Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Elmer's! Who knew!

Besides Sharon Schamber that is! Dearest quilters, my life is forever changed as a quilter. Why, you ask? Because I don't have to pin ever again and I can still be deliciously accurate and play with Elmer's School Glue, just like my youth.
In my class with Sharon Schamber we used Elmer's School Glue Gel (regular works, but gel is better and also notoriously hard to find) to put our whole Piecelique project together before sewing even a stitch. She mentioned that she used ESG (Elmer's School Glue) to glue together everything before she sewed. I didn't think much of it at the time, but this past couple weeks, in my streak of finishing, I've been putting on a large amount of pieced borders and I'll be damned if ESG isn't the best notion I've ever used in my life!
You just run a thin line of glue along the edge of your fabric, lay the other fabric on it, heat set it with your iron and voila it holds better and more accurately than pins and you can ease and stretch with more 'ease' (haha, listen to my wit) than you would believe! I eased 6 inches into a pieced border and it lays flat! Glue is my hero! Don't forget to heat set though or it won't work. The best part is that it all washes out so if you get it all over your quilt, it doesn't matter! Washable glue! Oh joy! The other awesome discovery I made is that if you get it all over your iron, it doesn't matter, not even a little! I ironed WHITE fabric right after smearing gobs of steaming, oozing hot elmer's all over my iron. A few white flakes was the only repercussion! Amazing. After many glued borders I now have some sort of fossilized brown crud on my iron, but no matter how I try, it doesn't transfer to my fabric.
Anyway, had to share. I'm experimenting with glue for mitering tonight and will report on results before retreat this weekend.
Happy gluing!

No comments: