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Is this a possibility? I'm making an autograph wallhanging and would really like to have it quilted then sign ??? Would this work? Or should I just stop at a "flimsy" and get signatures and regular iron heat set? Have you had any personal experience with success/failures? Thanks for the quick help! Love this board!

well i always heat set the siggys i made and the ones i received in swaps with the iron.

I would think it would be more difficult to get "nice" signatures if folks were signing over uneven quilting....I heat set before quilting.

I brought a quilted, bound, & labeled quilt to a family event & had everyone sign it there. It worked out fine. I did mostly "in the ditch" quilting, on purpose, so there would be decent-sized (unquilted) areas to sign on the fabrics. Nobody crossed over the quilting lines while trying to sign...it was a non-issue, and I didn't have to stand there & explain where to sign or where to avoid.

I'd want to heat set Pigma pens with an iron, though. Seems I remember loooooong time ago, when I used to use Pigma pens, I had to heat set the marks before they ever got wet. So I switched to the E-Z brand of marking pens. Those marks didn't run, even when I wet them on a test sample, right after I wrote on the sample (wet it just a few minutes later, no heat setting first). I was pleased with the results. Since I had to leave the signed quilt at the event & wouldn't have a chance to do anything to it after the signing, those pens were the way for me to go. You can get them at JoAnn's in the quilting notions aisle (I think that whole aisle is half off this week, too).

I don't know if dryer heat is enough to "heat set" the ink, but if heat from an iron will do the job why not just iron the signatures on the finished wall hanging? I have many times used an iron on cotton setting with steam to remove quilting line marks on a finished quilt. If you are concerned about the effect of the heat of the iron on the batting you could test on a sample ahead of time to make sure it will be OK.

Can you test a sample - use the markers then toss it in the dryer and see if it is heat set or not.

the pens don't say to heat set, but i always did, just in case. some swappers didn't use micro pigma pens and even though i heat set, i got some faint siggys.
good luck.

I just finished my siggy swap blocks and pressed them for several seconds. Do you think that's enough to be heat set?

Thanks so much for all the quick replies. I think I'll double check and use cotton batting. I'll finish the wall hanging and then gather the signatures. Now, somebody remind me to get pictures. ha I'll check if I have an EZ marking pen. I have a couple of different types, but used Pigma on the near completed one. I hope it stands up ok. I don't imagine they'll see much use. Thanks again for all the help.

just thought i'd say i like the .05 pigma pen. the smaller one tends to scratch signatures. just looks too thin and light.