What do you use to mark your quilting pattern?
 

Learning to free motion but realize I would do a better job if I drew a design and sewed over it. So ? is: what pen/marker should I buy? Of course marks have to wash out.

My favourite quilt marking tool is white chalk. I use a make up sharpener to get a nice point. Do not use coloured chalk and test any marking method on scraps before using it on a quilt.[ATTACH=CONFIG]526563[/ATTACH]

Frixion pen, crayola washable markers, pounce pad. It depends on the quilt.

Pounce, sewline or clover chalk pencils. I have used air erasable one but it has to be quilted right away

I know you think you need to mark your quilt, but consider trying to do improv/ freehand. It saves so much time, your success is from making it look nice, not in following the lines. And it's just more fun. If you can doodle, you can do freehand FMQ. I occasionally will mark a dot as a landmark x number of inches, to keep a pattern going evenly, but for the most part, my piecing is something of a grid to work off of, and then it's just play.

It is easier to mark quilt before sandwiching it. I use frixion pens which iron out it as been noted on some dark colours it can leave a light stain. Air erasable disappear too quick. Water erasable mean you have to dampen cloth and if you go mad with water it can cause bleeds. I personally dislike chalk because it is a dust which with me rubs off and I get dust everywhere.
Try them all and use the one that suites you.

I audition designs using sliced apart sandwich bags & a regular marker.

I mark my quilt with Crayola Ultra Clean markers. At some point I hope to get good enough at FMQ not to need to mark but for now I am focusing on training myself to learn good habits: consistent spacing, continuous line, consistent sizing, filling the entire space. By marking my quilt, I am able to focus all my active concentration on properly formed stitches.

I make sure to pick a color that is very different from the quilt top/thread color (those two nearly match for me since I want to hide my quilting). For example, on a cream/pastel quilt top with a pastel variegated thread, I would use a red or purple marker because they will show up the best against the background and my stitches will be very visible against the marked line. The spaces where I have small red squares (I have 4), I will use a blue marker to mark my line so it shows up. I can switch colors as desired since they all wash out when I'm done (I soak my quilt in the tub for 15 minutes with a Shout Color Catcher; drain the water; re-run the water with a tiny amount of Tide Free & hand agitate; rinse & then transfer to my washing machine to wash on the gentlest cycle; once I've verified there are no stray marks, I transfer to the dryer & dry on low).

Hope that helps! I know the ideal is to be able to FMQ with no drawn lines, but I know personally all that did was make me frustrated as my lines were all different sizes with varied spacing. I was spending more than half my time with the seam ripper. Now my motto is to mark it, quilt it & enjoy it! I only rip out a line of quilting if the stitches don't form, are pinpoint tiny, or are very unbalanced. Other than maybe twice over the entire quilt, I leave the seam ripper in the drawer where it belongs.

Good luck & have fun!!!

TU to everyone who responded. Just what I needed. Bree, I so agree with what you suggested. Off to Walmart!!

If it is white fabric, I use a purple or blue be gone. On darker fabric, I use the WHITE Clover powdered chalk wheel. I also prefer to know where I am going when I do FMQ.

Maniac I've never heard of a chalk wheel, how do you use it?

I usually mark dark fabric with a Clover white pen that irons out like the Frixion pens (which I also use). But sometimes I use a whole different thing...Glad Press-n-Seal. Sounds odd I know but it works great. Just press it on, draw your line, sew and it peels right off without leaving any marks or residue. When I use this I don't have to worry about erasing anything. It's useful in some situations.