When I was a new quilter, I thought success was all about sewing.
I was wrong.
On the back of a Sherwin-Williams paint can I learned a valuable lesson many years ago. It said, “Preparation is the key to a satisfying project.” I think the same goes for quilting.
I do not usually pre-wash my fabric. (We will talk about that another day.) I now know that having REALLY flat fabric is the first step in making a quilt that goes together nicely. Since I keep my fabric in bins, it gets fold lines and wrinkles. The first thing I do when starting a quilt is to spray a pretty decent spritz of Quilter’s Moonshine on the piece of fabric and press it with a hot, dry iron. I used to use a lot of steam, but I kept getting rust spots on my fabric, so now I don’t add water to my iron. If the fabric is a real disaster, I might just soak it with a spray bottle of water that I keep at my ironing station and steam it well before I move to the Moonshine.
If the quilt is mostly strips or squares, I am good to go.
If there are going to be lots of bias cuts, I use spray starch on the fabric and iron it again. I am OK with pretty stiff fabric. It is much easier to sew.
Once the blocks are complete and I am giving the final press from the front, I will use starch or Best Press- depending on my mood. The other product pictured is new, but came highly recommended by a friend. . . I haven’t worked it into my system yet!
Want to try Quilter’s Moonshine? Here is a link to a recipe. I mixed mine a little stronger. . . Isn’t moonshine supposed to be strong?