A pressing issue

My friend Susan, who owns the lil' fabric shop known as The Quilter's Block, encouraged me to do a post on fabric preparation. Or, more specifically, how I prepare my fabric for cutting. It may seem a bit more involved than what you are used to, but for me, the benefits far outweigh the time needed. These benefits include ease of handling small pieces and much less fraying.

I'm not going to cover washing fabric, as you can find all you need to know regarding that subject in Harriet Hargrave's book, From Fiber to Fabric: The Essential Guide to Quiltmaking Textiles. In it, Harriet covers many aspects of dye testing including washing in the water that comes out of your faucet. See if your libary has the book or can borrow it via interlibrary loan.

After my fabric is dye tested, washed, and dried accordingly, I tear off a section based on what size and number of strips I'll be cutting. Generally this includes 2-1/2", 2", and 1-3/4" strips. These pieces will be for my fabric library. The idea is to cut for current and future projects that I have floating around in my head. To this measurement I add 1" for trimming allowance.

The fabric section can have a stringy bottom, which I quickly trim off, tossing the trimmings into my scrap basket.

I iron a sheet of freezer paper on to my ironing board to keep the spray from soaking in. It also keeps the cover cleaner so I don't have to wash it so much. Then I spray each fabric section and pin it to my design wall to dry overnight. (This process is assisted by the dehumidifier which runs 24/7.)

When the sections are dry, I iron them straight (as shown in previous post). If needed I re-spray any areas that are not stiff enough.

Here is my next stack waiting to be trimmed in to strips and/or squares. The fabric pieces left over after cutting strips go in to a separate bag for string quilting. The basket holds any pieces too small to use. As the basket fills, I dump it in to a box. When the box is full, it will be donated to an art teacher or to the local humane society thrift shop. There are many fiber artists in this area who make paper, do felting, etc. Someone will find a need for the fiber and it won't go in to the landfill.

The only change I will be making to this process, is switching from canned spray starch (which has jumped 14 cents per can) to spray starch concentrate, which is much cheaper and I will mix up myself. I'll post more on that process soon.

Until then, keep stitchin' . . . .