Transferring Quilt Designs

Transferring Quilting Designs

Transferring Designs #1

I rely on lots of different methods to get quilting designs on a quilt top. Most of the time I've not made all of the decisions for quilting patterns when the quilting begins. This means marking as I quilt, which is sometimes difficult on a soft surface.

To mark the feather outer border on "Joie de Vie", I used bridal tulle to transfer the design to the quilt top. First, I drew the feathers on a continuous strip of paper the exact width of the border. Computer paper works great for long lengths. Then cut a generous length of bridal tulle. Place it over the design and use masking tape on the outside edge of the pattern to stabilize it. Pressing the tape firmly will adhere the tulle to the paper pattern. Trace the design on the tulle with a permanent felt marker (like a Sharpie). Pull the tulle off the pattern and place masking tape on the reverse side of the outer edge. This eliminates any sticky residue coming through the tulle. In other words, the masking tape is placed on the outer edge on front and back of the tulle.

Transferring Designs #2

Pin the tulle on top of the quilt. The pattern is visible whether used on dark or light fabrics. Use a soft marking pencil to trace the design onto the quilt top. Chalk pencils work well. I used watercolor pencils by Crayola. They are soft and water soluble. They also erase easily with a fabric eraser. It's important to test any marker used for ease of removal. The darker colors of watercolor pencils did not wash out easily so I didn't use them.

Advantages to using tulle :

it's unnecessary to cut channels in template plastic which is especially difficult in very "curvy" designs
size is not limited
works on light, dark or multicolored fabrics
very inexpensive
can be used to mark as you quilt
any design can be drawn from a square block design to long border
tulle is flexible and can be manipulated to fill the space (helpful if your blocks aren't exactly the same size)

As Martha Stewart says, " It's a good thing!".

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