Writing on a quilt border - what pens are best?
 

I'm making my soon-to-be grand nephew (omg!) a changing mat. The pattern is cute little monkeys and there's a song my mother used to sing ...I had a little monkey, I sent him to the country ... and I wanted to write it along the border.

What would be the best pens or markers to use, that I could heat set and that wouldn't run or fade when washed a few hundred times? lol

Micron Pigma pens- they are acid free, permanent, archival quality- do not fade, *fuzz* around the edges, come in a variety of colors, medium & fine point- do not skip-write smoothly. available on line at 'Nancy's Notions, Keepsake quilting, maybe Connecting Threads (among many other places) also Joanne fabrics, Office max, most any scrap booking place and art supply store. (around $3-$5 each)

Thanks, ck! I'll give them a try.

You can also use Zig-Writer pens. You'll find them in the scrapbooking department. They're also archival and don't bleed but they're cheaper than Pigma pens. The double end ones have tips more like a Sharpie so they're easy to write with.

Easiest to write on fabric when you've ironed freezer paper to the underside of the area you plan to write on. It pulls right off afterwards, but makes the fabric more stable for the point of the pen.

I use the .5 Micron Pigma point for this purpose rather than the more easily found .1 It makes a bit wider line which makes the writing more legible on fabric, in my opinion.

Jan in VA

You could just free- motion stitch...

Jan, that's a good tip, thanks!

Francie, um ... no, not me, lol. It would be quite a disaster.

That will be so cool! Quilt made by great-grandma with a song that great, great-grandma sang. What a great gift.

I second the Pigma, and also the freezer paper. Freezer paper makes it SO much easier!

I'm not the greatest FMQ'er; but I found I can write on fabric pretty easily. I have written on borders--Hey diddle diddle....; names of flowers; baby's name I just practiced cursive writing with my finger on the border pieces and got a general idea how big I had to write it. When actually sewing whenever I had a black space at the "end" of the line I filled in with a couple of curlicues. So much easier for me than trying to follow the lines of written text. Here's a corner of my quilt for GS's quilt.[ATTACH=CONFIG]432246[/ATTACH]

My handwriting is actually better with FMQ than pen and ink.