What is your favorite part of quilting? Patchwork? Appliqué? I will bet a stack of fat quarters that your favorite part of quilting isn’t picking out machine-quilted stitches because you realized too late that you didn’t like the design.
You may ask, “Is there some way to see the design on my quilt before I quilt it?”
Happily, the answer is YES! While none of these products or techniques guarantee that the design will be perfect for your quilt, they certainly lessen the chance that you’ll have to spend hours of quality time with your seam ripper, picking out machine-quilted stitches.
Quilter’s Preview Paper
I decided to try out Quilter’s Preview Paper from Quilters Touch. I unrolled the see-through “paper”—it’s really more like a clear film—directly on my quilt top. Using a permanent marker or water-erasable marker, I drew my desired pattern on the film to see if I liked the design. Quilter’s Preview Paper has black strips on the edges so I could see the edges of the film and didn’t accidentally continue drawing off the film and onto the quilt top. Permanent markers can usually be erased from Quilter’s Preview Paper with a rubbing alcohol wipe, but I’ve personally had trouble removing red permanent marker from it. But the rest of the colors do come off.
Why don’t I recommend dry-erase markers? Because dry-erase markers can flake off the film, and those flakes can damage the quilt. Ask me how I know.
Golden Threads Quilting Paper
This story is from the Autumn 2020 edition of Quilter's World.
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This story is from the Autumn 2020 edition of Quilter's World.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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