You finish your latest project, and immediately head to the washing machine. Everybody loves that washed quilt crinkle!

You excitedly pull it out of the dryer and your heart immediately sinks because you realize, many of your fabrics have become discolored! 

Worse, you realize many of those fabrics were discolored right at the seams, and it dawns on you that the pen or pencil you used to draw guidelines, quilting lines, and other quilting references, didn’t wash out, and didn’t stay hidden. 

Using the wrong marking tools can quickly turn a quilt from a perfect gift you can’t wait to give, to an immediate mistake the second it hits water. 

So today we are avoiding heartbreak at all costs and going over how to mark a quilt, the tools that are out there, and when and why you would want to use each one!

Why your marking tools matter

They SAY that pen is machine washable, sure. Until it smears through the white fabric on its way out. 

You spent a painstaking amount of time tracing and cutting out quilt pieces. One. By. One. Only to find out that that the pen you used to trace the stencil bled into the fabric at the seam during the first wash. 

Who knew that little bit around the edge of your quilt piece would make such a huge difference? 

As much as it is inconvenient to have to go out and look for another quilting notion, let’s talk about the tempting elephant in the sewing room and why its a bad bad bad idea. 

Can you mark a quilt with pencil?

Short answer? No. Any thing that writes on paper should be avoided as much as possible when it comes to your fabric. 

Marking a quilting pattern, tracing a template, if you need an eraser to get it off of paper, you’ll need an eraser to get rid of it from your fabric. But surely it must be better than pen?

Not better, just different.

You can expect it to react the same way in your quilt as it would on your clothes:

Kinda wash out, but definitely leave a discolored stain where it used to be. 

And it won’t show up until the first time that brand new quilt hits the washing machine after its completed, so you would have put all of this time and effort into creating a beautiful quilt, just for it to get stained indefinitely the first time you wash it. 

Immediate heartbreak. 

There are plenty of different options to avoid this immediate regret though, and some of them actually make the marking job significantly quicker for you too! 

So let’s go over some of the popular temporary marking tools that are out there to use instead.

Best tools to mark a quilt

Hera marker 

A Hera marker is a plastic or resin tool that comes to a beveled edge at the tip. 

The idea is that you can use the Hera marker against a ruler, and temporarily crease the fabric to mark a line before ever sewing it. 

This method is very similar to finger pressing, and is only visible for a little while until the fabric bounces back to its flat state. 

While you can definitely find something rounded to trace with a Hera marker, more often than not the closest tool to trace is a quilting ruler, so it is most often used for straight line quilting. 

Related:
5 Tips for Straight Line Quilting

Pros: 

• No Ink
• No washing required to remove it
• Gone within a couple hours – great for immediate use

Cons:

• Can be difficult to see in bad lighting due to no ink
• Gone within a couple of hours – will have to mark in sections depending on project length

Shop my go to Hera Marker on Amazon here.

Tailor’s Chalk

Tailor’s Chalk is simply a piece of chalk that is formed in a rough triangle shape to fit in the palm of your hand with beveled edges.

You can mark fabric by tracing a ruler with the beveled edge of the chalk leaving a temporary chalk line that can easily be washed away without fear of staining. 

Chalk is a fantastic tool to keep because it will alway be a winner whenever you need to mark on darker fabrics. 

Any other form of marking on darker fabrics is going to be difficult simply because ink will not show up well on dark surfaces.

Tailor’s chalk on the other hand, was made for dark surfaces and is a great tool for those instances and your eyes will immediately thank you for it!

Pros: 

• Great for all colored fabrics, ideal on dark fabrics since it’s chalk not ink
• Variations of tailor’s chalk exist to combat cons, pencil versions, wheel versions. 
• Chalk has no risk of staining fabric like ink and will wash away easily

Cons:

• The edge gets dull over time creating a wider and wider mark
• You have to wash the quilt in order to remove it 
• Can be at risk for smudging causing inaccurate marks depending on how long the marking is needed for

Check out this assorted color set of Tailor’s Chalk on Amazon.

Masking tape

Cheap, readily available, and likely already in a junk drawer in your house making it incredibly convenient. 

Masking tape is a great marking tool, however in my experience, best used only in a pinch. 

The lines stay straight, and the tape typically stays in place, until you have to move it. I find that it quickly loses its sticky backing because of fuzz it picks up from fibers on the fabric. 

Kind of like a traditional lint roller. 

Which means for a whole quilt you’ll either be going through masking tape like its water, or painstakingly trying to reuse a not-so-sticky line of masking tape and inevitably pinning it in place.

Which you’ll likely quickly grow tired of the tedious task and find there are much more efficient methods to use. 

But when you are in a pinch and have no other options, masking tape gets the job done and can even give you amazingly consistent results. 

This entire chevron quilt was quilted by only marking with masking tape and as simple as the design was, it is by far one of my favorites in terms of the quilting consistency – even though it took me a week longer than it should have to quilt. 

Pros:

• Convenient 
• Leaves no marks, ink, or evidence of the tape once removed
• Consistent lines to follow
• Great option in a pinch

Cons:

• Quickly loses its adhesive backing as you take it up and re-lay it 
• You end up using tons of masking tape since you can’t reuse it well
• Takes far too long to mark with and ends up being an inefficient method if others are readily available

Pounce pad

When you have lots and lots of lines to mark, or have complicated quilting design stencils, using pounce pads are by far the most efficient method of marking quilting lines. 

When you have a quilt design stencil, the design is cut out of the stencil for you to trace on to your quilt top. 

You can use things like air/water/heat soluble pens to trace it, but a pounce pad allows you to cover the surface of the template much faster than tracing each line over and over again. 

The pounce pad leaves chalk dust where ever you “pounce” it, so by tapping it over the surface of the template, you can quickly mark the template without have to tediously trace each line by hand. 

Pro:

• Quick and easy
• Saves your wrists and joints from hand tracing the design over the quilt 

Con: 

• Chalk is in powder form so it is likely to get be a messier method than others
• May be more prone to smudging due to chalk
• Requires a stencil – only really used for machine quilting templated designs

Shop pounce pads here!

Disappearing Pens

Air, water, or heat soluble pens are likely the best options to go with for versatility sake. 

9 times out of 10, the above marking options can be replaced with a disappearing pen option.

If you don’t want to have 20 different ways to mark a quilt cluttering your sewing area, a disappearing pen will give you the most versatility and bang for your buck for sure. 

While a pen can complete every marking situation you may find yourself in,  the other solutions are there to make your life easier and quicker. 

Not to mention help avoid a writer’s cramp in your hand as you trace the same template over and over again across your quilt by hand. 

There are a few different types available out there for purchase:

• Air soluble
• Water soluble
• Heat soluble

Air Soluble – Slowly fades after exposure to air.

Pros:

• Does not require washing to make it disappear
• Pen form is always convenient and avoids mess
• Often comes in a combined pen with water soluble
• Is quick to disappear

Cons:

• Is quick to disappear – not suited for projects that will take days to cut/quilt or requires small sections to be done at a time.

Water soluble – disappears when introduced to water. 

Pros: 

• wont disappear on you until washed – well suited for batching tracing tasks 
• Pen form is convenient and avoids mess

Cons: 

• Requires washing the quilt to make it disappear – not always ideal if its a gift. 

Heat soluble – disappears when introduced to an iron – Frixion Pens

Pros: 

• You choose when it disappears
• Doesn’t require washing to make it go away
• Readily available

Cons:

• A Frixion brand pen is not actually advertised as designed for fabric use. 
• In freezing cold environments (outside in the winter), the marks have potential risk of reappearing.

How to Mark a Quilt Different Ways

Many of these methods are designed for specific marking tasks, however many overlap and can do a lot of the same tasks. 

How’s a quilter supposed to know which method to use where? 

Not every quilter will want to mark their quilts in the same way or for the same reasons, so how do you know which ones you’ll need and which ones to ignore in the store?

We’ve put together a quick cheat sheet for you with common marking situation and the tools to use to refer to so you’ll know exactly what to look for next time you make a quilt.

Marking Use	Best Marking Tool
For Hand Quilting	Hera Marker Tailor’s Chalk Disappearing Pens
Stenciled Quilt Designs	Pounce Pad Disappearing Pen
Unstenciled Quilting Designs	Hera Marker Tailor’s Chalk Disappearing Pens
To Make a Grid	Hera Marker Tailor’s Chalk Disappearing Pens Masking Tape
For Tying	Disappearing Pens
Straight Line Quilting	Hera Marker Tailor’s Chalk Disappearing Pens Masking Tape
Stenciled Quilt Pieces	Disappearing Pens

Why Should You Mark a Quilt?

Even after 10+ years, I still mark every quilt that I machine quilt.

I’m not about to try and be a hero that machine quilts by feel, its just not in my skill set, and I’m okay with that! I like to know where I’m going and what it’s going to look like before I put any stitches in.

I am, however, a smarter not harder kind of girl who loves a good hack. Marking my machine quilting designs is best way that I’ve found to get a perfect machine quilted design on a domestic machine every time.

And to make things simpler, I use machine quilting templates like its my job. Using a pounce pad or air/water soluble pen, I trace out my template and then go to town stitching.

I love them so much that I made one for you to try for free to see what its all about.

If you struggle with free motion quilting, or are just bored with your “usual” designs, this is your sign to consider trying something new.

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