I am, for the first time, experimenting in template and free-hand hand quilting. I'm normally a ditch following or cross hatch girl.

I made some templates and purchased a couple inexpensive ones. The ones I bought are very pretty, and simple basic shapes like vines and scallops.

I have 3 marking items. A gray pencil, a white pencil, and a blue marking pen. All 3 get stuck in my templates. I know they aren't meant for drawing because I bought them in the quilting section of the store....but it's irritating having to stop and restencil and line up again, and remark again when my pencils get stuck in the stencils.

Any ideas???

I have none but will be interested in the answers you get, because I'm about to try and branch out in the same way you are.

I use them all the time and don't have a problem but I have an old school type pencil sharpener and keep them sharp. I tried a new white marking pan but I'm not happy with that. You don't see the white for a few minutes. I've also used the yellow ones, Pounce, and the chalk markers. It all depends on what I am doing. All I can say about the pencils is that I have to keep them on the sharper side but not so thin that the points break off.

I use a Sewline mechanical marking pencil. It's thinner than any stencil I've ever seen (which is hundreds...I catalog them for my longarmer).

When I use stencils I use my pounce pad. It works better than a pen for me.

The tip of my blue marker gets stuck in the stencil. I did take some advice and have a sharp tip on my marking pencil. It works much better, but is still a bit of a pain. I might end up with a pounce pad to see if that would work.

I cannot get over how much pencil I used for one project. I started with a brand new marking pencil and, keeping it very sharp, used almost the whole thing.

I found some chalk pencils set up like mechanical pencils. They were 6.99 on sale in various colors. It looks like I'm going to get more than one in my purchase though. It looked like a great deal and at the same time cheap enough that if it doesn't work, I don't feel bad for giving it away. I got 3 things from the website adding sales and my shop hop gift certificate, I made out pretty good. It was worth it.

Now I have to make something to quilt so I can try out my new pencil. :roll:

Do you put a piece of sandpaper under your fabric when marking? I've found this helps a lot. Keeps the fabric stable, prevents it from stretching, and the pencils write much more smoothly, using less lead. I use a fine grit sandpaper for this. Don't know about pencils getting stuck in stencils, but at least they write better with this trick.

Forgive me . . . tired brain here. You're talking about after you've already layered right? I was thinking of just one layer of fabric, not including batting and backing. Never mind.

No, it's all sandwiched and basted first. Does sandpaper work on the whole sandwich?? I didn't know that. Might have to try that one.

Sometimes I have to go back, although I try not to make a contiuous line more like long dashes.

I bought a new chalk mechanical pencil that makes a very, very fine line. I bought it at the last quilt show I went to. I believe it is made in France I have green and white chalk, although it is really like a .05 lead for a mechanical. I love it.

I can't wait to try them when they get here. They sound like fun...but of course, now I have to make a top I'm going to quilt. I might throw myself into our wedding/10th anniversary quilt. I'd love to have it done and quilted by next December. I can feel those gears turning and reving up for this one!!