I just purchased a "pounce pad" off of ebay for marking my quilts. Wasn't excactly cheap and I paid about $5 more for the steam off chalk rather than the brush/wash off chalk. I have had such an awful time marking my quilts with the chalk pencil and I had great hopes for this pounce pad. Now I have read that people have had some bad experiences with these pouncers. Some say the marking will not stay on long enough to finish while machine quilting and others say they have a hard time removing the chalk from light color fabrics. Mine came with the white chalk but I was thinking about also buying the blue powder to mark on lighter color fabrics. What are your experiences with these pounce pads? Love them or leave them? Thanks

I personally don't use them, but my Mother does. She hand quilts and seems to really like the pounce pad. You do have to go over your pattern some times if you have handled your fabric alot after the first applicaton. I hope this helps.

I too have problems with marking so I bought the pounce. I find it marks great but does wear off as I move the quilt around and I get to a section with no or so light markings I cant see them. I use domestic for FMQ. So I am again looking for another solution.

I have not used them (thought about it several times but never took the leap) but I have read many people say that they spray the marked design with cheap hairspray to keep it on the quilt. I don't know if the steam off will have the same problem as coming off as the brush off stuff does, or if it does come off if you would want to spray hairspray then iron over it but its a thought either way.

You are correct -- the colored chalk is a little difficult to remove. Try diluting the colored chalk with white chalk powder. When I use the pounce pad, the color is just barely noticeable. I just put a tiny bit of colored chalk in a container and then add white until I think it is right.The "recipe" is approximately 25% color to 75% white. Another note about this -- I was told not to use the yellow chalk because it is the hardest to remove.

The regular pounce powder will brush off as you are quilting. I have seen it demonstrated by pouncing and then spraying with hair spray and then hand quilted.
The Magic Chalk stays on better and is removed by steam iron. I havn't tried this but many quilters swear by it.
I do not recommend any chalk that has color in it. But the suggestion of weakening it with white chalk is a technique used by many LA qulters.
Now.......any rubbing off is effected by the amount of rubbing that goes on while quilting. It might be better to mark as you go if machine quilting. I am experimenting with the spray on chalk marking.

When I got mine, I didn't read the directions very well. I thought, "Pounce: Bounce happily." So, I started off by bouncing the thing up and down on top of the stencil and fabric. *Cough* *Cough* *Hack* *Hack* Not very many good markings were left.
Then, I got smart and just rubbed it over the stencil. Perfect markings! I didn't have any trouble with it rubbing off or anything. I ironed it off, and the white came off perfectly.
It's a lot easier that tracing everything. That's for sure!

i bought the brush off chalk one and used it on one quilt. it worked fine. although i was using a stencil and had a hard time just wiping it across the stencil. the sharp areas in the stencil design kept grabbing hold of the almost terry cloth fabric on the pounce pad. i ended up pouncing it and that worked.