Preparing your Cotton Fabrics




If there's one rule of quilting which I do not break it's, "Always pre-wash your fabrics". I know this is a frustrating step, especially when you've just gotten back from the fabric store with all your goodies and you're psyched up to get a project done. Whenever I buy fabric it goes straight to the laundry room first. This way I know all my stash fabrics are already washed.

I wash in hot water, like colors and use Retayne Color Fixative. I dry on hot too. I want to make sure that my fabrics aren't going to bleed or shrink. After this initial washing I never wash things in hot again, only cold.
I've seen the recommendation in a few places now to either serge the raw edges or use pinking shears to reduce fraying during the pre-wash. I don't have a serger, but I was curious whether pinking shears would help prevent those big tangles of fabric. So here are the before and after photos of my experiment. I got myself a pinking blade for my rotary cutter and gave it a try on a few new fat quarters.(Thanks for the origami cranes Kathleen!) It only takes a minute with the rotary cutter and I was pleased with the results out of the washer. Is there still fraying? Yes, you may still have to trim here and there, but I didn't have any big wads of fabric to untangle. I haven't washed the batiks in the picture yet, but I think those will do even better than the others since they have a tighter weave. Give it a try!

It's A Wrap by Susan Breier

Its a WrapI was in Quilter's Stash and saw a fascinating fabric basket. Not the Timtex stuff we've all seen, but one that looked like a coiled pot. They teach classes on it and the woman said that in one of the classes a student spontaneously burst out saying, "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!! I've never had this much fun sewing!" I didn't take the class, but I did buy the book, It's a Wrap: Sewing Fabric Purses, Baskets, And Bowlsby Susan Breier. The basic concept is you take strips of fabric and wrap it around cotton clothesline. You then start a little coil and then zigzag stitch it around and around on your machine. The instructions made it sound straightforward and the pictures are great so I couldn't wait to get started.

I didn't have any clothesline on hand nor could I find any at Michael's, Joanns or Home Depot, so I decided to give it a try with some old cotton piping I had in my sewing junk drawer. I've been working on organizing and pre-cutting my scraps into strips and squares so I had lots of fabric strips on hand. While watching TV I wrapped strips around the piping gluing every so often to keeps things together as she suggested. I was using Sobo Fabric glue which I had on hand and managed to cover my fingers in glue. fabricbowls001I'm sure there's a neater way, but no worries. Next day I set to work on sewing it together. I was a bit skeptical as to whether I could fit this rather bulky stuff under the presser foot. After a little bit of jimmying to get it under there initially, I found it fed through easily once I got started. And then you start going around and around. And you see the magic start to happen as this basket forms in front of you. I can completely understand the student's outburst. I was pleased as punch with how easy and fun it was to make this pot. Even using completely random scraps I love the finished results. Then the brain starts going...I can make a cat basket....I can make bags for everyone for Christmas...I could make a rug for the kitchen. Isn't this what a good craft book is all about? Clear instructions and a fabulous result that inspire you to expore your creativity.

fabricbowls002 So I explored. I tracked down some cotton clothesline online at Erica's. When you wrap the clothesline you have a raw fabric that spirals around on it so you do get some fraying stuff. I decided I'd try folding it over so I had a double layer and a neat edge. To keep the bulk down I only folded it down about a 1/2 inch so that I'd only have three layers instead of four. I also decided to sew the strips together into one long continuous strip. Wow, what a complete disaster. The uneven layer of fabric made things not wrap around easily. And the really long strip of fabric (like 15 yards) and the long piece of clothesline, well they're not easy to wrap around each other without creating a very large twisted up mess. I wrapped about a foot of it before I gave up.

A few weeks later I sat down at the machine with the book nearby and began again. This time I used 22" strips that were 3/4" wide and only glued/wrapped a few lengths at a time as I sewed it together. Very easy. I also applied the glue with a small paintbrush and it kept my fingers much less gluey. Using the clothesline also produced a much nicer end product than the piping. I could only follow the directions so far and tried a custom handle technique and was pleased with the results. Next day I tried one more time with the remaining strips I'd cut. I went back to the "wrap the whole piece of clothesline before sewing" method. I have this efficiency thing and I just don't want to sew/wrap/sew/wrap/sew/wrap. What I learned from the earlier disaster was you just can't use a long continuous strip of fabric, small strips are much easier to deal with. The book recommends doing the wrap-as-you-go so you can match up when the fabric changes along one spot up the bowl. Sure, it looks nice, but I just am not that picky and think it looks fine if it changes randomly.

It took me an hour and a half to wrap 17 yards of clothesline with fabric. It took me half an hour to sew the bowl on the machine. Just love the results. One thing I learned - this takes a lot of thread - I went through three bobbins on the smaller bowl, so wind yourself a few in advance and make sure you've got plenty of spools on hand. I feel more comfortable with the process now and know it will be a great outlet for scraps. I'll post more bowls as I make them. Thank you Susan Breier for a great technique and a wonderful book.

Update: here are two more of my clothesline wrapped projects:
The Blue Bali Bag
The Bali Catnap Bowl

Craftster.com

Craftster is a great forum for crafters of all sorts. If you ever want some inspiration go here and click the link for "Recent with Pics". I check in here daily. They also have great challenges, swaps - you never know what you'll find really. I got a very silly T-Shirt from them with a picture of skull and scissors that says, "Quilt Fast, Die Warm". It was a big hit at the guild getaway weekend. Craftster was started by a Bostonian named Leah Kramer who owns Magpie in Davis Square and is an organizer of Bazaar Bizarre which is the most awesome craft show.

Butterfly signature quilt

Butterfly signature quilt This quilt was Peter's great-grandfather's and was made for him by the women of his church in Saskatchewan as a going away present. All the names of the churchmembers are hand embroidered. Though there are a few stains and signs of aging, the colors are still absolutely beautiful and the back is a bright yellow. I think it's a beautiful design for a signature quilt, and would be easily adaptable if you used a different applique motif.

A Slice House

IMG_0156 This is a project I made with seven other members of the Thimble Pleasures Quilt Guild. Each of us got a photo of our house blown up, then divided it into eight sections. Everyone got a section of everyones' houses. You then tried to recreate the photo in fabric. The owner of the house then got the eight pieces back and put them together, quilted it and added a border and binding.

It's was really quite amazing to see how magically the pieces all came together. If you visit my flickr photos you can see the other slices houses.

Amy Butler Bag

clutch I made this bag for an online contest given by Amy Butler. The rules were to make a bag that was inspired by Amy Butler Designs. I was so proud of this bag. I designed the pattern myself. The concept of the quilting and binding construction I saw in the book 21 Sensational Patchwork Bagsby Susan Briscoe. This definitely made putting it together easier (note I did not say easy). I took a sheet of paper and made myself a model of how the clutch would fold. Then drew my marking lines on it. Started playing with the fabrics - so much fun to play with all those luscious patterns! There were a few mishaps and miscalculations, but overall I had a blast making this bag.

I woke up one morning thinking about how I was going to make a handle for this bag and came up with the idea to make it convertible from a wristlet to a strap. My friend Elizabeth and I were completely obsessed checking the site daily for new entries. To our disappointment, neither of us won. My fatal flaw was not taking into account that Amy loves oversized bags. Oh well, I love my little bag and it was great fun to see so many fantastic bags, ideas, and inspirations in the hundreds of entries.

Go Sox!

IMG_0301 This is a pair of Boxers I made for the 'Fighting for a Cure' display for the Thimble Pleasures Quilt Guild show. Donations at the display went to Prostate cancer research. The title was, "Only in Baseball can a man with four balls walk." I dedicated them to my father who is a Prostate cancer survivor (and unfortunately a Yankees fan).

Last fall I found the pattern, 1st Choice Boxers by Timber Lane Press and made a test pair for Peter. They came out great and the pattern is really nice. I don't have a serger and this pattern uses flat felled seams so the boxers are beautifully finished with no raw edges (which is not the case with your standard Butterick pattern).

I was so elated with the results that I decided that all the men in our families were going to get a pair from Christmas. (Why do I do these things to myself?) I briefly (ahem) considered whether this type of gift was appropriate, then said, sure, what the heck. Had so much fun finding silly fabrics for all the recipients - like baseballs, candy canes, hot peppers, skulls, military - good stuff.

The Pig Hat

gail Peter's mother collects pigs. Or rather, people (including myself) won't stop giving them to her. I found this adorable fabric at the Franklin Mill Store and couldn't resist it. I got the pattern from McHats. It came out so cute! And so easy to make! Definitely going to be making more hats.

The Saab Quilt

IMG_0149 This is a redwork style quilt I made for Peter to go in the back of his 1968 Saab wagon (aka Ole Blue). Here it is hanging at the Thimble Pleasures Quilt Show.

It features a few Saab logos, drawings of cars, and the Saab Troll. There's an old Saab ad that says, Made in Trollhattan by Trolls and features this guy. This quilt has travelled cross country and kept Peter warm on various Saab-o camping trips.