This quilt is finally complete. Hooray, hooray! I suspected that the red stitching might not show up well on the busy fabrics, and I was right. But here is a picture of the quilting before I washed off the chalk.
I drew a large, leafy branch across the quilt, then stippled around it. In the process of marking the quilt, my chalk pencil wore down to a nub. So I went to the fabric store to pick up a $0.99 chalk pencil. Wouldn't ya know, they didn't sell them. I could either buy a washable white pen or the Dritz Chalk Cartidge Set pictured above for $13.99. Irked, but really wanting chalk (and being too lazy to go elsewhere) I begrudgingly tossed the kit in my cart. But this story has a happy ending. The chalk cartidge is superior to any chalk pencil, pouncing powder or washable marker I've ever used. Yes, it does rub off easily...but if you draw something you don't like, you can just brush it off and mark it again. I can't (yet) stipple freehand with my machine, but I can draw stippling with chalk and stitch on the line all day long. Once I found the best way to mark the quilt, the quilting didn't take long at all. :)
