MarionsQuilts

For those of you that use regular printer paper (like I do), I have just discovered the BEST method ever to get rid of all the paper in the back of your quilt!

Usually, when I PP, I take the paper off before I put it all together, however, this one was a bit more complicated in that I had to make sure I was following the lettering of the blocks (there were 6), and it wasn't always apparent how they were going to line up.

I started with this:

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I spent 15 minutes and got 3 blocks of paper removed. NOT a way I want to spend my time! And I was tempted to just toss it to the side and get to it "whenever".

I'm not a huge TV fan, so not something I could do while watching TV, and some of the pieces are so small (the white borders) that it was so frustrating to get all the pieces of paper off. So, I googled removing paper piecing and someone posted (on this board believe it or not!!!) to toss the whole thing in the washing machine!

So I did ... quick cycle of 20 minutes, cold water, no detergent (note - I had NOT squared my quilt up yet, so I didn't care about fraying edges of the border).

This is what I ended up with:

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NOT counting the mess of my washing machine LOL ... but - that took me 5 minutes with the vacuum cleaner ... A LOT faster than tearing it all off!

My next step is to go over it with a lint brush to get the "remnants" off ... but definitely a time saver!

This is the front in case you didn't see my other post!

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Boston1954

Marion, that is fantastic! I will have to tell my sister. She does paper piecing. (She also loves German Shepherds)

Sewnoma

That sounds like a great idea but I think I'd be afraid of clogging my washer! I wonder if just soaking it in the tub for awhile and then (gently) scrubbing it together in your hands would do about the same?

I really like your quilt top, by the way. It looks great!

MarionsQuilts

It didn't clog it! I tested it afterwards LOL ... I did have to vacuum it out, but it ran fine for the next load!

MarionsQuilts

Thanks and thanks! Yeah, I love my GSD ... they are so different than other dogs LOL

madamekelly

I love my GSD also even though his daddy was a Great Dane. Picture a huge calico German Shepard with floppy ears. I love my crazy big dog.

tessagin

I saw Bonnie Hunter take paper off and she creases it at the seams. I started doing it that way on couple samplers and makes it so much easier.

sewingitalltogether

I take the paper out while mindlessly watching TV. And I usually have to get the tweezers out to get all the itty bitty pieces of paper. It's a pain but I love the accuracy.

Onebyone

I do a lot of paper piecing so it's worth it to me to use the best pp paper. I use vellum lightweight translucent for large pieces. For a lot of pieces in one block I use Stable Stuff that I leave in, or the water solvable paper. All three are printable. My first paper piecing I used printer paper and almost threw the blocks away the paper removing was so tedious. I knew I'd never do that again. My frustration level is too low for that tedious work.

GEMRM

That's a great thing to know, and that it didn't clog up the washer either - thanks!