Originally Posted by oma66
Originally Posted by Pat G
Originally Posted by oma66
I just did a test in my kitchen with dryer sheet, poly-cotton, fusible interfacing and 100% cotton. They all burned the same - quickly. The poly-cotton curled up in flame, the cotton burned the fastest and with much more flame, the fusible burned very quickly and the dryer sheet burned quickly, but not any quicker than the other three. As someone said, put a match to anything and it will burn. I used dryer sheets in quilting and was very alarmed when I read the post this morning, so I did the experiment myself. If you recently saw the damage a candle did to a quilters quilt in progress, you would see just how quickly a quilt will burn without a dryer sheet involved.
I am always thankful for new information and warnings. I am glad I saw the post so I could see for myself as PatG suggested. Thank you PatG for the suggestion and warning. However, since they all burned the same, I am not afraid of using the dryer sheets.
Good for you for doing the experiment. I wonder if it's a difference in brands that made the difference in our tests. Mine definitely burned much faster & hotter than the fusible. At least it's making people think about it. I was going to take pix but the dryer sheet went up so fast I wouldn't have had time.
I hope others will carefully do this same test just to reassure themselves.
That is a good point you made PatG, that one brand may burn differently than another brand. I do not currently use dryer sheets in quilting, but I did about 15 yrs. ago, using them in an applique design. I recently got one of those quilts back from my granddaughter to be repaired: the cotton was just about gone, but the dryer sheets were intact. There seems to be a danger in everything we use, everything we eat, and we really do need to educate ourselves so we are not sorry later. But...when we have nothing else to go to in products what can we do? It is a vicious circle isn't it?
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Oma, it's so nice to share our experiments since we're ea. getting such different results. I tried using another used dryer sheet today & it turned to flames immed. again & I had to drop it under a running faucet. I used Gain (with fragrance) brand. Maybe if others use different brands we could decide if that is why we got our different test results. Just be very careful though. Do it in a sink with running water. My Gain actually scared me at how fast it turned to flames.
Then I decided to cont. on with a pc. of thin batting I use from Wal Mart & I had a hard time getting it to flame up at all & then it put itself out. I have to admit that surprised me but since it's the one I use the most I was happy with the outcome. I didn't have time to test Warm & Natural but I plan to since I'm starting to use it more & more.
I passed my test info. on to the grp. mostly for fun but I think we've gotten and education from it. I'm not suggesting what anybody else should do---use dryer sheets or not---. At least we may at least think about it before using it. It isn't just putting a match to it, it's any heat source that can turn them to flames you won't be able to put out easily.
Ok, everybody. Back to quilting.
Pat