Hey everyone! I'm curious how you transfer or draw a desing onto your quilt. Do you use a stencil? How about if you've printed something off the computer; how do you acutally get the design on the quilt? Does tracing work? And with what?

I've seen some amazing designs on quilt that people have free motioned and i'm thinking i would need a design to follow.
any help would be great!
a

I usually use a stencil but have been known to draw it on tissue paper and pin that to the quilt.

You can also use Gladwrap Press and Seal. It'll stick to whatever you want to trace and then it'll stick to the quilt. After you're through quilting you just peel it back off the quilt.

Scissor Queen, what an amazing idea! I have to try it, seems it would be much better than paper, not as stiff.

When I first started quilting I would draw my quilting motif on paper cut to the size of the quilt block. Then I would remove the thread from my sewing machine and stitch through the paper on the lines I had drawn. I then had a stencil which I pinned on my quilt block. If the fabric was dark I used baby powder rubbed on the stencil so I could see the lines. If the fabric was light I would use a blue water erase pen. Worked for me.

Love this idea, thanks for the info.

Have a book of Designs from when tole painting, often refer back to if I need a reminder, can make any size, sometimes just free hand and put together the combo, hang it up and work on somthing else let what I call the back of my mind work on it, most of the time come up w/something workable. LOL... Voices in my head :)
Do like the Glad Idea Clever Quilters!!! :)

I have to try this!! I usually use tissue paper, then pin it to the fabric. Sometimes tiny bits of tissue paper get caught in the thread and I have to fuss to get them loose!

If I print a design off the computer, I use an exact o knife and cut out the lines then use a disappearing maker to mark what I am going to quilt, I print it on card stock and sometimes glue that to light cardboard before cutting out.

Are you just sewiing over the P&S, then removing it? Can it be reused?

I just sewed right over the P&S and you can't reuse it. Make absolutely sure you have it all removed before you iron it again!!

I'm going to have to try Scissor Queens method also. I've always used printer paper. Print or draw my design on paper, then sew right over the paper. It's a B&^%H picking out all that paper, but at the time it was the only way I knew to do it. Thanks for the suggestion.

I print off the design I want and trace it onto netting with a permanent marker. I then put the netting on my quilt and draw over the marker with chalk pencil.

I have traced over the design on tulle with contrasting permanent marker, then pinned the tulle to my quilt and then traced over my lines with a chalk pencil.

I loved the Press & Seal idea too, but I found that if your stitch length is short, the stuff can be darn near impossible to remove and won't come out in the wash. I did some feathered wreaths with Press & Seal and no matter what, particles remained. I would try this on a sample before using it on a quilt you've spent a lot of time on.

Thanks letting us know your experience with press & seal. I have this problem with tissue paper, but at least that can be picked out or dissolved in the wash. Since I already experience this with tissue paper, I will likely experience it with press & seal as well.

I now use the tissue paper way. At first I used Press and Seal, but found that it really gummed up my machine and it took quite a bit of cleaning to get my machine back to normal.

okay so what kind of tissure paper do you use? like regular toilet paper or the stuff that comes in gift bags or what. can you tell i'm clueless? :)
also what were you gals talking about with the P&S? could you describe your method a bit more??
thanks so much already everyone! :)
a

Doesn't anybody use pounce and stencils? I am so scared of my first FMQ project, so I bought all the stuff (Ultimate Pounce I think it's called; can be removed with a hot iron). I tried the official-quilting tissue and spent hours picking the paper off the sample quilt - I won't use that again.

I trace my QD on water soublable interfacing. Pin it onto the fab and away I go. Found out the HARD way not to sew directly on the ink when quilting on light fab. Ink stayed on the fab. Had to use hair spray and a Q-tip to get it out.

could you use press+seal as a stensil? have any aussies seen it on the shelves here?where

This sounds like a great idea. How do you get the chalk pencil off? I used one and it seems like the only way is to wash the quilt. No problem with that except right now I'm finishing an oversize king and my washer is not big enough to handle that.

I tried pounce and it did not work for me. I used special pencils and they broke all the time and it took hours. Sewing over paper was cumbersome and the stitches did not come out as well for me. Never mind getting that paper from under the stitches. With the last quilt I bought kids washable crayola sharp point markers and drew free hand feathers. I was done in no time and fortunately it did all wash out with the first wash. I did not leave it on for long and I did not iron over it. I am definitely planning to use it again. I enjoyed the freedom of drawing on the quilt and then just sewing over the lines. Besure to try it out on scrap before doing this. Also I did it on a quilt for my DD that is to be used. Something you do not plan on washing would obvioulsy not be suitable.

I tried the Press & Seal method once, the "permanent" pen I was using rubbed off on me and then onto my quilt! :( Thankfully I was able to remove the stains! I usually use Golden Threads quilting paper, it works well for me. I also freehand some of my quilting designs directly on the quilt with a fine pencil.

I use the tissue paper that you get in the gift wrap section of Walgreens, Walmart, KMart, etc - the stuff you put in with holiday gifts. If it's wrinkled or creased, you can press it with the iron to smooth it out a bit.
Trace the image onto the tissue paper and then pin the paper to the quilt and stitch on the lines. I have found that if you are quilting on a light fabric, it's best to use colored tissue paper with the image traced with white pencil as the graphite color will transfer into the stitch holes and the quilting will look "dirty". Darker fabrics work fine with white tissue paper and image in normal pencil. When done stitching, just pull out the paper. For little pieces stuck under stitching, use pointy tweezers to get out.
If you want to try the P&S, it's pretty much the same technique - trace the image onto the "non-sticky" side of the P&S and then pin onto the fabric, stitch on the lines, and peel off when done using tweezers if necessary. The stickiness of the P&S also helps keep it in place. I used a fine point Sharpie to trace the image - it doesn't smear and also didn't seem to transfer into the stitch holes in the fabric. I just has issues with the P&S gumming up my machine.
Hope this helps....

I have used the fine point Sharpie before and it did transfer into the stitch holes in the fabric.

P&S is Press and Seal plastic food wrap.

I have used paper from a chiropractors office. It comes in a roll about 12-15 inches wide. It is great for borders as you can draw the entire border and pin to quilt. Tears off fairly easy. It is the paper they use for under your face on the table. Not real expensive either. I belong to a guild and one of the girls got a box. I think the rolls were around $3.00 each. A lot of paper for the money and very nice size to work with.

I have some of that paper but I used to use it as a table topper when I was painting tole pieces. I do like that idea of using it for border designs, but it is a bit stiff and I was wondering if it stayed flat enough to hand quilt over. I usually end up marking my designs with pencil and it does wash off. I have also used the washable crayons but the points are not sharp enough for me. Lots of good ideas here - just have to combine some and find out if it works for you.

I read on another forum about using pages of an old phone book instead of printer paper. So that's what I did. Tore the page out of the phone book and copied onto it. This was much easier to tear off after quilting than copy paper. I also made sure my originial was dark and bold so that when it was copied, the pattern would show up well on the printed phone book page.

I draw the quilting design on lightweight water soluble stabilizer and LIGHTLY spray baste it to the quilt top. The free motion al of the top. Since I wash all my quilts after binding anyway, the stabilizer does not need to be picked out! the most exciting thing is the big reveal after the washing cause it looks pretty funny 'til then.

It depends on how dark your fabric is. I've used a light box and just traced it onto the fabric. Be sure to use the right market though. A really fine micro point is best, and test it to make sure it doesn't run on your fabric.

Thank you all so much for these ideas... You can bet I'm going to give a few of these a try to see what works for me.
I've tried marking with a sliver of soap... but that is VERY tedious and it breaks quite a bit.

You people must be mind readers! Every time I come up against a situation for which i have no logical solution I get on board and sure enough-some one else has the same question i have and i get tons of answers. THANK YOU lol

I buy tracing paper on a roll, such as Golden Threads. It comes in 12 and 18 inch roll. I trace my pattern, even a lenth of a border, pin in place and FMQ. It is thin and tears off fairly easy. I use tweezers when necessary to remove pieces. A little tedious but the results are great.

I use The Fine Line on light fabric and Clover's fine White Marking Pen on dark. I often need it to see where the edge of a fabric is before satin stitching!

If I print something from the computer, I just pin the paper onto the fabric and sew through the paper quilt top batting and backing? Is this what you mean?

I've used the Press and Seal also, but had a terrible time removing it from around the stitches. Since quilting stitches are not close together and tight, it was hard to remove the plastic without pulling the stitches. Do you have any tips, Scissor Queen? I LOVED the sewing part, and would like to know what I was doing wrong. Thanks!

I've not tried this yet, but a very experienced long arm quilter showed me this method: Print or draw the design you want to quilt, and then take it to your regular sewing machine and sew on the lines with a large, unthreaded needle in your machine. Use this as a stencil with a Pounce pad. It was amazing!

Thanks for this tip. I did one quilt using tissue paper and traced the pattern onto the tissue paper with pencil and it did look dirty. Never would have thought to use colored tissue paper (duh). I also mark as much as I can with masking or painter tape. Works great for straight lines and comes off without any residue on the quilt top and no marks to get rid of. I have had one bad experience with the blue pen that is suppose to wash away. It didn't. I did not iron it or anything like that, it just wouldn't completely wash out so that's why I use tissue paper.

Thanks for this tip. I did one quilt using tissue paper and traced the pattern onto the tissue paper with pencil and it did look dirty. Never would have thought to use colored tissue paper (duh). I also mark as much as I can with masking or painter tape. Works great for straight lines and comes off without any residue on the quilt top and no marks to get rid of. I have had one bad experience with the blue pen that is suppose to wash away. It didn't. I did not iron it or anything like that, it just wouldn't completely wash out so that's why I use tissue paper.