Thanks for looking. I need ideas for some kind of marking tool or system that works on dark fabrics. I was trying to mark diagonal lines on dark fabric (the wrong side was as dark as the right side). None of my light marking pencils worked. I've tried the "soapstone" markers, silver pens, white chalk pencils, and even the little chalk thingy that has a little wheel at the bottom which drops chalk dots along the way. This works on dark fabric, but I can't get close enough to the ruler to mark an accurate line. Tape is the only thing that I can think of besides pencils. I've used that for quilting a quarter inch from the seam. I'm ready (at last) to begin hand quilting my stack and whack quilt and will be doing all of the quilting on the dark fabric. Any and all ideas will be welcomed. Thanks again for reading.

I've used Saral in the past to mark applique placements outlines on black fabric.
http://www.saralpaper.com/main.html

I have this stuff called Perfection Master Crayons. It is fantastic for marking dark fabrics and the beauty of it is that it doesn't rub off like chalk and to get rid of the markings, you just need to put some steam from your iron on it! I got a box of these in a grab box I bought at a yard sale. I'm attaching a web site where you can get them but I have never bought from these sellers and I'm sure you can find it cheaper (maybe???)

http://www.universalsewing.com/tek9....riteria=209.16

Have you tried the ceramic lead pencils? The white lead shows up nicely on darks. Fons and Porter has one you can get at Joann's and another one is Sewline, usually at LQS.

I use sewline white on my black fabric of my AOTH quilt I am working on it works well

I have used slivers of Ivory soap. But you may not like it because it does not always leave a fine line, and does not always get close to the ruler. But is does leave a visible line that washes out easily. It also does not cause any drag on the fabric - a problem I've had with some marking pencils.

I use plain chalk and a cheep little hand pencil sharpener. I just keep sharpening the chalk to keep a nice point so you can stay close to ruler. Works great.

I have never had any difficulty getting close to the ruler with my chalko liner (the wheel dispenser thingy). I'm not sure why you are having trouble. You may want to consider a chalk line
http://www.google.com/products/catal..._upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=782&bih=266&wrapid=tljp13173170 60547014&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=1561418119686705282&sa=X&ei=zKmETvf yC5GDtge5ztwp&sqi=2&ved=0CEsQ8wIwAg#

However, you will need to set up some sort of system or have a helper hold one end of the line when you "snap" it to make your line on the quilt.

Thanks all for the quick response. I will try practicing with the chalko liner to see if I can be more precise with it; then in the meantime I'll be looking for some of these products that were recommended. My most urgent concern is that diagonal line for marking HSTs and snowballs.

Oh I was confused, you are trying to mark a line to follow for piecing not quilting. For doing diagonal lines across squares for making HST and snoballs I have marked my machine bed with line and just make sure the corner of my square is always lined up to it. No need to mark 100's of pieces that way. Another trick is to just finger press your squares. Fold them in half matching opposing corners and finger press the crease. then sew along the crease.