Spock's Sister Sees

Not much progress on the world map quilt I’m afraid. My mother-in-law was visiting and so I haven’t had time to quilt. She recently lost a very close friend to cancer and she needed company more than i needed to sew. 

I have managed to chalk in the next lot of sea currents. For a long time I had problems marking out on medium to dark fabrics. On pale fabrics I usually use water erasable pens – they seem to be available in either blue or purple. Erasable pens are brilliant on light coloured fabrics but hopeless on brights or darks. I have never found quilters’ pencils to be any good so I was delighted to discover a solution when I went to the quilt exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham earlier this year.

I came across some Clover Chaco liner pens. They are small pens which contain powdered chalk, they have a little wheel instead of a nib and they’re really very good. I recommend them. They come in a variety of colours too. I have misplaced my white one (grumble) but I also have a yellow one. I shall order myself a pink one soon. They aren’t brilliant at tight curves but they’re better than anything else I have found.

Here’s a link to the clover pens on Amazon incase anyone is interested in buying one. 

http://www.amazon.com/Clover-Style-Chaco-Liner-White/dp/B0016ZZOEK