hera marker

i've tried several methods of marking my quilts for  handstitching: chalks, pencils, pens. no one method is perfect and i was unhappy with each of these for various reasons. then i read a tip from aneela hoey describing her hera marker. love it!

 it's rather like a bone folder used for scoring paper - only it scores your fabric. i just run it down the side of the quilting ruler (below) and it leaves me a nice crease to follow (above). i don't have to worry about it showing up based on the color of my fabric or about it smearing, fading, or not erasing. it stays put until the stitching is done, even if i leave it for several days (weeks). perfect.

however, this being an imperfect world, i did eventually discover one flaw. it's not very portable. i took my quilt and thread to the park intending on contentedly stitching away while the little ones played, but as soon as i finished my first line i realized my dilemma. there was no place to lay out the quilt and make more lines to follow. boo hoo. i can't very well carry my cutting mat and long ruler with me to the park, either. i suppose if i marked several lines at home before i went i would be alright. but since i like to mark one line at a time as i go, that doesn't work. so no stitching on the go with the hera marker, at least for me.

other than that, it's my favorite!