Sunday, December 26, 2010

Town Square/Asian Nights

I tried multiple color sets for this project. I thought I had finally decided on one and then discovered that I didn't have enough fabric in a few of the colors as they were fat quarter cuts instead of half-yard cuts. So I headed into my stash - I had already decided this would be one project instead of two - and chose the Asian Nights as I wasn't sure what to do with a square quilt.  I drafted a few color combinations once I settled on this grouping of fabric.

So far I've sewn all of the strips together and cut the pieces for the first small four-patch. 

I've pressed and starched all of the strips.  For the first time, strangely as I would have expected it earlier, I did have some puckering after the strips were starched that didn't show up before I starched and pressed again.  At this point it is not a crisis as I was able to straighten it during the cutting, and it isn't too noticeable.  One obvious culprit may be using too much starch and really saturating the strips rather than lightly misting.

For this project, I'm using Niagra heavy starch in a pump bottle.  I've been experimenting with different brands, though I did pick up a gallon of Best Press to refill my bottles once I run out of the other starches.  I do like the pump bottles over the aerosols.

2 comments:

Mary Ann said...

I have been using "Best Press" starch. It's not very heavy, but smells great...what's the best one you've tried so far. I have an aversion to Heavy Faultless, too.

Kirsten said...

I like the Heavy Faultless in aerosol and the one in the black pump bottle (don't recall if that is "heavy" or not). I've also tried the Heavy Niagra, but don't like the smell.

My go-to is the Best Press, unscented and I now have the gallon bottle sitting under my table.

Cheers, K