Marking quilt top
 

I would like to ask your advice on when it is best to mark the quilt top for hand quilting or machine quilting with using stencils or rulers. I do not have much experience and usually not sure what to do for quilting, so I mark when sandwiched together. Doesn't go so smoothly however.
Thank you in advance.

I mark my quilt top before layering. I just gently tape the edges to the floor to keep it from moving around. Once I have the whole thing marked, I'm ready to layer, baste & quilt.

I use the Pounce. It works great when using stencils. The white chalk goes away with the heat from an iron. I'm not sure if the blue chalk for it does though. I only use the white. I use a Crayola Ultra Clean washable markers for marking light fabric. I use Frixon pens when the item is not going to be washed, usually a project like a pincushion or tote.

For me, it depends on the design I'm hand quilting. If I'm doing an all-over design, I'll mark prior to sandwiching. Otherwise, I mark as I go. I'll even mark as I go with a long border design sometimes.

Thank you for your replies. So it seems I can do either, depending on the plan and method. I did buy the pounce pad with white chalk but haven't used it yet. For that, I imagine you mark after the layering, otherwise it would rub off. I do have problems marking on printed fabrics, not showing up well. The pounce pad might be good for this.
Thanks again ladies, Happy Quilting!

It depends on the color of the fabric. Whatever you decide do NOT use colored powder chalk. Lots of posts here about the difficulty that it won't remove from the quilt. With machine quilting on white, I use the purple be gone. You have to quilt within 48 hours so I mark as I go. With dark fabric, I use powder white chalk. If I was hand quilting, I would probably use a blue be gone but no heat or it will set permanently. Comes out easily when quilt is washed.

Thank you for that advice.

As ManiacQuilter said, do NOT use the blue pounce - it is a BEAST to remove!!

I have used the purple pen (which fades pretty quickly, so get to it FAST), the blue pen and most recently the Crayola washable markers. Crayola is very good... and not very expensive.

And WHEN I mark it depends on many factors (such as "how soon will it get quilted?", and "hand quilting or machine?"). Sometimes, I will load it on the frame with NO CLUE of what I want to stitch... let it hang there (I float my tops) until inspiration strikes, and then I may mark it right there in the frame. Other times, I know what I want to quilt, and it may be very complex, so that gets marked before it's loaded on the frame (or hoop if I'm hand-quilting).

Try various things and learn what works best for YOU. As others have said time and time again, there are no quilt police.

Has anyone had a bad experience or heard any negativity about the Crayola Ultra Clean Markers? So many raved about the frixon pens when they first came out and now there is lots of problems with them as they were never designed to be used on fabric. I would think the Crayola markers would be fine as they were designed to come out of fabric. Just curious

I'm planning to do my own test. The mineral content in water can vary from region to region plus the type of detergents used. I saw a similar test on peckish's blog that has inspired me!