Marking a quilt top
 

I'm a hand piecer//hand quilter. I've been just piecing around the squares in the quilt top but now want to use a meandering design. Do I mark the quilt top before or after it's sandwiched? Any suggestions for a large meandering stencil?

there is a site continous line stencils that has great templates. but hand quilting can achieve this without marking I would think.

Do you know the name of the site?

I always mark before sandwiching. The soft batting makes it difficult for me to make sharp, crisp marks. I need the top to be on a hard surface to do this.

I do both ways depending on the quilting design I'm doing. And, honestly, don't trust myself to just 'wing it' with a meandering design. I have a stencil entitled 'Tulip Trail Stipple' that I picked up at JoAnn's a number of years ago. It has a large tulip head with meandering lines - about a 12" square stencil. That one I do tend to mark unsandwiched so I can properly line up the registration marks. If I'm just doing straight lines in/around blocks or pieces, those I will mark while sandwiched as I mark as I go.

For me, also depends on what marking tool I'm using. If using a chalk-based product then I tend to 'mark as I go' while sandwiched and the chalk tends to flake off during the quilting process. If using a pencil, then I may mark the entire top - unsandwiched - as those marks do not flake/rub off during quilting.

Try The Stencil Company. They have tons of stencils. I've bought many of my stencils there, and I know I have some meanderings in different sizes.

Here is a great tutorial one of our members posted on how to do meander marking with no stencil

https://www.quiltingboard.com/blogs/...ng-b12853.html

As for when to mark, like NJ quilter, it depends on what tool I use. But if I were hand quilting a meander like that I think I would use a water soluble marker like the blue mark be gone or crayola ultra washable marker and mark the whole top out before sandwiching. That way I run no risk of the ink seeping into the batting while marking and I will also keep the size scale somewhat even.

But if I were to use a meander stencil like is found on this page:
https://fulllinestencil.com/product-...inner-designs/

These stencils are made to be used specifically with pounce.
https://fulllinestencil.com//product...y/pounce_pads/

I would mark as I go with pounce or pounce ultimate chalk

Here is also a starter pack that has 4 stencils (one of which is the meander) and the pounce pad and chalk
https://www.sewingmachinesplus.com/t...QaAunwEALw_wcB

For hand quilting I mark it before the sandwiching.

https://fulllinestencil.com/
http://www.quiltingstencils.com/Cont...ry_p_1803.html