XYLENE IS POISON. It also is sometimes found in natural gas at low concentration. To give you an idea of how poisonous: Dirt near a gas well is hauled away as hazardous waste if it contains 25 parts per million of xylene. If you can smell it, you are at risk. The stuff is tough on the liver at high doses, and carcinogenic at low doses. Stay safe. Buy the transfer paper or use an iron.

I used a Roxanne's white chalk pencil with stencils after it was basted. I marked everything and stuck strips of press n seal over it all. I took off the press n seal when I got to that part. Mine was a baby quilt, but since it was my learning quilt I did a pretty fancy veined oak leaf border. It didn't fit my borders evenly, so I left a bit blank in the middle and put in...dang it, I'm senile. I can't even remember what I put in those blank spots--was it an acorn or the four letters of his name? Good Lord, I'm depressed now. Maybe I forgot to put anything in there and the thing just has blank spots. I left about a half inch blank, plus a half inch for my binding at the edge. If you need to stretch a stencil shape to make it fit, do it at the middle of the border. People look at the corners first, to see how it turns the corner. The eyes slide along the middle, and so if one of the cables needs to expand an inch nobody will ever notice. You can plan it out on long craft paper exactly how it will be and then transfer it to your border. I got a book--yeah, yeah, I hear you all laughing--but I do have a book "Mastering Quilt Marking" by Pepper Cory. She explains register lines, and how to transfer border cables and such from a pinned on paper draft to a border below using a T-square. Good book. :)

Donna, this has me so preplexed! They were in a large clear bag with no markings on them (like fabric will have in the selvedge)at all. I have asked some people from European countries and no one recognizes them. They actually transfer darker than the paper and are thick enough that they don't shift.

I was looking up ink transfer removal on google and it sent me to this page. So I had to sign up in order to talk to you. I too have been looking for a way to remove the ink transfer from a set of pillow cases I purchased from ebay. I finished the embroidery and then I came to find out the ink wouldn't wash out. I tried the Oxyclean too and soaked them all night. The hint from Beverly I don't think would work if that Oxyclean wouldn't work. Have you discovered anything yet that will remove it?? I wrote the lady on ebay that I bought them from and I don't think she really believes me. Anyway, she has no idea. I read some where on the internet to try nail polish remover but I haven't as yet. I hope you found something. By the way where is this embroidery forum?? Write to me at kaaih7@aol.com Thanks. Joan