Just finished starching my binding like Sharon Schamber does. Now - tell me how you girls clean the starch off your iron. In the past I have used a baking soda paste rubbed on the iron. But, I end up with the soda paste in the steam holes, it dries hard, have to TRY to pick it out with a toothpick, get aggravated :evil: - see where I'm going? So - tell me - what's your magic trick?

Piedmont Quilter
Rebecca

Glad you posted this question as I was going to use starch to stiffen the back of the quilt I'm making. Wonder if I would encounter the same problem when ironing the back after starching.

I use Faultless Hot Iron Cleaner on my iron. But, this is to clean residue off, not sure if it would take paste off.

I don't know if it will work for starch because I haven't had starch stick to my iron but SALT works on a scorched iron plate. A trick from my mother years ago...sprinkle salt on a newspaper and rub the hot iron in the salt to remove burn and scorch marks. Make sure you turn the steam off or empty the water out first.

Seems to me that someone said to iron a dryer sheet, and that would take off the build up.

I've used salt, sprinkled on paper, then rub iron in it, to remove applique stickem from mine. It would seem like it would work for starch too?

I have a teflon iron cover similar to this one.
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp;jsessionid=PKLFCG2PD2ZG0P4SY5LVAFJ50LD3UUPU?CATID =cat2955&PRODID=prd3110&_requestid=959148

I have it on the iron all the time, it's great for ironing any fabric. No fabric melts or gets shiny, and nothing sticks to it.

If you use a dryer sheet, make sure it's a used one. A new one will make an even bigger mess.

Twistedstitcher, this wasn't my question, but thanks for that tip on the iron cover. I don't have the starch problem (yet), but I bought a Black and Decker, old style iron that I LOVE because it gets really hot (my old iron was so-so for cottons), but it has really big holes in the sole plate that catch on seams. Plus it has just a stainless steel sole plate that sticks a little. I'm gonna have to get me one of those covers! I'm all excited now - gonna have to go to Joann's and see if they have one in stock! :lol:

I have waited until the iron is totally cool and used water and a Chore Boy to remove build up.

The way that I use a dryer sheet, is to take a NEW one, get my iron nice and hot. Place a piece of scrap fabric on a pressing surface, put the dryer sheet on top of the scrap, at one side. Now, take the hot iron run over the top of the dryer sheet and directly onto the scrap of fabric. A (new) dryer sheet has something in it that gets very slick when heated up. This will sort of pull the stuff off the iron and onto the scrap of fabric as you pass onto it.

Works great.

Here is a video Sharon Schamer did on a more involved cleaning:

http://www.beginningquilter.com/vide...ron/index.html

This works for me, and yesterday I did something else.
I was fixin to iron on something white-white, so I looked at my iron...ugh...
ding, ding, ding,..idea,...I had been ironin on applique pieces, and alcohol removes sticky stuff...
don't use alcohol on your fabrics though, can remove the ink!...
I got out my glass cleaner, and sprayed it onto a paper towel,
-----------------------------NOT-----------------------------------------
directly onto hot iron...
think this could be dangerous, (flammable)...
used to work in a hospital and a lady died from spraying near her stove, while on....
ANYWAYS,...it worked like a charm!. All gunky stuff came right off! :D
you might want to just test a small area, to see if this is good for you, but it worked so well for me...i did the baking soda mess, and the pot scrubber mess, in the past...I will stay with dryer sheets, and now, the paper towel with the glass cleaner sprayed on it. :D

I bought something at Hancock Fabrics, sorry I can't remember the name of it. Anyway, it's made to clean all the gunk off of the bottom of your iron. You use it on a HOT iron. I cleaned mine with it and it looked like new when I was done. I need to do that again, hope that I can remember where I put it. :?

I bought a package of BoNash Iron cleaing sheets last year at a quilt show. One sheet has lasted me all year and there are 10 sheets in the package. It removes everything even fusible.

Thanks girls for all the wonderful ideas. Just cleaned my iron ~ tried most of the ideas ~ the salt did the trick. Think I'll still buy the teflon plate to avoid this in the future.

Thanks again!
PQ

One tip I can share that prevents starch build up on your iron, is to spray the BACK of your fabric, flip over let it soak it soak in a little then iron on the front side :D

I sent a post to you a few days ago, but just remembered another hint on how to clean your iron. I use a wadded up piece of wax paper, especially after I iron my fabric for quilting. It's amazing how much color from the fabric sticks on the iron. Wax paper seem to do the trick without leaving a wax residue on the iron.