Pineapple Farm, the beginnings
One of the projects that I brought with me with the great idea that I'd finally be able to sew up the quilt kit is Pineapple Farm by Elizabeth Hartman. I bought the complete quilt kit when I lived in Minnesota (so at least 3.5 years ago) and now I'm finally cutting into the kit.
The pineapples are all on the bias meaning the edges would be super stretchy and there is a ton of Essex Linen in the kit. Given the experience with the North Stars quilt last year, I am starching every last bit of the fabric! I don't normally starch fabrics since I'm pretty careful with cutting and tend to not have issues with bias edges at all. But I know this quilt top will give me issues so I bit the bullet and starched. A few notes on my experience:
- My forearm was sore after using the spray on the starch for almost the entire bottle just to starch the prints. I hadn't even gotten to starching the background fabric yet!
- I didn't have a great place to hang the wet fabric to dry. You don't want to hit the fabric immediately after spraying with an iron because it'll just evaporate off and not incorporate into the fabric.
- I don't think I starched evenly enough with the spray can. There are parts of the fabric pieces stiffer than others.
I did end up with this beautiful set of 6 pineapple blocks. Only 54 more to go. (yikes!) Any guesses on how long this quilt will take me to finish?
So a few questions for those who starch their fabrics. Is there a starch soap that would be easier to use? If so, do you have drying racks set up all over the house?!
Are you a starcher or a non-starcher?
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Married for nearly 48 years and I still learn something new every day! Never thought about letting the starch sink into the fabric after spraying, but then I don’t need to do any heavy duty starching. Although with a project like yours I’d probably buy liquid starch and soak the fabrics in it & hang over a clothes drying rack for a while before ironing or roll up the individual pieces to iron. My mother used to do that with my fathers fatigues & by the time you iron those (after being rolled up), they can practically stand up by themselves.
Oh, those pineapple blocks are pretty! I don’t have any advice on starching, so I’m no help whatsoever1
I don’t know anything about starching, but I didn’t even review this pattern to realize that the cuts are on the bias. I bought the pattern a month or 2 ago because I really like it. It will take me forever, too!
Terial Magic can be used as a dip instead of a spray, but it needs to be diluted with about 3 parts water to 1 part Magic. I expect traditional starch could be used as a dip, too. I don’t think Granny had a spray bottle, but she sure had starch 😁