Fraying...any solution?
 

I am new to quilt piecing, and am in the middle of making a queen size quilt. This quilt has 9 squares and fence rail blocks. I am finding that there is ALOT of fraying going on!! I am loving the look of what I have so far, but I am getting concerned about the fraying of all the seams in my blocks. Is there anything that can be done? I actually thought about maybe spraying the back of the quilt with hair spray....but I decided more research is needed instead. Google has been no help, so I am hoping to get some advice from more experienced quilters. Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

You can starch the blocks from the back. This will help some. Try to handle the blocks as little as possible. You will find some fabrics fray more than others. Batik ravels least because of the density of it. A loose woven fabric will fray most. You will be able to tell by feel as you get more experience. Some starch fabrics before cutting.

I've gotten to where I lightly starch before cutting. What you might try is; depending on what kind of starch you use, Iprefer the StaFlo is put a little in a small cup. Use a cotton swab or small flat makeup brush and dip into the starch then run it along the edges. Then let it dry. That should hold it at bay.

What type of fabric did you use? I've never had fabric fray enough to worry about unless I was using homespun or other loose weave fabric.

Hairspray will just make it sticky. Use starch.

Also, for future: wondering if you squared up your fabric before cutting anything. I usually get more issues if I'm working on a bias & sometimes fabrics are wound off-grain so just cutting without squaring things up can result in issues with fraying. It's the reason why I stopped buying any of the larger pre-cuts.

I am using a precut 10 inch squares called Gathering Basket by Henry Glass Fabrics.

I sure didn't square anything up before I cut it. I am making this out of 10 inch precut squares, and had to do a lot of cutting into small squares. Perhaps that is a contributor to my difficulties.

with precuts you shouldn't get lots of fray--did you wash them by any chance? Think that would cause fray.

Some precuts are cut using a zigzag, pinking edge. I find that these tend to fray off little threads at times. Give a gentle starching to areas done and all those pieces you are still going to use. Let them dry without ironing it will stick to the iron.