Auditioning Designs on Quilts

Here is a way to make the task of auditioning quilting possibilities a pleasure not a pain.

- DEBBY BROWN

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.