Originally Posted by paulswalia
someone else taught me this, so I don't take credit. Get a piece of clear plastic big enough to cover at least a quarter of the quilt. (Joanne's sells it off a roll where the drapery and upholstery fabric is). Lay it over the quilt top and draw quilting designs on it with a dry erase marker. You can erase the marker with a piece of batting. This allows you to audition quilting designs without harm to the quilt.
I do that too, however you will want to mark the edges of the plastic as you don't want to get over-enthusiastic and run off the edge...I did this once and learned my lesson really quick ;)