The Best Marking Tools for Quilts

September 22, 2020
Best Marking Tools for Quilts

Today’s Topic:  The Best Marking Tools for Quilts

Welcome to Week Fourteen of The Better Machine Quilt-a-long based on my book 25 Days to Better Machine Quilting.

Find all of the previous Lessons HERE.

Sign up for emails of the class HERE.

Good Morning, Quilters!

Marking quilts can be frustrating.

You can tell this by the number of marking tools we all have stashed in our sewing room drawers.

We buy every pen, pencil and marker in quest of the Holy Grail of Markers…

I’ve come to the conclusion, the perfect marking tool does not exist, but I’ve found a few that come close…

The Requirements

To be a good quilt marker, a pen or pencil must be:

  • Easy to See
  • Easy to Erase
  • Not dry out or break easily
  • Reasonably Priced–(Though I would pay a lot for the perfect quilt marking tool)
No Thank You…

This excludes any pen or marker that:

The line is too faint to see while free motion quilting (hera and soapstone markers)

Dries out quickly (blue washout markers)

Breaks frequently (many pencil markers)

Is difficult to erase (blue washout markers, Frixion Pens, many pencils and anything with wax)

Put to The Test

My Bona Fides…For years, every time I stopped at a new quilt shop, I would head straight to the notions wall and purchase all of the marking tools.  I would bring them home and put them to the test. (Think of me as the UL of markers, the Ralph Nader of pens, or the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval)

Very few markers–even those highly recommended by other quilters, passed my tests.

Need Two Sets of Marking Tools

One thing is clear, quilters need two marking tools, one for light colored fabrics and another for dark colored fabrics.

The Best Quilt Marking Pen for Medium to Dark Fabrics

My favorite marking tool for medium to dark fabric is white chalk in any form. White chalk is easy to see, erases with a wipe and never dries out. White chalk is the perfect quilting marking tool for dark fabrics!

I like to use the Dritz Chalk Cartridge (white only)

The Clover Chalk Wheel (white only)

or a white Tailor’s Chalk Triangle.

The Best Marking Pens for Light Fabrics

For a long time I still struggled to find the perfect marking pen for light colored quilt fabrics.

Then several readers of LKQ recommended Crayola Ultra-Clean Washable Markers.  So I decided to give them a try.

Read about my test of Ultra Clean Markers HERE.

Crayola Ultra-Clean Washable Markers win the LKQ seal of approval!

Alway Test First!

If YOU don’t have a favorite marker, this list is a good place to start.

But don’t take my word for it…avoid the heartache so many of us have experienced!

ALWAYS test the markers on YOUR project!

As you test, consider that some marks may vanish when heat pressed, while other marks may be set when pressed with an iron!

Some markers require washing, while others can be whisked away (chalk).

Another Favorite

The Purple Air/Water Erase Pen is one other pen I use frequently. The purple marking pen disappears in a day or two (sometimes faster). I often keep it at my sewing machine and use it to mark spacing lines between motifs.

The Best Marking Tools for Quilts

The Dritz Chalk Cartridge (White Only)

The Clover Chalk Wheel

Tailors Chalk

Crayola Ultra Clean Washable Markers

The Purple Pen

YOUR Favorites?

What are YOUR favorite marking tools?

Have YOU had any problems with my favorite five?  (Please share-so I can re-evaluate!)

Your Doctor of Quiltology,

Prof. Lori, QhD

PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only.  Feel free to re-blog, pin or share (please do!) with attribution to LKQ.  For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com!  Thank you!

 

 

 

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