Originally Posted by
tezell0801
So it is only fusible on one side? hummm, I will try it for some placemats I intend to make and see from there.
You can get it one sided or two sided fusible. I use it all the time. Smooth it out, give it some time to relax, put your fabric on it and, starting from the center, smooth it with your hands until it is wrinkle free. I pin every foot or 18" to make sure I can't shift the quilt fabric. The adhesive is slightly scratchy and tends to stay where you put it. Now time for dry heat pressing (always starting with the center). Usually I start with only doing the center square yard or so and then resmooth it with my hands and then do a foot around that. It depends on how relaxed the fabric is; sometimes I press the really hard-to-deal with fabric (top or backing) before putting it onto the fusible batting. When the back is done (I always do it first) I do the same process with the front (smooth, pin a few pins, iron with dry heat). Don't press longer than the instructions tell you or it will be hard to reposition, should you find a wrinkle.
I turn it over and check the back side again, but it rarely (anymore) has a wrinkle (thanks to all that smoothing, which by the way, feels downright theraputic to my fabric loving soul!) When both sides pass my personal quilt police criteria I iron with steam. Using only heat can be unironed by simply reironing and running your hand under that area and lift the fabric free (you have to wait a pinch to let the extreme heat to disapate so you don't burn your hands) and then reposition and reiron. Once you use steam it can be removed using steam again, but it is harder and some of the adhesive gets lost. Follow the directions for how close you need to quilt. It varies, just like different regular battings do.
I never intend to buy regular batting again. If I need it for something specific I still have plenty left. I have used cheaper and like it fine. I quilt pretty constantly and fusible saves me a huge amount of effort and time, w/o costing me any lots of time and effort to get the sandwich together. I refuse to use sprays that have as many warnings on them as quilt sprays do! Our earth doesn't need it either.