This is a starch recipe I was given at a recent seminar. Add 1 tbsp corn starch to 1 cup water. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave another minute on high. Add 1 cup cold water. Use in spray bottle. For heavier starch add more corn starch. I haven't tried this yet as I seldom use starch but I do agree that starch is good for some piecing methods.

PosyP wrote:
I think we will need five dark strips and four light strips.

One nine-patch block requires two little blocks with the dark fabric on the outside. So, nine nine-patch blocks will require us to cut 18 of them. Since each is 2.5", multiply 18x2.5 and you get 45". If a strip of fabric (without selvage) is about 40", one set of strips is not enough--you will have to double it (and you'll have a lot left over). So, for this part of the block (the outside part of the block), you will require four dark strips and two light strips. If you can get 45" worth of cuts out of one strip, then you will only need two dark strips and one light strip.

The nine-patch block also requires one little block with a dark center and two lights. Each little block has to be cut 2.5", mut since you only need one for the middle part, multiply 9x2..5 and you get 22.5". In this case you will only need one length, or two strips of light and one strip of dark fabric.

Assuming fabric strips are less than 45" in length, you will need a total of five dark strips and four strips of light colored fabric.

Yes, it would be easier if the .pdf file materialized... and beware... I could be wrong with my math...

Marianne-is-sewing wrote: Starch is not so much a chemical - in that we are all composed of chemicals, as a different way of using a food stuff - corn starch to you (corn flour to me in UK) I know there is references to making up your own - possibly a Diane Gaudinsky (sp?) recipe floating around the forum, if you were to put 'starch recipes' into the search engine it will help, or hopefully Margo will come to our aid.

I am sure the PDF will appear soon - as if by magic. In the meantime I see from the first PDF that there are 9 nine-patch blocks. 5 with the dark in the four corners and 4 with the light in the four corners. Happy quilting everybody.

Just logged in to take a look at the forum. Big wave to everybody - Thank you all for the welcome! Looking forward to working with you
I guess the starch is a personal thing then. I will try both with and without and see how I go. I am generally not keen on chemicals but this project is all about keeping an open mind for me so I will go shopping and see what I can get in the way of starch.
Off to watch the first video and iron my fabric. I have too much choice in the way of fabric so haven't made up my mind yet
Marianne

I've just watch part one, but Laura refers to a pdf that lists how many strip sets to cut, I've had a good look but cannnot find it, only the introductory pfd, which lists the basic requirements but not the cutting instructions. Will check out with Guru Bob....

Hi Marianne -

Welcome to the site!

I'm like Lorchen on the starching issue. I will use it where I really have to, but avoid it in general because I'm really into the tactile experience throughout the process. I've found that I get unhappy while piecing if my fabrics are stiff or feel like they have any chemicals in them, and then I don't enjoy the process as much. Since I don't starch my fabrics for piecing, I notice this most if I happen to be working with fabric that hasn't been prewashed for some reason. My accuracy definitely suffers, but I'm happy with my results and that's what's important to me. So startching, like most other things in quilting, has many answers and they are all right! I love it when there are so many right answers!

I'm planning on working on this quilt and will start later this week. I hope you'll join us because I think we have a fun group working on this together! We will all probably deviate from the instructions in one way or another, but we'll all create something beautiful in the end! And have a great time doing it!!

Nancy

Waving to Marianne! I have asked all sorts of questions in the forum, gone off topic, bored others by showing off my granddaughter and relating details of a family wedding, ......... So far nobody has told me off or kicked me out.

I can fully understand your reluctance/worry about tackling a large project. Every time I want to try out something that is new to me, I make a few place mats. If they turn out well I give them away as gifts, if not I use them here and put plant pots on them. When I started quilting I would not start a very big project until I had done a smaller scale trial run.

About that sampler quilt: I think it's an ideal project for a beginner. You can make the blogs. When you have all your blogs you can lay them out on the floor (or a large table), or pin them to a design wall (or an old curtain), stand back and see if you like what you see. It's quite possible that you may want your quilt to be bigger. Then just add another row or two of blocks.

Just one warning: If you intend to quilt your sampler quilt on your domestic sewing machine, then make sure that you are happy with manipulating that size quilt under the machine. Personally, I quite happily quilt anything up to a lap quilt size myself, but if it's larger I save up and take the 'monster' to a longarm quilter.

I keep saying to myself that I really MUST practice 'quilt-as-you-go', so that the very large quilts are fine on my domestic machine too. But work and life keeps getting in the way. Ah well, when I eventually retire........

Finally starch: I have used it and, yes, it makes my piecing more accurate. But I loooove the feel of soft and tactile fabric, so most of the time I don't bother. And I never starch when the artist in me insists on making some sort of wallhanging that should not really be washed because of the types of fabrics or embellishments used.

twiglet wrote: I didn't say I was going to do it in 1/12 scale, I was just debating whether I was mad enough to try.... or not (nurse I think I need some more dried frogs pills!)

By the way, yes fabric does lose it's stroke-ability when firmly starched, or rather it changes it, but it easily comes out in the wash afterwards and is defintely worth it, in my view.

Renata wrote: At 11.40 at night the lighting is abysmal for decent photos of shades of fabric. I have one more, a yellow, that has a very slight tinge of red, but it is also a bit of a deeper hue of yellow, because I decided to just use up the last of the packet, and it was a bit stronger than the rest of the mixes I had done.

Now I have to try and find what I did with the new roll of egyption cotton that goes with what I have been dyeing so I have some white for the background I snuck it into a safe place......

Marianne-is-sewing wrote: Hi Marianne & welcome to the forum. This is definitely the place to post questions about the Laura Nownes course. As a generality we try to start a topic under the right heading, but once the initial query or announcement has been covered, we do have a tendancy to meander off topic and back again, and we always try to have fun.

I don't remember Sally Collins mentioning starch in her video, but for accurate work I have found that it really helps to control the flex & easing issues that is inherent in fabric.

Look forward to hearing from you again.

Oh Rosemary, don't make us wait... post your fabrics starched and pressed! Do you have any new ones besides the reds?

If you are making up the powder, it doesn't tend to keep too long - a fortnight maybe? before it starts to smell a bit funny &/or go mouldy (don't ask how I know ), that is why I usually only make up a pint & try & use it up fairly quickly.

By the way starching before you cut your pieces is definitely preferable to after, because you can stretch the pieces out of shape if you starch it after cutting your lovely triangles etc. This came up in a discussion I had with Jenny Rayment at last years Great Northern Quilt Show & she was saying that previous students had done this and then wondered why things didn't fit together so well.

I now have a nice pile of starched red-orange fabrics....... and a gunged up iron because I was too impatient to wait for tomorrow for them to be dry I really do recommend that you do as I say, not as I do, especially in this instance

Hello, Marianne and welcome to the Forum. I've only done one of the blocks in the sampler before and have never done sashing, but I cannot imagine it being very different from the method used for attaching a border. In any event, my plan for this class is to learn as much as I can and I have found that so many are more than willing to help on the Forum, whether it is regarding a class or anything else, for that matter.

As for starching, I have found it very useful to starch and press my fabrics before cutting--it really makes the piecing a lot easier for me with a stiffer seam to negotiate under the sewing machine. When I use the method Rosemary describes, I always use steam, as she does. However, when I simply starch as I go along, as Rita describes, I often do not use steam; the dampness of the starch is enough for me, but I will put my iron on the linen setting (one hotter than the cotton) and I spray starch one side of my fabric but turn it over and press from the non-sprayed side so that the starch will find its way into the fibers of my cotton fabric rather than the iron. When I finish pressing one side, I spray the side I just pressed with starch, flip it over and press the other side. This also keeps the white flakes of starch from appearing on the fabric.

I look forward to seeing more of you on the Forum and hope you will post the sampler in the show and tell portion of the Laura Nownes classroom. That way we will all see each other's work and even get ideas from one another!