The motifs in the middle of the vertical borders include a fairly large section of dark green fabric.  With the surrounding areas being heavily quilted, I needed to quilt the green area with equal density – but how?

I decided upon a fairly traditional motif of overlapping circles known as “orange peel”.  And these circles, I concluded, would be a mere half-inch in diameter!

Now how was I going to get these circles marked on my quilt?  I debated my options, but didn’t like any idea that involved actually tracing or drawing these circles – that would take forever!  Since I had produced them on my computer using CorelDraw software, wouldn’t it be great if I could just print them onto tracing paper?

Enter Simple Foundations Translucent Vellum Paper from C&T Publishing.  Introduced as a product for paper piecing, it is see-through, it is 8 1/2 x 11″ and can be used in a printer, and it tears away easily after stitching.  Perfect!  I decided to give it a try.

I printed my half-inch orange peels onto a sheet of this foundation paper, laid the paper over the green fabric, and traced the outline of that section.  By cutting out the shape formed by the green fabric first, I could ensure that my quilting stitches wouldn’t inadvertently cross over onto the nearby gold fabric.

I pinned the paper in place and quilted the orange peels right through the paper.

Removing the paper was easy – especially with these two tips.  One:  run a blunt edge tool over the line of stitching first.  I use my Easy Edge Appliqué Tool or you could also try That Purple Thang.  This loosens the paper from the stitching and helps lift it off the surface of the quilt.  Second:  wrap a piece of masking tape around your index paper, sticky side out.  This will help pick up any remaining little bits of paper tucked under the quilting thread.

You might also be wondering why I spent so much time marking my quilt.  That is a good question – especially if you have taken my machine quilting class!  Anyone who has taken that class can tell you that I will go to great lengths to avoid marking my quilts.  So why now?  Why mark or why not mark?

Part of the answer revolves around removing the marks.  You see, design marking lines should not be visible on completed quilts.  (See the Canadian Quilters’ Association Quilting Standards.)  So the decision to mark quilting designs directly onto a quilt means that quilt will need to be washed to remove the marks.  The question “to mark or not to mark” includes “to wash or not to wash”.

The rest of the answer lies in the quilting designs themselves.  Quilting designs can be random or planned.  Random designs – such as stippling or echo quilting – do not need to be marked.  The quilting lines are formed as they are stitched.

Stippling

Echo Quilting

In the quilt Butterfly Kisses, the loop-de-loop quilting in the blocks was random and didn’t need to be marked whereas the border quilting was planned and did need to be marked.

Except, I didn’t mark it.  Remember:  I will go to great lengths not to mark a quilt!  So how do I “mark” quilts without leaving any markings?  Here are some of my favorite ways.

~ Marking the designs on tracing paper
Golden Threads tracing paper is wonderful for this.  It comes in rolls of various widths and it tears away cleanly and easily.  I trace my design onto the paper, then staple several layers underneath.  By stitching through all the layers using my sewing machine without thread, I can create many hole-punched versions of my design at once.  I pin the tracing paper onto my quilt, stitch the design, then remove the paper.

~ Using masking tape
One-quarter inch quilter’s masking tape works particularly well for quilting straight lines without marking them.  Simply lay the tape alongside a ruler or other straight edge, pressing down lightly to adhere it temporarily to the surface.  A strip can be reused several times before it loses its stickiness. 

~ Using clear contact paper
Traditionally sold as a shelf or drawer liner, the adhesive backing on this inexpensive material makes it very useful as a temporary template.  I trace or draw my shape onto the contact paper, cut it out, stick it onto my quilt, then quilt around the shape.  Again, the template can be used many times – providing you don’t accidently stitch too many holes into it!

In fact, most of the quilts in the Gallery on my website were machine quilted without marking by using one or more of these products.  The most notable exception would be Instruments of Praise and now, my quilt Flourish on the Vine.  Why?  Because of the trapunto.  And I’ll tell you more about that next week!

Removable Fabric Markers 
Obviously, we need fabric markers.  The marks should be removable, just in case some of the appliqué doesn’t line up perfectly.  I have two favorite markers:  one for light fabrics and one for dark fabrics.

Light Fabrics
“The Fine Line” is a water erasable pen that marks in blue.  I like it because the tip is very fine and it makes a nice, thin line.  You can also get an eraser pen, which removes the blue markings.  This is great for fixing up mistakes!  But I find the best way to remove the lines completely is to immerse the block in water.  Spritzing or dabbing the lines with water appears to work, but often some of the blue returns once the area has dried.

Dark Fabrics
Clover’s white marking pen is erasable with a hot iron as well as water.  Just take note that the marks take a few seconds to appear, so be patient.  The white lines show up well on the darker fabrics where a blue line wouldn’t.  Sometimes, I go over the lines a second time to make the white lines brighter.  Mistakes are easily corrected by ironing over them, but just be careful not to iron your marked fabric until you’re done with the lines!

Sandpaper Board
A sandpaper board is incredibly useful for marking fabrics.  It is placed underneath the fabric to keep it from shifting.  You can purchase a sandpaper board specifically for this purpose, or you can make one yourself.  Simply attach a sheet of fine grit sandpaper to a sturdy mounting board.

Fabric on sandpaper board

This is a great little tool.  I got it out recently and thought again how useful it really is.  It’s called the Easy Edge Appliqué Tool, by Heidizine Products, and I use it primarily for glue-basting seam allowances to freezer paper.

Soft Tip

It measures a little under 5 ½” in length, fitting comfortably in your hand.  One end has a soft 45-degree angled tip, ¼” in diameter.  The soft tip grips the fabric for turning over the seam allowance and sticking it to the freezer paper.  But the best part is that it keeps the glue from sticking to your fingers!

The other end tapers to form a thin 45-degree angled edge.  This part of the tool is useful for lifting, repositioning, smoothing out edges, and creasing outside points.  It can also be used for spreading glue in hard to reach places or for removing excess glue.  My favorite use for this end is for turning over stray threads at inside points and making sure they stay adhered to the freezer paper.

Thin Tapered Tip

It is true that I prefer to appliqué by hand using the needle-turn method.  One of the main reasons for this has to do with the preparation work involved.  Needle-turn appliqué eliminates the time-consuming process of basting the patches to freezer paper.

However, there are times when the speed of machine appliqué is appealing.  And these are the times when basting to freezer paper makes sense.  The time taken at the basting stage is made up for at the stitching stage.  And I wouldn’t be without my Easy Edge Appliqué Tool when it comes to glue-basting to freezer paper, because I hate sticky fingers!