Sadiemae

Handi Quilter did a webinar this morning on all of the different ways to mark a quilt and products available for marking. There is a TON of information in the webinar. It is available now on the their site and there is also a pdf that you can download.

http://www.handiquilter.com/webinar/

susie-susie-susie

I also have a fear of marking tools. I found one that disappears in a short time, but the marks were gone before I could finish quilting. I have bought many kinds of marking pens/pencils, but I'm always afraid that the marks won't come out, even after testing. I recently bought a Sewline pencil that looks promising. Hope it comes out as promised.
Sue

quiltsRfun

Crayola washable markers. So far I've had no problems with these but of course you should test first.

thimblebug6000

Check out the little video posted by the April teacher on the FMQ challenge, his method is kind of interesting & may be something you can incorporate into your work as well. http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.ca/201...torial-by.html

leatheflea

I use the blue water soluable makers. And the purple dissappearing marker. The purple only if I intend to quilt right now. I've had it disappear in just a few hours. The blue stays untill you wash it in cold water. Often I will spritz with water while still on the frame. It will however come back when spritzed. But still washes out well. Chalk pencils havent worked well for me. But I do use the larger mechanical chalk from clover and they wash well. Fons and porter mechanical also works well for me.

Farm Quilter

I use the graphite and white ceramic leads that come with the Sew Line pencil in my business as a LA quilter. I also use the blue water-soluble pens. White chalk is a bit more difficult to get off, but it does wash out. When I used the yellow and blue chalks they NEVER came out, even after washing, so I threw them away. There are also pens that disappear with heat or steam, like Frixon pens that ckcowl mentioned - really nice! Do try whatever you are going use to mark on a quilt on a scrap of that material first just to make sure it really does go away. A friend uses Crayola washable markers on her quilts and they always disappear when washed.

earthwalker

I have used soap slivers, ordinary pencil and ordinary chalk. I do test each one first (except the soap). You end up with a lot of coasters and potholders).

QuiltnNan

that is a wonderful pdf, wish i'd been there for the entire webinar
i love that the iPad can be used for a lightbox and, also, i never thought of using my buttonhole spacer to space quilt designs

grammatjr

OK, I am going to throw a question out,last night I told my granddaughter I would ask.
She is making her first REAL quilt, a large throw size, and has for the first time done lots of piecing, and got brave to try some FMQ. But, she is still having a hard time just free wheeling, so I have been using a white water soluble marker to give her an idea where she wants to head with the part she is quilting. The marker is sort of hard to see on the fabric, so we were discussing easier ways to mark the quilt. Anyway, my question.......

Since Koolaid will not dye cotton fabric, but only stain it temporarily, could a line be painted on the fabric to mark the quilt, then rinse out the Koolaid? Of course it would be a good idea to test it out, and see for sure on the exact fabrics that will be used, maybe a sandwich of the exact batting too. But, I wondered if anyone had ever tried this?

An Arm Long

Thanks everyone for all the info. I will share it with my guild. We had tried alot of those things but did not realize that there were differences in graphite pencils. I will try it on sample fabric now.
It is true that frixion pens will take the color out of some darker fabrics. I did stripes on a red fabric and when I ironed it the blue frixion marks came out but there were very thin white lines in their place.