ManiacQuilter2

Welcome to the board Tom. You will find that even tho we all have the love of quilting in common that we have a variety of opinions on numerous quilting subjects. I use a spray starch but the only items that silverfish seem to like to go after is paper not fabric. But they could have different habits due to the climate. Look forward to seeing photos of your quilts.

piker6ca

May be it,s to cold for silver fish up here lol
I have never seen or heard of them here so maybe there not here.
The starch i,m using is a spray can and called Easy On.
Sorry for to many questions
But thanks
Tom

quilttiger

Elmer's school glue can be used for layering a quilt, to match up seams, to attach binding to the quilt among other uses. Try Googling these words, Elmer's School Glue for quilting. Once the web sites pop up, scroll down a bit and you will see some great websites. There are useful tutorials, too.

Elmer's glue does dry hard, so be sure to wash the quilt before using or gifting it. Also, if doing a wall hanging and it is not washed afterwards, the glue sometimes can show through to front.

I love using it to load on the batting and the quilt top once the backing is put on the frame. I use a very thin line of glue across the back of the top edges for the batting and the top (where they would normally be pinned to the backing). Then they are pressed down (by hand) and allowed to dry before quilting.

Latrinka

Me too, and to make sure all my seams are going to hold up!

piker6ca

That the scary part for me will it all hold up .

maviskw

Don't worry about it. That is if you tension is close to correct. Those seams are so short, there is not much pressure on them. That's why we get away with 1/4 inch seams. And the quilting holds it all in place.

I use Stay Flo starch. I have permanent marker lines on my spray bottle, about 1 inch apart. I pour in Stay Flo to the one inch line, then fill with water to the 5 inch line. 4 to 1. That's 1 part Stay Flo to 4 parts water. Works beautifully. Allow any starch to soak into the fabric a few seconds before ironing for less white flakes. They just rub away anyway, but some people don't like to see them.

And welcome to the world of quilting, Tom. And Bob, too. There are a lot more men on the Vintage site, if you're looking for company.

AZ Jane

DO NOT WASH BEFORE YOU COMPLETE THE QUILT! Sorry to yell but I wanted to make sure you saw it with all the washing information. On my first quilt, I did not know how to machine or hand quilt. Tried to machine quilt a few (not so) straight lines, not good so started hand quilting. I prefer it to anything now. Before you decide how you want to finish and how you want it to look, google beginner hand and machine quilting, there are lots of videos. Also look at "hoopless hand quilting", it's what I like. Have fun and ask a lot of questions. Remember woman LOVE to tell men what to and how to do things LOL!!

FYI, I use starch right out of the bottle! Get mine at Wal-Mart, one of the few local places to carry it!

piker6ca

No i have not washed any thing . Should I was before i start cutting stuff?

love to quilt

Thanks for reminding me about starching before cutting. I'm attempting to make a baby quilt that has a blue sky type background with various colors for kites. The kites have rounded shapes, so I definitely need to starch the material before I cut them. Thanks again. Marge

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