A New Technique in the Quilt World

I spent part of the afternoon yesterday spray starching fabric for a couple projects I'm working on.   I don't know about other quilters, but I like to try new techniques that will make my cutting and sewing more accurate.  I first read about this here on Nicole's blog of Sister's Choice fame.  She's an awesome quilter and I always learn so much from her.  Go on over and read about it.  She heard about it from everyones favorite Moda quilter, Carrie Nelson on her post here. Go ahead on over and read what she has to say as well.  There's not much more for me to add to what they wrote except to say it really works.  I had tried it on one fat quarter the day before.  After the fabric dried and was ironed I cut it out.  Wow!  The pieces were nice and crisp and cut like a dream.

I laid the fat quarters across our patio chairs and clipped them together with those awesome little wonder clips so they wouldn't fly away in the wind.

Then I sprayed the berjabbers out of them.  Yes, that's a word!

I'm trying to use up some of my pre-cuts and I'm working on a jelly roll race quilt.  I had purchased this drying rack at a garage sale ($2 - score!) so I draped and clipped the strip sets I had on it and sprayed away.

Nice and neat and organized.  It was sunny and breezy and took no time for them to dry.

Notice the long grass in the background?  We have a 1/3 acre lot and most of the back is lawn.  We have had a tremendous amount of rain this year and has rained most every day in May.  I fertilized the lawn which made it grow and grow but it rains so you can't mow.  We're just about caught up cutting it though and, hopefully, with a few dry days we can get it all mowed and looking nice again.  I did threaten to borrow my friend's llamas so they could graze it down for me but I don't think our HOA would appreciate it.....

I have two pieces of advise.  First, buy cheap inexpensive spray starch at the dollar store.  You're going to use a lot!  I know, we all love Best Press and it's my go to spray sizing.  However, this is not the time to use it.  Secondly, purchase one of these gizmos that fit on the top of spray paint cans.  They really help your hand and fingers from getting so fatigued.

Some gals at one of my quilting groups were talking about this technique the other day and, on the most part, they thought it was a waste of time.  Of course, they hadn't tried it!  To me, quilting is a growth process.  You need to challenge yourself to try new things.  Anything that makes us a better quilter can't be all bad.  Right?

Let me know how you do.  What have you learned lately that has knocked your socks off?