k_jupiter

Hi piker.
As one of the original guys here on the board, I say "Welcome". We males, as a group, have acquitted ourselves quite well in this den of estrogen. I use spray starch, staflow in the large economy size, diluted usually 3 or 4 to one. Not too stiff, not too smelly. Every fabric gets washed first in my house before I put it in the quilt room, then ironed and starched, then cut using rotary cutters and rulers. Very precise when you do it that way. Keep measuring and checking the edge of your fabric for square as you make strip cuts of fabric. After piecing the top, I decide how to quilt. Most of my first quilts were quilted on the old Bernina 830 (not the new one). What a workhorse. It does get tiring muscling a queen size quilt through the machine. Get bicycle leg clips to keep your unquilted parts in a roll and easier to handle. After quilting and binding, the quilt gets washed in my home wash machine. I would never take it to a laundromat, who know what the previous person ran through that machine. After washing, it gets an additional spin cycle or two, then air dry in the dryer. Comes out all fluffy and crinkly. I then spend a couple of hours burying loose ends and trimming threads where required. Done quilt.
Good luck, always read what the pattern instructions say, then really think about it. If a quilt designer says first cut 2,754 squares of assorted light and medium fabrics and 4,362 triangles of dark fabric, you know that person has nothing better to do with their life than to cut fabric and sew it together again. There is usually much better ways to get the design that you want.

tim in san jose