Wow you go girl! I love your enthusiasm!

I use the stuff that you use to clean glass top stoves with to clean my iron. I read it on here and I don't remember who said it but it works great.

try a used dryer sheet on a hot iron. I have an used this method before and it's worked great!!

I don't cut the buttons off old shirts, I just cut the strip of buttons and the sleeve placket with the buttons and pin them together. It takes up more room, but the sets are together. Later, when I sit in front of the television, cut off the buttons and thread them together on big safety pins.

The Goodwill is the place to pick up jeans for making the jean quilts. I bought enough there to make 8 double bed size quilts. I use flannel for the backing and no batting.
But you can sure find alot at the by the pound shopping store . Like you I have to limit my self or the car won't haul it all.
everything goes straight to the washing machine, nevers enters the inside before it's laundried.
Have fun and thanks for sharing you trip there.

Walmart has a good iron cleaner paste, it is by the starch.

Wishing you luck, both with your quilt and getting your iron clean.

I love that you are using the scrap system from Bonnie Hunter. I discovered it a little over a year ago and started using the system. You will certainly enjoy making her quilts. I made a Bricks and Stones quilt from scraps that were in my aunt's quilts. Most of them were from the 50's to 80's. It looks great! I'm working on a spider web from her site. I also made a string quilt. I love being scrappy and doing "economy" quilting.

I have two kitchen garbage can sized bags full of fabric ready to cut. This summer while I'm not teaching school I plan on doing a full day a week or every two weeks just cutting scraps. That should make a dent in the bags. I'm so happy to have a system for scraps. I keep on seeing quilts that I can make scrappy with my stash!

purplepetal i'm in st. louis too. i didn't know there was a goodwill outlet here but i often do not go to the thrift stores because the many different aromas play havoc with my asthma.

good luck with your organizing system. it seems you are off to a good start. i have never deconstructed clothing for a quilting purpose and it hasn't occurred to me to buy clothing for the purpose of quilting though i know many quilters do. i am one who repurposes my clothing by taking it to a resale shop or dropping it off at a thrift store. i have some clothing now that i need to rehome but perhaps i will take another look at them and see what real favorites in the bunch i can cut up and put into my quilts. for removing the buttons i wonder if using one of the eyebrow razors would be easiest to slice them right off. i have many buttons and they are in large tackle boxes (and some plastic bags and a vase:)). i use to collect them but never thought to cut them off clothing. oh well.

on cutting up fabric, i have spent the last 2 weeks cutting fabric squares from 2.5" to 5". for the 1.5" i have found it more useful to cut these into strips. i am working on 2 postage stamp quilt projects and i started out by cutting 1000's of 1.5" squares. after sewing 1000's of these together, experience has taught me it is better to strip piece them so now i have 100's (if not 1000's) of 1.5" strips. my 2 quilts will use 20,000+ squares so i anticipate using all of those strips.:) as for the other squares, i am finding it easier to just grab cut up squares to start on a project. there are specific quilts i had in my project notebook that i cut all the squares for and they are in zip bags waiting on their turn.

regarding your iron, from my garment sewing days i learned to always use a pressing cloth. sewing clothing you work with a lot of interfacing and it can gum up an iron quickly. i always had a tube of hot iron cleaner handy but using a pressing cloth works. i don't use spray starch for quilting, it bothers my asthma (the flourocarbons) but i imagine a pressing cloth should also help with this or perhaps letting the fabric dry before pressing it would help. but certainly replacing gummed up irons can be an expensive venture.:D find a cleaning/preventive measure first.:thumbup:

quilting is a journey and a wonderful constant learning experience. for as many quilters as there are, they are at least that many different techniques to arrive at the same place. opinions will vary. as you experiement, you will find the techniques that work best for you. tips are invaluable. some you will find that you really need to jot down for future reference. for example, recently i saw on a blog a quicker way to do triangle corners using blue painter's tape. the standard way is to draw a diagonal line on the back of the square and sew down that line. well i have 2 projects on tap that are using 100's of triangle corner blocks and i really did not want to draw that many lines. the tip was to line up a piece of painter's tape on your sewing machine in line with your needle and guide your fabric along the line. 250 triangle corners later it works like a charm. i kept measuring to make sure i was on the diagonal and yep i was. see pics.

good luck with your quilt journey and perhaps we can catch up with one another in st. louis. i hang out sometimes with the modern quilt guild, meetings in richmond heights. and i met a wonderful quilter this past weekend (i bought a sewing machine from her) who hangs out at bits & pieces quilt quild and jackman's (lqs) monthly quilting ventures. i hope to see you around.

mary
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While picking your pounds of fabric, don't forget the 100% cotton sheets, bedskirts, pillowcases and curtains!!! Great for quilting and much easier to deconstruct than clothing.