Cheap Marking Pencils

I hate those pencils that they sell at a high price for marking lines on our quilts. Find them hard to erase from fabric and if not used regularly get hard and even sharpened won't work. I have been using white manicure pencils used to put under the nails to give a French manicure look. But recently at Dollar Shop bought a white eye liner. The lead is soft and erases easily and only $1.00. Who would line their eyes with white I am not sure but great for drawing lines on quilts to follow when quilting. jessie s :yahoo:

I've never heard of or seen white eye liner. Maybe it's made to go on the inner part of the lower lid to makes ones eyes look brighter? I'll have to see if I can find it. I see a lot of folks use the Crayola WASHable markers too. They come in a lot of colors and they say they wash out completely. I haven't tried them yet but intend to look for those too. They should be on sale at this time of year? I learned about them from About Quilting.com
I've been using Fons and porter's mechanical pencil with the white leads and I'm really happy with that too. It sure goes a lot farther than the white Clover pen I'm so fond of for marking darks!

What great ideas! I hadn't thot of using those items for marking. Thanks, you ladies are great!

I have used soapstone for marking darker fabrics. I got it from my husband who does welding. Now I see that you can purchase it from QS around as well as from notions catalogs!

Mamu wrote:

I have used soapstone for marking darker fabrics. I got it from my husband who does welding. Now I see that you can purchase it from QS around as well as from notions catalogs!

I'll bet it is cheaper in the welding department!

Did you know you can use your really small slivers of hand soap when they get skinny and thin to mark your quilting lines? Good thing about this is you can mark it while it is already on your quilting frame as you go along so if you don't want all of your blocks marked the same you can do them as you go. It won't wear off like chalk and no fear that it won't wash out. It will even show up on muslin but is great for any of the color fabrics. White ivory soap works great for this. I'm sure you could take a knife and just cut you off a sliver to use. I also like the tailor chalk that is shaped like a triangle. Nancy Notions sells it and it comes in different colors. Doesn't rub off as fast as just using chalk. I haven't tried the washable markers but I have read they work. I wonder if you'd have to be careful not to let the sun shine on your quilt top , if that would set the color markers or not.

Quilterbee

I have used the washable blue fabric makers alot and have not had any problem with them. Sometimes when I damped them to remove the marks, the blue goes into the batting and then reappears later. So, when I use these markers I make sure that I 'hose' down the markings to remove them. Have never had to worry about the marks ever coming back after doing that and have never had any discoloration showing up over time. I never let the sun shine on any of my quilts. I am always afraid of the sun bleaching out colors and damaging fibers.

I'm a fan of the clover white pens, too - but boy, oh boy, they sure don't last long. If I wasn't the queen of Joann's coupons, I might have to sell my second-born (firstborn is currently my favorite ;) ). As far as regular 'sharpenable' pencils, the cheap ones from WalMart fabric dept. have beat all of the specialty ones from both the quilting and notions aisles at Joann's.

Yes, I did try every single marking tool that Joann's had to offer - AFTER confirming that if I got it home, tried it once and was unhappy I could return it. I did that, returned something like 14 marking tools and got the Clover pens.

My Joann's doesn't sell the Fons & Porter refills, and Ann, I seem to recall you said that the pencil was kinda lame?

I have a box of chalk in my "Things That Mark" drawer (yeah, I have "Things That Stick" drawer and a "Things That Cut" drawer, too - no point in getting too specific!) - regular old school chalk. That works for the broad strokes or for tracing around certain templates.

I'm super paranoid about the "rinse out" stuff, like the blue or purple pens. I agree about really hosing down the quilt to make sure it comes out of the batting! I'm also painfully careful about not letting an iron get anywhere close to where I've used that type of pen - I'm afraid that it will somehow set the ink. This makes it particularly difficult if I've marked in a border; I can't attach the binding and press it without washing the quilt first to get the pen out!

:peek: Hey! My peeky guy showed up!! Yay!

Yes Tracy..I didn't like the quality of the Fons and Porter's mechanical pencil. I bought a pack of mechanical pencils at Kroger's grocery store in with the school supplies that was the .9mm. They work great! I DO like the F&P white leads though. They last ten times longer than the clover pen.
I get the refills at Hobby Lobby. My Joann's doesn't carry the refills either.