chemicals that make up the ink.
When I took my first handquilting class, the instructor recommended the spray starch and #2 pencil method. Spray the fabric thoroughly but not soaked, let the fibers absorb the starch, press the fabric, then mark lightly with a sharp pointed pencil. This will give you a very fine line which is pretty much covered by the stitching. The pencil markings are actually on the layer of spray starch and will wash out when you wash the quilt.