Stencil + Pounce worthwhile?
 

I am nearly done piecing my second quilt together. My first quilt was a baby quilt with appliqué blocks, which I did stitch in the ditch with. This quilt is a basket weave lattice lap quilt, and I am contemplating trying a meandering stipple stitch to quilt it.

I of course will make some little practice sandwiches first, and if I am terrible at it I will just go back to stitch in the ditch until I get good enough at FMQ to try it on a real quilt.

i am wondering if a stencil and pounce are worth buying, or if I should just go for it without a guide. What do you guys suggest?

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I'd go without a guide, but practice on something else first, welcome to the board.

My perspective
 

Absolutly beautiful! I have been just practicing FMQ myself for a quilt I'm working on. So we are at about the same place. Try FMQ and see how you do with a meander. I had a real hard time and thought I'll never get this. (I have a Bernina 440QE with BSR.). I haven't gotten good enough for this quilt. I asked questions on QB and most replies were "practice, practice, practice" and "It's worth it!". From what I've done I'd recommend no to the pounce and stencil. I'm hoping you catch right on to it. Good luck!

I agree with Reb. I have tried pounce and stencil...I would also say no. meandering would look nice and so much easier to do.

Dramatically beautiful! :)

I think there's a time and a place for a stencil and pounce.
However, for this quilt the stencil design, let the fabrics "strut their stuff"!!!
A simple meander or a loopy-de-loop would work fine.

And yes ... practice! practice!! practice!!! :)

No answer for your question, just want to say that you have a beautiful quilt.

Me, too. I'm wondering where you got this pattern..... love it.

I have been longarm quilting for nine years, one of my go to tools is a stencil and pounce. So many patterns available and grids. Look into Pam Clark's stencils for a million different options. Go for it and have fun!

I did not like the stencil and pounce method at all. for me, it was messy, even with patting the chalk on, and, it rubbed off when I tried to rearrange the quilt.

I do use a pounce. I don't like all-over quilting, so I will FMQ old pattern on plain squares. I mix straight, SITD, and FMQ as I think the quilt calls for.

I need a tool that will perforate computer paper. I prefer to do the simple border shapes on the computer and resize as necessary. It's a major pain to use the point of a seam ripper to perforate the paper. The Dritz pattern tracer almost does it, but not quite.

I love the pounce chalk and stencils. I apply the chalk with a small foam paintbrush rather than pounce it. This way I just get in the cutouts of the stencil and less of a mess.

I found the pattern at a local shop, but have seen it online too. I am pasting a link below to the site for the pattern, you can search around for it. The pattern is full color and nicely done. This quilt requires a lot of cutting and piecing. If I do it again I may just buy some precut mini charms instead of cutting all those black squares. If you do make it and cut your own, I highly recommend a Shape Cut slotted ruler... I picked a couple of them up part way through the cutting and it made life so much easier. I have a small Shape Cut and the large Shape Cut Pro. The Pro is a must have in my opinion!

http://sheripapedesigns.com/
and a video demo of the Shape Cut Pro: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6ncnrALmFhk

Yes a stencil and pounce will help. The reason is that it will keep your design consistent in size. I have found that most beginner fmq students either are too large or too small in size of the motif. Practice does NOT make perfect unless you have discovered a good technique. There are meandering stencils available in a number of sizes. I recommend the miracle chalk powder as it will stay on the quilt longer.

There is some really good info here, I agree marking it would probably make it easier. Your quilt is beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like to use a stencil - but instead of a pounce pad and chalk - just put the chalk into a container and use a small foam brush to apply the chalk to the quilt top. you can put/paint the chalk right on the lines of the stencil - instead of all over the top of the stencil. It is no where as messy and you don't end up with chalk all over the place. Plus when you are quilting the extra chalk tends to "bounce" all over the top. Try the chalk and a foam brush... I like it!!!

Thanks for all the suggestions! Opinions seem mixed, so I think I will try a variety and see what works best for me. I will start without a stencil and see how it goes... I will have to order one anyway since I haven't seen one locally yet. I will try it freehand, with paper, and with stencil/chalk... and I will give the foam brush trick a shot too. Luckily one of the ladies at a local shop gave me some scrap batting so I can start with that, and some clearanced fabric I picked up for practicing.

I've never used my pounce. However, that quilt is gorgeous!!

I am no help but I love your quilt! It is beautiful!!!!

Here is a link to order the pattern, for those who would like to have it:

https://www.nancyjsfabrics.com/sc/st...on=show_detail

This is a great tip!! One of these days I will give it another shot. Hmm...maybe on the childs quilt I just made. When you ae using pounce are you using a long arm or a sewing machine. I find its so messy and rubs off.

the white chalk is iron off ....the blue rubs off ....and i would be lost without them may be a little messy but just iron over the white and it is gone

I LOVE this quilt! It's very dramatic and looks like a basket weave which is really cool! The black background really makes it pop! Stunning!

Your quilt is just gorgeous. I'd love to see the finished product after you have done your quilting.

Your quilt top is beautiful, please listen to the members here, they are experienced and capable of absolutely beautiful work. Practice first, you would hate to ruin your work or have to sit and remove stitches.

can't suggest anything....but I love your quilt!

This is a gorgeous quilt. Looks like a none patch with a strip in the middle row and also a strip used as lattice. Lovely!

If you're going to be meandering, you don't need a stencil but I do like a stencil and pounce if I'm doing something more complicated like feathers. Beautiful quilt!

Beautiful quilt!!! My experience has been that it was harder for me to follow a line than go free-hand. You are smart to practice different ways and see which works best for you. Post a pic when you are done so we can see!

I have no suggestion on the quilting, but I had to tell you that it's an absolutely stunning quilt. Love it.

Thanks for all of the positive comments on the quilt, I wasn't sure about the jelly roll I chose... It was sealed so I didn't really get to see what was in it until I got home. I think it has balanced out pretty well though.

This is only my second project, it is encouraging to get compliments from experienced quilters! I just hope I can do a passable job at quilting it.

I think you quilt is beautiful and interesting. I agree simple quilting so the quilt is center stage. Are you able to share the patern?
jeannedog

Why not print it, put an old needle in your machine, put the paper on the sewing machine, and follow the stencil? This will create a lot of "lint" in the machine, so it needs to be cleaned sooner, but it should work. It wouldn't be as thick as a seam ripper, but certainly faster and less frustrating.

I find following a stencil much harder than freehand. I'm still very new to quilting as well, but I've spent a good deal of my time practicing the FMQ part of things. My brain doesn't like following lines, whether for SITD or stenciling apparently. I can't stay in the ditch, and straight lines are not part of my repertoire. I can't sew a straight line, draw a straight line with a ruler, or cut one with a rotary cutter. These all take huge concentration for me. FMQ, the basics anyway, came "easily" to me. It's a matter of how your brain works best what will work best for you.

Try both ways, but give yourself a really fair amount of time practicing the freehand before you judge. For most people, it's not the most natural thing, the brain does have to be trained (so do the muscles). Sort of like learning to ski. You can't expect to be doing all the black diamond runs without having first learned how to put the skiis on and challenging the bunny hill. :thumbup:

And your quilt is really beautiful :)

I would say no to the stencil, it would just complicate things. Also, though you probably don't want to hear it, practice is the answer. If you want any help www.daystyledesighs,com shoot can't remember how to get a link, is a great Fmq'ing sight. I practiced with all of her fillers, and now I do pretty good. I use to think I love this top, and after the quilting feel like I ruined it. But, now, I feel like the quilting is really enhancing the quilt. So practice, practice, and practice.

I have the same pattern and plan to quilt inside each woven strip - directionally. Not sure yet whether I will Premark or do true FMQ.

When I use pounce with a stencil, I only use the powder and apply it with a foam brush. The pounce pad does not work for me at all.

Since I use the iron-off white pounce, it does not show up on any light fabrics. Idiot me - used the blue wash-away pen for those areas and pounce for the dark. Now I had to be careful to wash off ALL of the blue pen BEFORE I could steam the pounce off. Remember: Heat sets the blue pen - so don't do what I did.

Very nice top! I would say that the top is too busy for a pounce type stencil. I use a blue wash out pen for the lighter fabrics (after testing each one!) and a Clover white ink pen for the black. In your case here, though, I would just straight line quilt a qtr inch in down each light row to make an open grid. That would highlight the piecing more than a meander and would be much easier.

BEAUTIFUL quilt!!! I have not really had success with the pounce method, at least for machine quilting. Maybe it would work better for hand quilters?

Love your quilt. When I started FMQ I used a stencil and a pounce pad just to give me an idea where to do. It got easier as quilted more quilts and I no longer use them but they were a huge help to me in the beginning

I have been quilting for about 10 years and do my own free motion quilting on my Janome Horizon machine. I have the best luck with liquid SPRAY CHALK. (Magic Marking or June Taior's stencil Marking spray at JoAnns ) You can use any stencil and lightly spray with the liquid chalk. It drys right away and STAYS ON. Unlike pounce that rubs off. After you are done you can either use a spray bottle with water to take off the chalk or wash the quilt. It can get a little messy if you overspray but I like this soooo much better then powdery pounce stuff. I also use frixion pens to mark my quilts as well. You should see the large stash of stencils I have. It's so much fun to choose the right one for my projects. Hope this helps.