Tool Review: Quilter's Select Self Erase Marker

Here's my review for the new quilt marking pen that I bought, it's a Quilter's Select Self Erase Marker. I decided to try and use it to mark the Economy Block corner squares during the BAM meeting on Saturday.

It makes a nice dark purple line,  not too wide as the tip is quite finely pointed.

I only used it to mark this one group of squares, as I noticed that the lines started disappearing rather quickly during the course of the meeting. I just used a pencil for the rest. Good thing, because two days later here's how it looked. It does say it disappears in 1-7 days depending on the fabric and conditions. So, for my purposes and conditions, the marking would have had to be for nearly immediate use as this fading was within an hour. Pre-washed cotton fabric, no ironing, in a non-humid, fairly cool room. If I'd used this to mark all 30+ Economy Blocks, I would have been bummed when I went to sew them on Monday.

Then when I ironed, with a steam iron, I found that the marks that had remained came back a bit stronger, even going through to the right side of the fabric.

That's not going to work, well maybe it would disappear on its own after a few days.

This is where the self-erase part comes in with this marking tool. At the other end of the pen is an "eraser" which does not just using friction like the Frixion, there's a shiny-ness that comes out, a liquid of some sort, maybe a solvent. I'm just guessing here. There wasn't a smell or anything.

The eraser worked well at removing the marks, but if you zoom in, you can see the liquid along the edge where the marks previously were. Will these marks come back if I iron it again? Will the liquid marked edges dry without staining or residue?

Here's how the block looks a couple days later. No eraser residue apparent at all and no marks. 

I steam ironed the block to see if any marks or residue reappeared and...nope! It looks fine to me. 

On the product website they have this instruction: 

• You need to test the mark & ironing it on all fabrics before you do final project.
• After marking, if it needs to be heated/ironed, treat with clean water to prevent discoloration.
• 
  
• I suppose I should try rinsing with water next time. So...I guess I end up mixed on recommending using this one. I think that I prefer the disappearing Sewline pen, but this one is worth trying again to see if different conditions change how it performs.