Marking quilt top
 

I hand quilt everything and have been using a blue, water erasable pen for marking my pattern. I don't like the idea of wetting the quilt top but don't know what else would be better. Any suggestions? I've seen a lot of things on google for marking but don't know what is good and what is not so good.

I use a variety of things:
Hera marker- tool that makes lines, no color- love this for cross-hatch etc
Chalk- I have one of those wheel things and different colors of chalk
Soap slivers

I'm not crazy about those markers either. The above items work well for me. Hope this helps!

Thanks, I'll check out the Hera.

I like the chalk wheels, too, but watch using colored chalks. Sometimes the colors are hard to remove.

When I want to mark on a light fabric, I use the Roxanne silver pencil. She makes a white pencil, too, for dark fabrics. Those are both very nice, and won't harm cotton fibers over time.

I've also used the Ultimate Pounce in white chalk when tracing a stencil. It's fast and makes a nice line you can see. (I once had trouble getting the blue pounce powder off a quilt so I no longer use the blue chalk in the pounce) Most of that brushes off just from handling the quilt while quilting.

Sometimes I use the Ultimate Pencil for light fabrics, which is a mechanical "lead" pencil and makes a very thin light line.

When longarmming I sometimes use the white blacklight powder (mixed with some plain white chalk for economy) to trace a stencil onto a white fabric. The powder is white and hard to see on a white fabric until you darken the room and use a blacklight to see, when it glow fluorescent green. There is also a blacklight pencil.

Another way I mark when longarmming is to use a thin permanent marker on Miracle Film. Miracle Film is a water soluble stabilizer made by Marathon. Make sure the permanent marker is really dry (overnight is good) so your needle doesn't transfer black dots to your fabric. Stitch on the marked lines right through the Miracle Film, and tear it off. I've never had to wet it to dissolve it because it's perforated all over and tears off so easily. I like it better than Golden Threads paper.

i bought a hera but keep forgetting about it. thanks for the reminder. i use soap slivers

Nan, I love that thing- one of the best investments I ever made. And not expensive.

I also use a blue water erasable pen. But I have other marking tools too. I use the Clover chaco wheel markers and the Roxanne chalk pencils.

Crayola ultra washable, every color has washed out well for me. Try painter's tape for straight lines.

I like the air erasable markers. The brand I use is Leonis that I get from Amazon. They work well and are not as expensive as others I've seen. You get about 30-45 minutes of good line visibility depending on how heavy you mark so I just mark a section, quilt, mark another etc. I've never had the lines not disappear although some spots take longer than others.
For dark fabrics I use a chalk marker that is a mechanical pen. I like the fine lines it gives and it brushes off with no trace. I use the same method here of marking a section, quilt, mark another section.

Still looking for a marker when I'm hand quilting my designs. Is there a pen that I can use to mark a design and then erase with an actual eraser? I don't want the disappearing marker because I can't always sit and finish a design that I'm working on and I'd like to get away from the ones that are water erasable.