I am a hand quilter and just finished a wedding quilt and wanted a huge heart and feathers in the center as my design. I found the pattern I wanted and took it to a local blue print copy place and had them enlarge it. I then traced my design onto washable interfacing , I used a little bit of glue stick to hold it in place. When I was finished with my quilting I just put it in the washer and everything washed out beautiful. I was a little leary of putting all the interfacing thru the washer so I cut out some of the larger pieces first. It washes up beautiful and you can also find the kind that is tear out if you are more comfortable with that. There are two different kinds, one is sort of plastic feeling on top similar to the press and seal and some are more woven which is what I used.

I've used all of those papers and you need to have your stitches small to pull the paper off without pulling the stitches out. I did hear that they now make a paper that is water soluable..how perfect is that! I haven't found it yet tho...maybe I dreamt it????

I WOULD NOT RECOMEND THE USE OF THIS PRODUCT!!!!!!!!!! THERE WAS A POST EITHER HERE OR ON ONE OF MY JANOME YAHOO GROUPS....IT MAY NOT GUNK UP YOUR NEEDLE, HOWEVER, WHEN THE MACHINE REPAIR MAN OPENED UP A JANOME MACHINE WHERE THIS WAS USED, THERE WERE THOUSANDS OF TINY ROUND PIECES OF THE PLASTIC INSIDE OF THE MACHINE, CAUSED BY THE NEEDLE PUNCHING LITTLE PIECES OF THE PLASTIC OUT AS THE NEEDLE WENT THROUGH IT. I would not recommend this at all. Diana

Thanks for sharing all your experiences - sometimes it just doesn't pay to take short cuts - but someone has to try it to see if it works!

I also thought this would be a great way to follow a pattern so I tried it on a lap size quilt. I think it worked OK except the sheets of GLAD kept sticking together and made it a little cumbersome. I was happy with the results until I started peeling off the GLAD. Use lots of patience, good light, and a tweezers to get the plastic wrap off. There were some spots that loosened/ripped the thread but not too bad. It is a good way to follow a complicated pattern.

I'd fear the glue gumming up the machine needle and what type of ink would you use on the press n seal? I would not want to use a marker as it could get into your fabric.

Has anyone tried the water soluble stabilizer that you use for machine embroidery. You wouldn't be able to use anything wet that would dissolve the stabilizer but you could use a pencil or something on that order and it would just wash away. Also there is a tear away stabilizer that is made for machine embroidery that may work as well.

Well, now after reading this discussion, I am almost thoroughly confused about what is the best method for following a pattern while machine quilting... LOL! Actually this has been very informative and gives me lots to think about. Being new to machine quilting, I didn't even know there were so many methods. This board is so helpful for us "novices". I just did a small wall hanging and used stacked white tissue paper and the unthreaded needle method to poke holes. I sprayed a little temporary spray adhesive outside of the stitching area to hold it in place. I saw this on one of the tv quilting shows. I think they used the Golden Threads paper but I didn't want to wait.

Please be very careful with the Mr Clean Magic erasers. They're actually abrasive, it's how they "magically" remove things. I learned the hard way with the Teak table we got from DH's parents. There were sharpie marks on it from the kids, so I thought, hey these new Magic Erasers seem like just the thing....

It took the sharpie marks off, along with part of the finish. I had to re-oil the table and it still didn't ever quite match. Luckily, I'm the only one who knew where the marks were.

If you use one on a shiny surface, and look carefully, you can see the scratches it leaves, making the surface dull where you use it. They're great for some things, but I wouldn't use them on a sewing machine bed myself

Other than really porous surfaces, I usually use a dry erase marker to remove permanent marker. The solvent in the pen dissolves the "permanent" marker as well, then you wipe it off. I do this on all of my rulers when I use permanent marker and get some on it. I've done it to the tops of laptops, dry erase boards, desk tops, all sorts of things. It's worked on almost everything. The surfaces where it's "pitted" (like the finish on a early 90s Pfaff for instance) it doesn't work as well on, but with more elbow grease you can get even most of that out.

This post should have said WATER SOLUBLE & not WASHABLE. When finished I cut away part of the larger pieces and put the quilt in the washer and it is completely gone. You can use any kind of your favorite marking pens or pencils and trace the design then put a little glue stick in a few places and lay it on the quilt top. This method was done with hand quilting and is the same interfacing used for machine embroidery but I purchased it by the yardage. Be careful if you do purchase this as there are two kinds and one is plastic feeling like the glad wrap that was mentioned and is a little more difficult to stitch thru.