Best/cheapest way to clean an iron - I keep several used(clean) dryer sheets and run a hot iron over them. Cleans the iron really well.

I'm taking a year long class (meets once a month) on a beautiful applique quilt where it's raw edged and we use our decorative stitches and paper backed fusible. What color thread we use is up to us. The instructions have suggestions but since everyone has a different machine not all stitches are available to everyone.

Some of the applique we go right along the very edge of the applique and some we go equally off the edge like a feather stitch on the leaves - I chose a darker green than the fabric and it turned out really nice.

We are also using a new product called Batilizer which is a very thin batting but gives a good support for the stitches. We cut a 14" block of battilizer and a 14" square of background fabric and use our decorative stitches to quilt a one inch grid on the background fabric then trim to 12 1/2 inch square. We can use a matching thread or a contrasting thread. One lady is using variegated thread - looks amazing. Everyone is using different fabric, same pattern, but they all look different and beautiful.

Our instructor has assured us that we can still use regular batting when we sandwich the quilt together that the battilizer does not create a problem with bulk.

Heat & Bond LITE is similar to Steam A Seam II (i think that's the name) I bought my Heat & Bond lite on a roll. I use contrasting thread for hand applique. Like purple on orange, red on blue. All buttonhole stitch. I'm doing a West of Baltimore quilt now - raw edge & quit using Heat & Bond - makes it hard to hand stitch thru several layers. I use Frey Check (flexible) around the edges to keep it from fraying.