[ERRATA] A tip for the Quilters and Crafters...

How to mark up your quilt top with the least amount of aggravation

I should know better than to just send one of these off… as soon as I see the version in my email, I see the typos… and the fact that I had not ACTUALLY finished the piece.

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Quilters who have mastered this tool can just skip this post. This is for the rest of us!

I discovered heat erasable fabric markers back in COVID lockdown when I was searching for the chalk powder for my heart-shaped tailor’s markers online… as that was the only way I’d be able to get anything. I saw these pens that looked like the old original BIC pens and thought, “Why not?”

Before this I used pencil (gasp!) for light fabrics and chalk markers for darks. If I was going a large quilt on my rolling frame, I would wedge in under the quilt, between the rollers, a piece of plexiglass so I would have a rigid surface. Still, this took a great deal of time and I had to be careful with the chalk that I wouldn’t accidentally rub it off.

My first mistake with these pens was using them AFTER I had assembled the quilt sandwich (top, batting, backing). I really thought I had wasted my money, especially with the white pen whose strokes and lines didn’t show up immediately like the red, black and blue markers. The next time I used them, I marked up on a wood surface (table) with just the quilt top layer. Not too bad… but the grain of the wood made it a little iffy sometimes—the pen would “jump” giving me gaps or blots. But I persisted because getting the hand quilting pattern on the top before getting it on the hoop or frame was a huge timesaver.

Now I mark on my cutting mat. A nice big (36”x45”) smooth surface. Happy quilting!

(This post is dedicated to my dear friend, colleague and fellow quilter, Kathy M. to whom I demonstrated how to use and ERASE heat erasable pens yesterday before she got on a plane to return to the Pacific NW. See you in September, Kathy!)