Pounce

[AnnHenry]

Having read Deblou's almost horror story about "Can't get chalk out," I would like to hear others' experience using pounce.

I haven't tried it yet, but I have fantasies of using something like powdered sugar for dark fabrics and cinnamon for light, but I know the cinnamon smell would last forever, so I need a different natural and pleasantly odoriferous (!) substance for light fabrics. The plan includes vacuuming out the residue instead of washing.

As I said, I haven't tried this, so would appreciate your comments about whether or not this would work. Thanks everyone.

[Chocoholic]

You need to be careful, because lots of spices/herbs, including cinnamon, will stain. This is how people years ago dyed things like fabric, their hair, etc.

[Mary Beth]

I don't know DeLoa's story, but I do know that the blue chalk that comes with the pounce pad gets pitched into the trash when I get it in the door. I only use Miracle Chalk with my pounce, or white chalk mixed with black light chalk - although I have a hard time getting it to stay on long enough to quilt - it bounces right off as I quilt then I can't find the line. I know you can sptiz the fabric with water....hair spray....etc....just haven't had the opportunity to try it.

[Saundra]

I tried so many things to mark quilts. The product I use now in Miracle Chalk. There are several different options to use, there is the loose powder, a marking chalk, and a pen. I mainly use the powder, but I do not use the pounce pad (to messy) I use a small sponge paintbrush. I find the lines are more defined. I have used the pen and the line is very fine. With the pen you can mark the whole quilt before quilting, but I mark as I go and find that I like the powder. Hope this helps.

Saundra

[Quilting Heidi]

I too am a fan of the miracle chalk and black light powder. I have tried cocoa but it bounces right off as the machine starts and I didn't want to get any moisture on it to make it say forever! I also use the water soluble pens. I'm waiting for the marking pencils to come and hope they work as well as they are said to work. I have it under very good recomendation so I'll give them a go! I would much prefer the thinner pencil line over the wider pounced line. I also don't use the pouncer, instead use the small foam paintbrush. I will not use the blue pounce powder! I find that it is very difficult to remove.

[skrat]

I have recently purchased the new SewLine mechanical marking pencils in green and white and I love them. You can either erase them with the eraser that comes with them or you can rub very lightly with a damp cloth and it comes off that way too. Best investment I've made so far.......other than my machine of course, LOL.

[Jhend]

When using Miracle Chalk, I put a hard surface under the quilt (if marking already loaded) and rub it in with a foam brush. This gets down into the fiber and doesn't bounce off. I then just vacuum it out.

[ramona-quilter]

I think that I heard about the Linda R (ffq-lar) method of chalk marking last year and I was instantly sold. She also uses a foam brush.

I put my Miracle chalk in a small gald container so I can keep it covered when not in use. I stick the foam brush into the chalk, tap it a couple times on the edge of the container to remove any excess chalk and then lightly tpa or drag the foam brush along the stencil only where the holes are. I use a light touch.

I found that I was using too much pressure on the pounce pad. The results were troublesome.

#1 it left too much chalk on the fabric to bounce off;

#2 it bent or distorted my stencils

#3 There was more chalk overlap residue on the stencil that had to be washed off afterwards.

I have used blue chalk for marking light fabrics but I cut it with the white chalk quite a bit. 1-part blue to 8 parts white just gives it enough of a cast to be seen on a white fabric.

I also use Bruynzeel chalk pencils from

http://www.marcopaper.com/bruynzeelpastel.htm for marking lights and darks when I want the additional control of a pencil. I use color #887.

[peglu]

Great info guys! This will help me a lot. (My machine is coming in 2 days

[seakitten]

I recently discovered a nice marking tool by accident. Thought I was ordering the blue water-erasable pens from JoAnn's online, what came was blue pencils, distributed by Clover. The have Japanese writing on them, I do not know their name, but they are great. They are fairly soft, so you don't have to press hard, but they can be sharpened to a nice point. They are a nice powder blue that shows up on most fabrics, both light & dark. The marks come off easily with a damp rag, but do not rub off on their own. I like them!