Originally Posted by Sephie (Post 8247563)

I'm going to assume you're quilting on your domestic sewing machine and not a longarm.

On a domestic, you usually need a ruler foot to use rulers, and yes, you'll need to practice holding everything down and moving everything together at the same time. I didn't find it that hard, but depending on what kind of shank you have, low shank machines have issues with using the ruler behind the foot. If you have a Janome with Accufeed, on some, the Accufeed foot can also interfere with moving the ruler. You'll want to practice before trying it on your quilt.

I love marking stencils with Crayola Ultra Washable Markers. So cheap and so easy to wash out! Love, love, love them. I just finished marking another quilt with them and I've never had a problem with any of the colors washing out regardless of how long they've been on the quilt. Using a Pounce is faster, but some have had issues with the blue powder washing out. Also depends on what you're marking and what kind of stencil you have. Some stencils are purposely made to work with a pounce and instead of having an actual clean opening for marking, it's mesh for the powder to go through. I haven't tried marking with the Crayolas on that kind yet.

I definitely found it cheaper to start with stencils since the rulers are quite expensive. You're not "supposed" to use your cutting rulers for quilting because depending on the type of ruler foot you have, it's possible for the ruler to slip under your ruler foot and if your needle hits it while in motion, you can seriously damage your machine. However, that being said, I've done it on mine since my ruler foot glides, not hops, and I had it set low enough that there was no danger of it slipping under. The longarm rulers are usually 1/4in thick, and they do make specialty rulers for domestic machines that are 3/8in thick to slide under the low shank in the back but I do find those harder to find. I'd say the average ruler costs $20+ and stencils are usually $5+? Depends on how you want to do it.

I found it easiest in the beginning to mark a motif with a stencil, like a flower, and then use loops or meandering to travel to the next marked motif. That way, I didn't have to mark the *entire* quilt, and it was easier to manage moving the quilt inside the throat of the machine. If I'm marking something now, I still prefer to do it that way if I can.