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Q. TIPS
Quilt Tips, Quick Tips, Quirky Tips . . .
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CLICK HERE to download a recipe to make your own Laundry Soap.
No added fragrances, no phosphates, low sudsing...
and about ONE CENT per load.
YES, ONE PENNY PER LOAD *********************************************************
If you print quilt labels from your computer, you can add a
personal touch by tracing or drawing over the printed label with
Pigma pens or add simple embroidery.
Use those fancy stitches on your machine and specialty threads
to create a unique label border!
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If you are making a friendship block quilt and are mailing fabric pieces
to others for their signatures or quotes,
Iron the fabrics to be signed onto freezer paper first.
This stabilizes the fabric for writing on, plus it will keep the ink from
soaking through and creating a stain when they write.
The fabric will stay crisp and unwrinkled through mailing.
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Long strips or long pieced borders or sections can be
organized on a folding clothes drying rack.
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When a needle-prick leaves bloodstains on your new quilt, remember this:
Wet a small piece of clean cotton muslin with your saliva and rub it on fresh spots.
The blood spots will disappear.
Your own saliva contains an enzyme that will neutralize the proteins in your own blood.
I follow by blotting with reverse-osmosis-filtered water or distilled water to rinse the saliva.
Minerals and chemicals in plain tap water can actually cause stains.
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MAKE YOUR POINTS:
Traditional Flying Geese Segments
Pink “X” indicates meeting point for sharp triangle points in this Flying Geese segment.
The point is 1/4” in from top edge of segment,
and the horizontal stitching line goes directly through the middle of the joined triangle points.
If you stitch more than 1/4” in, you will cut off the yellow point.
If you stitch less than 1/4”, the two blue triangle points will overlap above the yellow point,
making a gap of blue between the yellow “geese”.
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Here are a few tips for printing on fabric sheets.
You don’t need a super-duper, expensive printer to achieve good results.
· If you have a low resolution photo image, it may look OK on your monitor,
but it will only print according to the resolution or clairty of the image.
Your photo editing software/program also affects photo image quality.
Get your background cropped the way you want it BEFORE you print onto
your fabric sheets to save ink! Learn to use your editing program, and you can turn a
Good photo into a Great one. (Always keep a copy of the original photo.)
· I always open the Utility program (included on your printer installation CD)
and use the “Clean Print Head” utility before switching from paper to fabric sheets.
Your printer might refer to this as “Clean Ink Jets”, or something similar.
Since I began doing this, I rarely have problems with tiny stray ink dots.
· Ink is expensive, but you already know that. If you want space around your
printed image to trim or adjust a seam allowance, you can leave a white edge
around your image. Your printer uses no ink in white areas.
· Protect the feed edges of the printer fabric sheets.
If they become crushed or bent, they may not feed properly through your
printer. If an edge seems to be slightly curled or bent, and doesn’t feed properly,
you can use your rotary cutter & ruler to make a new edge.
Use a GOOD BLADE and carefully trim maybe 1/16” or so,
then try to feed it again. Remember, you have two feed edges, so you might
have luck just turning the sheet around.
· Be sure to load the fabric sheet with the fabric side facing up or down,
specific to however your printer feed works.
· USE GOOD QUALITY INK CARTRIDGES.
Refill ink, reconditioned cartridges, and other non-manufacturer ink cartridges
may be ok for paper, but you do not know what quality of ink you have.
Original Manufacturer inks generally contain finer pigment particles and will print
with greater smoothness and detail on fabric sheets compared with generic..
Cheap inks may clog your print jets, and it’s a good idea to avoid using them.
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