Rita, I have used Press n Seal for quilting. I marked the design with a Sharpie and did not have ink transfer. Just make sure it's completely dry before you stitch through it, or stitch right next to the inked line.

I did have a couple of issues: it's not the easiest stuff to get off. If your quilting design is open it's okay, but if you have small pieces to pick out it's hard to get them, and it sticks to your seam ripper or whatever you are using to get it started.

The other issue I had was I used it to trace a design from a book quite a few times, and now the page in the book is sticky. I don't have any idea how to clean the sticky off the page.

Donna

You could also try vellum? I use it in paper piecing. I don't see why you couldn't trace your pattern (or use your printer) and then stitch through it. It works great with paper piecing and it is transparent enough to see through (I did some transfer designs that way). And it tears pretty easy, too. It isn't the easiest to find. My LQS had some. Plenty on-line, too.

Robbi

I've also just used regular printer paper...print out the design, pin in place and stitch through it.

Donna

I tried press n seal and had a terrible time removing it. I don't think I would do it again.

Kate

This is why I value this forum so much, find out the facts before-hand! Sounds like this isn't such a great idea. I've already suffered such grief over this quilt, I don't want any more disasters, I want this thing finished and gone! Robbi, this just shows how ignorant I am about quilting products, I always thought that "vellum" was a very fine, expensive and sturdy paper for calligraphy and fine art. Thanks for telling me that there is something different out there for quilters. And thanks Kate for your dire warning, too, sorry you had such a time with it.

Golden Rod paper comes on a roll and is made for quilting designs.

Then there is deli paper, or rolls of paper from a doctor's office that are thin enough to stitch and peel away easily.

I've recently done a quilt and used Sharpies to create my quilt design. Following the colors was fine for quilting, but when I stitched through the sharpie color, it left marks on my white fabric when done. I was afraid to use water to help peel the paper off because I was afraid of it running worse.

Use pencil or stitch your design with your regular machine & no thread... I wouldn't recommend sharpies...It was a bad choice for me. (Wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't done it on white fabric, tho)

Golden thread paper on rolls - see link below.
It is still a pain to tear off if you are machine stitching,
but it will not damage your quilt, and it is lightweight enough to trace the design.
I also use vellum for PPing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paper

I find that parchment paper, the kind from the grocery, works great in place of vellum which is more costly. It can be seen thru and comes in a roll (providing length). I think that it would work better then press and seal.MHO

I too am thankful for the follow-up comments on this post, as it sounded like it would be interesting thing to use, and more durable than the tissue paper I use now. I only use pencil on tissue paper, pinning it to my quilt with flower head pins. At least when pencil gets stitched in, it comes out!

Here's a link to the type of vellum I used. It was nice because it went through the printer. I used it on my Dear Jane quilt where the patterns are on a computer program, so this made it easy to print and use. It would also work if you wanted to copy a page from a book so you wouldn't have to trace it by hand. In my hand applique, I also use a lot of freezer paper. It isn't as transparent unless you use a bright light and doesn't tear as easily as the vellum, but you can sew through it with no problems.

Here is a link that might be useful: vellum quit paper

Rita, are you hand quilting or machine quilting this quilt?
I took a workshop from Susan Cleveland a few months ago. She does very beautiful machine quilting - bold, heavy thread on dark rich colors-it looks like hand stitching!
She uses heavy weight freezer paper, cut (perfectly) to the shapes / design, irons it on the quilt, and quilts around the outside of the edge of the paper. She lifts the freezer paper, moves it to another spot and repeats. No paper to tear away.
She was a fabulous instructor and a wonderful speaker, not to mention talented quilter. I learned alot from her!

Here is a link that might be useful: Susan Cleveland - freezer papaer

Rita - I've used Press 'n Seal several times and enjoy using it. As mentioned, if you are copying over a design from a book over and over, I would make a copy of the design and use the copy to trace over because it does leave the page sticky after multiple tracings. It also peels better if you keep your stitches shorter. The longer the stitches, the less perforated it is. I have traced it with both an ink pen and with a permanent pen. There have been times when the ink has transferred to the fabric, but with the stitching going over top of it, it is not very noticeable. I do not recommend using the last of the roll - when it starts to get hard to pull out of the box. The Press n' Seal is stickier on the top at the end of the roll and the darning foot wants to stick to it rather than gliding over the top of it - but that is just the last of the roll and you can definitely feel when you hit that part of the roll as you pull it out.

What I like most about it is it is easy to place on the fabric and easy to move. And it stays in place without needing pins - just make sure you move all your pins from sandwiching out of the path of your sewing lines and lay them down flat. I do just work on one area of a full-size quilt at a time because the Press n' Seal tends to be attracted to itself (like plastic wrap) so I would not put my whole design down on a quilt top at once. I have not found it any worse to peel off than paper, and the stickiness of the pieces you have already removed helps at time to pick up the little pieces left - just dab at them.
Karlene

I'm reading this thread w/interest because I've rec'd a lot of swap blocks over the yrs that are wrapped in PressNSeal. I really don't care for it because it leaves such a sticky residue on the fabric. When the envie has been thro the postal machines, it's really flat - which is great for postage prices :) - but I'll pass on the stickiness. Anything that leaves residue or marks on my fabric is a no-no for me.

I've never heard of it wrapped around blocks!?! I wonder why?

Karlene, I think you wrap it around the blocks as protection when mailing the blocks - like putting the block in a zip lock bag. The Press N Seal also allows you to squish all the air out to make the block super flat to fit in an envelope to reduce postage.

Thanks for all the alternatives, I do have some parchment paper in the kitchen, maybe I'll do a test run on that first. I am machine-quilting this, by the way.