best way to mark a quilt

I've heard of placing the perforated paper on the fabric and then sprinkling cinnamon or cornstarch over it. When you pick up the paper, the cinnamon will have gone through the holes and left your design on the fabric.

I hadn't heard of using water soluble stabilizer, but I know some people have used Press and Seal. It's slightly tacky on one side, so it adheres to the fabric while you stitch the design.

Good luck!

I've read from friends that use Press n Seal with good success. They trace the pattern on the sticky cling wrap, let the tracing dry, put it on the quilt and sew right over the traced pattern. Tear it away when the sewing is done. I personally haven't tried this but, it's supposed to work great. Donna

fyi, in case anyone doesnt know.... cinnamon on lights, cornstarch on darks so it shows. you can perforate the paper by drawing/tracing design over a lightbox or tape to a window on a sunny day. then sew thru the paper on the machine with an old needle, cuz a new one will be old after running it thru that paper, why waste a good needle. hope that makes enough sense. j.

"Louise in Iowa" wrote ... I've heard of placing the perforated paper on the fabric and then sprinkling cinnamon or cornstarch over it. When you pick up the paper, the cinnamon will have gone through the holes and left your design on the fabric.

I hadn't heard of using water soluble stabilizer, but I know some people have used Press and Seal. It's slightly tacky on one side, so it adheres to the fabric while you stitch the design.

Good luck!

It depends somewhat on what kind of quilting pattern you want to use.

Press N Seal is reputedly terrific; I haven't tried it. It doesn't appeal to me too much if I have to trace the same pattern over and over again. I may try it when I want to quilt a pattern, say, four times in the corners of the quilt. I have used tear-away tracing paper for this sort of thing in the past. (I'm fairly new to quilting, but it's surprising how quickly one picks up new techniques when you work at it a lot and try new things.)

If I'm going to repeat a quilting design over and over again, I cut templates out of cereal boxes or a similar cardboard, if the quilting pattern can be broken down into a few discrete units. First, I trace the design components on tracing paper, then cut them out, then trace around the tracing paper on cardboard, then cut out the cardboard to use as a template. (Make a few templates, because the edges wear.) Like, to do a classic cable, you'd cut a couple of cardboard templates for one "link" of the cable and just trace around the template over and over again. For concentric circles, I might trace around a drinking glass, within a saucer, within a dinner plate, over and over.

It's also surprising how much you can do free-hand for small shapes in between the larger shapes that you've traced around templates (or crockery :-).

This template-and-freehand method is the one I use the most.

I mark with white chalk, an ordinary pencil, and Crayola washable markers, depending on fabric color.

You can find threads about this in google groups in RCTQ by searching for headers like "Press N Seal" or "mark" or "marking." The issue comes up a lot, and there are always new ideas.

ep

I'm a Press'n'Seal addict ! One of the things I like best about it is that it will stick to the fabric without using pins (and therefore not getting fingers stuck by the pins and bleeding on the quilt!!!!!). The other thing I love about it is that (using for a running border stitching) you can cut the P'n'S in the center and make sure the design reaches the corners properly -- and then add a bit of P.&S. to the empty spot in the center to lengthen/shorten the design . It does mean you have to trace the design multiple times, but there's no "powdery" mess to clean up, or multiple pages to line up for stitching holes. Just my 2 cents worth! ME-Judy

If you want to repeat a design, the 1st method you describe is a quick way to make lots of copies.(Use tissue paper) It's no more difficult to follow the perforations than to follow a pencil line. You can safety-pin your tissue paper in place, and it usually comes out pretty easily. You can get teensy bits with tweezers. (Washing doesn't really shift these IME!) I find it easier to use Press&Seal because it sticks to the fabric without moving, even though each copy needs to be traced separately. (Use a permanent pen with a fine line and give it plenty of time to dry.)

Depend>I have pieced a top for a baby quilt, and have found a book with designs I