Quilt 5: Quilting the Border Panels and Using A Template

I'm working away on Quilt 5 (which I think I last mentioned in September 2010). It's coming along nicely - and although January in Australia doesn't seem to be the best month for quilting (it's summer here), I'm enjoying finally getting back to stitching after my little break over the holidays.

Because of the squirly design I ended up with for this quilt (again - the subject of the September posting), I've got an unusually wide border on this quilt. The width of it pretty much demands some kind of fancy stitching, not just endless rows of quilting. So... I'm using my most-complicated (to date) stitching template.

Here's the template:



And here's the resulting stitching (on the back of the quilt):

As you can see, I've opted to go with a greatly contrasting thread on this one - I really wanted to see the stitches on the back (they're almost invisible on the front of the quilt). I like the pattern and am gradually getting more comfortable with the template. As I did with an earlier template, I've threaded multiple needles and have (5 in this case) and have them all going in the quilt at the same time. Of course, this leads to multiple stab wounds because I've got all 5 needles in the same general area - but I'm getting better. And the dark fabric doesn't show the blood.

One thing that is driving me nuts is the marking pencil I'm using.

Up till now I've been quilting on light coloured fabrics, so I've been able to use my fabulous "disappearing ink" marking pen. But the ink is a medium pink colour (before it fades) and doesn't show up at all on dark fabrics. So I've had to use something else. I have a white pencil (which doesn't fade automatically, but can be brushed/wiped away after you're done) and although it marks well enough, the pencil itself is wearing down weirdly.

Here's a photo of the tip:

As you can see, the template is cutting into the "lead" of the pencil. The problem with this is that it wears the tip out quickly - the tips keep breaking off in chunks and then I have to keep resharpening. At this rate, this little pencil isn't going to be marking many quilts.

I've tried to mark with a "light hand" (ie: not pressing so hard) but it doesn't really help.