Pounce frustration
 

This is the weekend I decided I'm finally going to try all the nifty tools I've purchased but didn't have time to figure out. Right now, I'm frustrated by the pounce pad. I'm carefully brushing the pounce over the stencil, with a long, sweeping motion, multiple times. After each sweep, I prime the pounce with more chalk. When I lift my stencil, all I have is a faint, smeared mess. I've tried longer strokes and shorter strokes with the same results. I even got mad at it, and tried "pouncing" it one time. I've tried both white and pink chalk. (I'm practicing my fmq, so it's a good opportunity to play wirh different marking methods without damaging anything "important".) I even happen to be using a stencil I bought from the Hancy people. I know it should work better than this.

Pounce it several times. Sweeping doesn't work all that well.

Someone was going to give me a Pounce a couple of years ago. I am glad she didn't. I had Asthma when I was a kid, and I've heard that they can make your breathing difficult.

I hope you get a good answer to your problem. It's tough going to that much trouble only to have it be a mess.

Some folks prefer to put the chalk in a ziplock bag and use one of those foam paint brushes from the craft store to mark instead of using the pounce pad. You pick up some chalk on the foam brush and gently rub it over the stencil.


Rob

Try baby powder.

the Hancy and plastic Stencil is going to react differently. Pounce in the black container is chalk and must be pounced. Miracle Chalk in the red container (both in the eraser looking pad) is usually swiped. But again is applied differently. Have you looked for a YouTube of the type you have. Also, there have been many reports that the pink or blue chalk does not come out. The pounce chalk is removed by brushing and washing. The Miracle Chalk the same way but can be removed with steam. However I don't use steam because I don't believe with my non scientific mind the chemical in the Miracle Chalk completely disappears in steaming but still must be washed to remove it.

I have watched a bunch of YouTube videos. It works perfectly for the people in the videos. ;-) Since I'm just practicing fmq, it's ok if the color doesn't come all the way out. When I'm done, I will toss these into the dog's crate and he will have new blankies to cuddle up with.


QUOTE=Quilt30;7855270]the Hancy and plastic Stencil is going to react differently. Pounce in the black container is chalk and must be pounced. Miracle Chalk in the red container (both in the eraser looking pad) is usually swiped. But again is applied differently. Have you looked for a YouTube of the type you have. Also, there have been many reports that the pink or blue chalk does not come out. The pounce chalk is removed by brushing and washing. The Miracle Chalk the same way but can be removed with steam. However I don't use steam because I don't believe with my non scientific mind the chemical in the Miracle Chalk completely disappears in steaming but still must be washed to remove it.[/QUOTE]

i read a number of years ago that eleanor burns uses baby powder. she slightly dampens the fabric then rubs a bit of powder over it.

THIS MAY OR NOT BE HELPFUL ALWAYS TEST ON SCRAP

CHALK
For 25 years I have done freehand embroidery work and this has worked best for me.
I ground up different colors of chalk in my mill grinder to see what worked best [what could be seen and removed]. White chalk [baby power, or corn starch] can be vacuumed off on med and dark fabric no problem.
Other colors can be reduced in color intense with white, the more intense the color the harder it is to remove. I just use white and light blue now, the blue is reduced with white. Blue and white chalk is at hardware stores for snap lines [cheep].
You can use a vanishing power with a black light on any color [in the dark]. It is very good for names.
You can use cinnamon on light colored fabric.


PAPER
I use canary paper from an art or drafting supply.
I tear off more than I need and trace a design with 5mm mechanical pencil, place on a piece of ¼” foam rubber on a firm surface. Then I use a small needle syringe [for shots] and poke holes into the lines at key points about 1/8[SUP]th[/SUP]” apart following the design, then I flip it over and sand off the tips with a sanding block or sand paper. I have also used a clear plastic film a permanent marker and sanded the tips, or a small stencil burner.
Then I have a reusable pattern I can use over and over.

APPLYING CHALK
I took a short wide mouth ball jar lid and a nail [or drill] punched a lot of holes in it.
Took a ¼”green scrubber cut it to fit inside rim on top of the lid.
Took a scrap of velour about 3/8” larger than the lid and placed it on top of the scrubber then screwed the hole thing together onto the jar with my chalk in it. You will have to pounce a while till the chalk starts coming through good. Wipe off your pattern before replacing it so you don’t get shadows.
I did this, years before any thing else was on the market, and still use the same ones today.

PATTERN MARKING
Holding your pattern down firm with one hand, slide your chalk jar across your pattern in one direction only, you can repeat as long as you do not let up with your first hand. You can see if you need to slide again as long as the first hand stays in place. If it is wrong, vacuum it off and start over.
On the quilt machine I slide a 24”x48” piece of 1/8” plexus glass under my top fabric for a firm marking area, then, remove for quilting.

I am fast at this as I have done it for years. If you think this is to long, I don’t type, I peck.
I am just saying…..I hope this helps someone. [i posted this in 2010.]
Phyllis

Pounce-- as in Pat up & down. Swiping across does not work.

My trouble with the pounce pad was keeping the marked lines from disappearing.while I am hand quilting. Now, after marking, I spritz with a little hair spray after marking just to "set" the chalk. I've had no trouble with the lines coming out in the wash.

Interesting conversation! I've learned a lot here. I must say it's easier for me to use Glad Press n seal. Stick it down, re-position if needed, draw with my stencil & permanent pen then off I go. Comes right off. Easy peasy.

You have to slam the pounce a couple of times before swiping. I watched DH of the couple that owns the company of the Pounce demo it. He said SLAM the pounce several times, get the chalk saturated in the pad. He really slammed it. He had everyone use it on a stencil. The ones that were complaining it didn't work were not slamming it so the pad was not getting saturated. They left happy.

when i tried it i swiped or swept it. not much showed. i ended up pouncing like crazy. Then later gave it all away.

I went to the AQS show where this was being demonstrated. The seller said that in order to saturate the pad, you should pounce it at least 50 times, then 50 more. He demonstrated with a new pad and it worked fine.

Don't try the Glad press n seal on fleece. I love it on cotton though.

I bought one after trying it at a quilt show years ago. The only fabric I could ever get it to show properly on was batiks. I do prewash my fabrics and I don't know if it would work better on unwashed fabrics or not. I gave it all away to a quilting buddy.... asked her a few years ago if she had tried it.... no... but she still had it, thinking she might :D Sorry for your frustrations and hope you can get it to work for you.

I recently got a Pounce Pad with regular white chalk. I did like the instructions say, slam it on the table 50 times, fill it some more and slam it 50 more times. It wipes on very nicely, it just doesn't stay on very well. I think it may be better for marking as I work on my longarm. It comes off too easily for bunching up and quilting on my regular machine. I've heard that the iron-off pounce is better than the regular chalk. I'd like to try it.

Annette, try giving it a light coating of hairspray (the aerosol kind- I use AquaNet). It sets the chalk while you work, but washes out. It's what I do when I want to use a stencil for hand quilting.

I tried Glad Press n Seal and it was a mess. The paper stuck in the stitches and leaving about 1/4" pieces all in the quilting. This has been some years ago, has the Press n Seal changed?

Great info here - I have 2 - One I bought many many years ago at a QS and the other was a gift - never tried either!

I vaguely remember a fellow quilter warning me that the chalk in certain colours will not wash out or is difficult to remove after using - was it the yellow? Guess that's why I never used it.

I also have used the fabric pounce with not so great results as well as the other methods besides chalk that were mentioned. I now use wash away fabric stable as my go to marking tool. It comes in yardage and I trace my design onto the stabilizer and pin it to my quilt top. I am a hand quilted and used this method to quilt a full size quilt. When finished it all washed away with no trace left behid.

I tried the Press N Seal at a class last week. It was a mess for me and most of the other class members. The few that didn't have a problem didn't use it. LOL

I also had no luck with the pounce pad. Pounced as hard as I could, then tried the powder with the foam brush. Neither way worked. I like the Fons and Porter roll on chalks. They work very well for me, even with a stencil.

This is my method and it works well.

This is how one of the Craftsy teachers shows in her classes.

I'm with several others--the Press & Seal method was a mess for me! never again! (I do use it to try out some designs but no longer stitch through it).

When I use chalk in a stencil, I use the chalk in a baggie & a foam brush like Rob described. It works fine, but I use on long arm and only chalk what is needed right then.

When I first got my pounce I couldn't get it to work right either. Then I went to a local fabric shop and she told me to take it outside and pound it on the sidewalk. Once the newness wore off the chalk gets through it works fine now. I use it with stencils I bought. I swipe it and pounce it both. When I'm using a lighter fabric I use my fabric pens that come out with heat. Wash the quilt when I'm finished and it all comes out in the wash.

According to Leah Day, the proper way to use the pounce pad is to "charge" it by slamming it hard onto a flat surface to force the chalk through the pad before wiping onto the stencil. You don't actually pat it onto the stencil, as that just makes clouds of chalk and a big mess. The first time you use it, you do have to charge it a ton to get the chalk flowing, but afterwards, store it pad side up so the chalk doesn't continue to sift down.

Hancy stencils: because they are thin nylon and the cut out part is a mesh, you have to make sure you've anchored it really well so that when you swipe, the motion doesn't move the stencil. Make sure you're doing it on a hard surface. Either tape the stencil down, or get extra hands to help hold it down. Or put pattern weights/books/something to hold the edges down so you can hold the portion you're swiping without the whole thing shifting.

The hair spray tip that other people have mentioned works really well.

Great tip, I'll have to try this. I have the blue and the white chalk, so far only tried blue. I get it onto the fabric fine (after lots and lots of pounding, it's finally coming through nicely) but when I start to sew all the blue lines just vibrate away!

I might try the chalk-in-a-baggie idea too; that sounds pretty easy.

Press-n-seal works OK for me as long as it's not a design that involves a lot of backtracking. Once I've gone over a line of stitches more than once, it's a nightmare to pick all those little shreds of plastic out of the stitches.

My normal go-to for marking is the blue water-erase pens, but I have come *this close* to forgetting and ironing those lines in, I figure it's only a matter of time before I forget and screw that up, and I'm betting it'll be on something important... Plus those markers don't work with all those nice mesh stencils that I've invested so much in!

Do you ever have trouble getting the marking chalk washed out?

Can you use the press N seal pattern more than once, or do you need a new one when you move to a new block? Thanks

I use a sliver of soap. Really thin. It comes off easily, but stays on while I am quilting. In using the pounce pad on light fabrics have added a bit of cinnamon to the white chalk.

Fish, the press and seal gets quilted down and needs to be torn off, so you need a new piece for each block.

When I first started using the pounce pad, it wasn't "loaded" well so it didn't cover the line when I slid it over the template. Now that it is fully loaded, it works just fine.

OP said "When I lift my stencil, all I have is a faint, smeared mess."

The smear tells me that your stencil is shifting...the faint tells me that your pounce pad isn't fully loaded (saturated) with the chalk. Do what others have suggested to fully saturate your pad. If your stencil is moving, use spray glue or painters tape to keep it secure...your top has to be secure and taught, and on a hard surface. There is a learning curve, but basically...load your pad, secure your stencil, and you'll be off to a good start.

I don't have a Pounce, but have been thinking of getting one for some time. Maybe I will try the ziplock bag idea.