dmwseattle

I am new to sewing, quilting and embroidery. I have the AGD (Anita Goodesign) Prayer Garden Disk, muslin and interfacing but I have a couple of questions and before I email AGD, I thought I would ask the questions here to see if anyone can help me. I hope I am doing all of this "posting" forum questions correctly. I have never tried to "chat" or "post" on any message board or any sites before, so if I am doing something wrong, please let me know.

Question 1: AGD suggests Ultra, Whisper or Armo weft interfacing to fuse permanently onto the muslin. I found Ultra Weft, but the instructions on the Ultra Weft says it is not washable. Has anyone used this interfacing before and then washed the item? I guess I wonder why they would use that kind of interfacing if it would make the quilt "dry clean only" Or is that (dry cleaning) the way I should clean my quilt anyway? I would prefer to use this quilt when it is done and it would be a lot easier to be able to machine wash it in the delicate cycle. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Question 2: I could not find instructions on how to trim each individual block. (There are several smaller, odd shaped blocks that you are supposed to sew together to make 16 larger blocks that eventually go together to make the entire quilt). I was planning to preparing the blocks and then piece them into the the separate 16 blocks, but I am wondering how should I trim them? There is an intial outline that the design stitches that shows the basic outline of the block. How far should I trim that down when I am done with that particular block. Do I go by the untimate border size and then add a seam allowance. How do I calculate that. The instructions do not provide anything about how to cut them before you piece them. Its probably something basic that they expect experienced sewers and quilters would already know.

Thank you.
dmwseattle (Marie)