Cheesehead

Chasezzz, that is just spectacular!!!

Lstew2212

I am loving every bodies finished Mysteries. Hope to finish mine this weekend. It is supposed to be raining all weekend, makes for a good sewing weekend

AnngelAnne

This is going to sound like a stupid question after all these years, but hey, I kept hoping someone else would ask and I would not have to.

How do you pre wash, or wash fabric so that it doesn't get all stringy on the edges. I seem to lose so much material that way, plus all the time it takes to untangle. Thanks.

Carol in WI

Chasezzz - your quilt is beautiful and I love the way you did your borders. I may want to copy that on mine. We are having rainy weather here too, so it will be a good day for sewing.

Judy, you are very welcome for the fall prints! I hope your daughter enjoys the table runner.

I love seeing all the finished blocks ~ thank you Judy for another great mystery.

Macybaby

Anngel Anne, I don't worry about that. I wash on gentle so it's not beat to snot, then take them out and pull off any really long thread globs. I've found when the thread is wet, I can break them without a mess, so I stopped using scissors. Sometimes I'll have quite a handful after washing if the fabric was cut off grain, and sometimes I'll have very little. I don't wash precut strips, but do wash layer cakes and charms.

As I am taking the fabric out of the dryer, I take out one piece at a time and make sure it is fully open and not twisted before tossing in the dryer. I have a pretty large washer without a center agitator (works better than when I had the old one with the agitator) and can wash 10-14 yards of fabric at one time (this is most oftem 3-4 peices, though I do color sort). I think the largest I did was 10 yards of extra wide backing as one piece. That was a lot to untwist out of the washer, and I did have to unroll it a couple of times during the drying cycle. I have DH help me fold the big stuff up - glad I have enough room in the house to do that.

I buy mostly for my stash so loosing a bit isn't a problem. I loose very little to fraying, I "loose" way more to shrinkage. I prefer to wash out excess die and other processing chemicals before I handle the fabric. I don't use starch as I prefer to work with soft fabric. I sewed lingerie for several years so bias or stretch is not an issue for me.

I dry until just dry. Some driers don't have an actual low heat setting. My old dryer had hot/cook/incinerate even though it was labeled Cool/Medium/Hot. I toss a nice big cotton towel (dry) in with the fabric as it seems to dry with less wrinkles that way. I take it out immediately and fold it. That helps to smooth out wrinkles. Unless I have something really bad, I don't iron until I am going to use the fabric. With lower heat, short dry times and the towel, I rarely have wrinkle problems.

BTW - I rough fold out of the washer, but I do make sure I get the center fold correct and the fabric laying smooth. Then as I have time I unfold it (not the center fold) and ruler fold it to put in my stash. When I am ruler folding, I'll trim off any longer threads that are still hanging off the edge.

Dsenters

Very lovely, Chasezzz. The kaffee fassett fabric really sets it off beautifully. Also, love the lime greens in there.

paintmejudy

How do you pre wash, or wash fabric so that it doesn't get all stringy on the edges. I seem to lose so much material that way, plus all the time it takes to untangle. Thanks.
take a snip off each corner before washing. It helps a lot. Don't know why

Carol in WI

Help ~ I really liked the fabric used for the sashing, but now with it added to the border it just seems too dark or too wide at least. Here are pictures with it wider and then narrowed down a bit. What do you think....should I just use something brighter as are in the center blocks or ??? As you can see, I apparently don't do scrappy well and it gets a bit too controlled.

dotcomdtcm

Well, about my top... I did not realize washing the unquilted top in the washer would create a thread disaster on the back. Big, big mess. Now I know never to do that again!!!

Macybaby

Carol, my first impression of the one with the wide border was "wow, I like that!"

But with the narrow border, my reaction was "what is that red doing there?" I think it's due to the widths of the borders and having the widest border next to the blocks seems out of balance to me. I'd prefer that one without the red, though I love it in the wider border.