Quilting with linen questions.
 

Hi. I’m working on a patchwork top using a few colours of a nice linen. I have done research on the piecing work and seams etc. I read posts here on QB. But I am going to hand quilt it when it’s ready and I had some questions, 1. Will a lap quilting frame really mess up the linen? I have a plastic tube square style frame that has pressure clips to hold the sandwich. And 2. how would you go about marking up the top for quilting pattern lines? Given I won’t machine wash the quilt. Will gentle hand wash get out tailors chalk?

thanks for any advice!!!

I'm not a hand quilter, so I can't really speak to the frame leaving marks in the linen. My instinct, however, is that you should be able to steam the quilt after finishing it (since you don't want to wash it) and that should help with wrinkles, etc.

As to the tailor's chalk - there are 2 kinds, one for wool (for marking men's wool suits, etc) and one for cotton, which brushes off the cotton. They're not really interchangeable. The wool kind contains wax, which, when heated with an iron, absorbs into the wool and disappears. If you use it on cotton and hit it with an iron, it will melt and most of the time leave a permanent mark. I'm not sure which one would be best for linen. (Is your linen 100%, or is it a linen-cotton blend?) I think your best bet is to test whatever you want to use on scraps of the linen and see how it responds to brushing off and ironing.

oh gosh i don't know about the steaming. I have had some linens that really shrank when I washed them and also wrinkled badly. I remember ironing linen napkins and table clothes after washing them and it was hard to get them nicely pressed

Maybe google Cindy Needham, she does a lot of work with linens and found linens....but that said I believe she mostly machine quilts them...... try and check her out to see if anything you find might be helpful.