zennia

So glad this question came up. I always have trouble ironing my fabric. Thank you for the tip using vinegar.

QuiltE

ArchaicArcane ... I agree with most of what has been said. For your wrinkles, become best friends with Best Press. It will help to take out those wrinkles, plus give a nice light starch to it. You will find that you won't have the scorching problem you can have with the other types of starches. I've never tried the vinegar/water mix, though to answer your question, I would think it will not give you any starch/sizing back into your fabric. Just a moistener to provide some steam to take out those wrinkles. I really wonder if it would do any different than just spritzing with water only.

I'll also echo that the quilt to bed sizes are totally personal. Some want it to hang to the floor. Others want it just over the bed top. Then there's the thickness of the mattress, and as you mentioned your duvet will add some height too. My bed is a double antique ... my best fit quilts are 110" square! So, by the charts that's a King! The chart sizes would be way too small for my bed. Though I will say that it is multi-purpose as both the bedspread and a functional quilt.

And yes square ... I find that works the best for me!!

Good Luck ... and make it so it's what YOU want for your Alberta winters!!!

ArchaicArcane

EasyPeezy - Thanks for clarifying that. I kept expecting the starch to take the creases out, especially when I saw the fabric "change size" when I sprayed it.

DOTTYMO - What is the theory behind the fridge thing? I've never noticed if the line was still there after washing. Now I'll have to look. You starch before you dry? Without ironing? Usually I take it out, fold it "approximately straight and fold it onto my boards. I know I'll have to iron afterward anyway, so I don't when it comes out of the dryer, unless I'm using it right away.

mom-6 - I didn't realise that shops unrolled them to check size. I've seen people count the wraps and estimate from there. That seems so tedious, but I guess I can see why they would do it. That wrinkle resistant finish is one of the ones that washes out, right? I had no idea how much I didn't know about fabric!

QuiltE - I have a bottle of it here, I should have used it. I was using up the other starch first. Something I was able to get in the small town grocery when I needed it last time. Maybe I'll just use that stuff on DH's underwear or something. He'll love that. I found as soon as I grew some patience that scorching wasn't an issue anymore, but I definitely hear what you're saying.

I had no idea that the sizes of beds were so variable! I like the idea of a square quilt too, and it occurred to me that we have used King quilts on this bed for years. The queens, probably meant to just cover the top and a little drop, always seemed to leave my bottom cold when DH hogs the covers.

Spoken like someone who's experienced an Alberta winter. Maybe I'll trapunto just for that extra layer of warmth!

QuiltE

ArchaicArcane ... I avoided BP for years, thinking it was too expensive and thinking the other was good enough. Then when I was having a hard time finding the spray starch, I gave in and bought a bottle. Now here's the real laugh ... I kept it set aside and continued to use the spray starch and when I found some, I stashed it away. Alas! one day I gave it a try and then said, OMG, why on earth did I wait so long to try BP!!! Now I am a true convert ... and have a spray starch stash that sits and waits. (I do use it at times, but honestly, hate using it when I do!) And no, I've never had the Alberta winter experience ... just the variable Ontario ones!

bearisgray

My son and dil's mattress is 72 wide by 76 inches long. It's a water bed.

ILoveToQuilt

I find fabric wrinkles more when dried in the dryer. If fabric pieces are small (one yard or less), I iron them dry on a commercial ironing board. If larger than 1 yard, I either hang the piece over the shower curtain rod (no crease) or I "bunch" it up and dry it on a flat surface (but more wrinkles this way). I have not tried the vinegar and water for taking out the wrinkles, but this is something I will definitely try tomorrow as I press my DH's shirts every morning.

As to quality of fabric, I've had fabric that wrinkles badly from the LQS and fabric that wrinkles badly from the big box stores. I also believe that the finishing chemicals are to blame for the wrinkles. I, too, find that looser weave fabric (the almost "gauzy" ones) wrinkle more.

Also, many of you mention using starch. I never use starch because bugs are attracted to starched fabrics and will "eat" the fabric (they are actually eating the starch, but the fabric suffers). If a quilt is stored and not used regularly, there is more of a chance of this problem.

This is just my opinion and what I do. I'm not telling anyone that they are wrong in using starch.

Anita

slstitcher

I use BP on all my fabric. Love it! I now buy it by the gallon. As for the quilt size. I wish the patterns would take into account all the thicker mattress sizes now. I like a pillow tuck and always add more blocks and/or border than the pattern calls for.

ArchaicArcane

ILoveToQuilt - really? I had never noticed that fabric wrinkles more out of the dryer. I will have to pay more attention. I will try to air dry more of my fabric and see if some of my hassles go away. I've heard what you mention about starch and bugs. I thought the starch would wash out after the first wash though, and I'm just not "neat" enough to iron an assembled quilt.

On a related note, I tested my iron tonight. Apparently the cotton setting is supposed to be about 200 - 225 C, or somewhere in the 400+ F range. My iron was testing everywhere from 150C to 255C depending on where I measured the temperature. Definite hot spot right at the center, but that's a pretty big swing. I wonder if that has anything to do with its unwillingness to remove wrinkles. It seemed like some of those really stubborn wrinkles were being more set in than anything, at close to 500F, I would think maybe they were?

slstitcher - I don't think I've ever read a bad review of BP, and yet I let it sit on my shelf waiting for me to run out of the other stuff (I still have about 1 1/4 cans left) Of course I'm going through it like there's no tomorrow on this quilt, so maybe it won't be too long after all. I agree about patterns, though I think that a 90x108" queen size is thinking about that. Even if they just specified "Full length Queen", "Bed Spread" etc. I suppose with experience I'll just "know" eventually though.

QuiltE - it's funny, we seem to avoid a lot of things because they seem expensive (Aurifil is another one I hear all the time) and yet at the end of the day, it's not as bad as it seems and with the time saved, or frustration... why do we do this to ourselves? I've heard the Ontario winters can be pretty rough too. Yours because of moisture and ours for the lack of it. Of course a couple of years ago being the second coldest place on the planet for a day sure cut my patience for Alberta winters a lot shorter. I wouldn't complain about having to decorate palm trees for Christmas...

msrosecooks

Thanks, Jan . You always give such clear info.

jewellene

The measurements I have are-queen mattress is 60x80; a quilt with a 10 " drop-80x90,and 10"tuck-80x100,12" drop-84x92 and with 10" tuck 84x102, the closet I have to your measurements is 16"drop 92x96 and with 10" tuck 92x106The times that I had creases that were difficult it was because the fabric was old, it had been folded on to bolt too long in a certain manner that caused the threads to weaken in the folds. My quilts and fabrics, I change their fold periodically.