Stuck with Glue

Yesterday I talked about using the Liqui Fuse and today it is show and tell on how I used the Elmer's School Glue to do the borders on this quilt. Don't be afraid to use this glue as it is completely washable even after ironing over it. Learned how to use this glue by watching the videos on Sharon Schamber's web page. She has several applications she uses the glue for and she has won top prizes on her quilts at Houston, AQS in Paducah and others so figure if it works for her I will use it too.

As you can see the finished inner red border is only about 1/4" wide and the folded inserted gold border is less than 1/8". Doing this is not as hard as you might think. To get everything nice and neat I used Elmer's School Glue with a fine tip on the glue bottle. I purchased these tips at Hobby Lobby and found them in the model dept. There were 4 tips in the package for less than $2 so thought that was a good bargain.

To use these tips you need to cut the top 1/4" off the orange part of the screw on top. Just pop the top off the bottle and cut it with a pair of scissors. (Not your good sewing scissors though!) Push the plastic glue tip inside the orange top then put the orange top back on the glue bottle. You are ready to glue with a fine line of glue now. To keep the glue from drying out I use a rubber knitting needle tip to put on the glue bottle between uses. If the glue tip gets a little dried out or if you are having trouble getting the glue to come out of the bottle just unscrew and pop the orange top off and wash it out with water. You might need to take a long needle or pin to pull out any half dried glue if it won't all wash out.

I didn't think to take photos of the different steps as I was making this the other day so made a sample and took photos as I did the borders. For me instructions are easier to understand if there are photos of the step by step process. Be prepared, there are lots of photos to go along with this tutorial!

I cut the red borders about 1 3/4" wide - much wider than needed. I like to have that extra fabric to add stability and it can be easily trimmed off after the next stitching.

I stitched the red borders on the quilt, stitching top and bottom on first then length wise strips last.

I next cut the gold fabric (will be a narrow folded piece inserted between red border and blue border.) This fabric I cut about 1 1/4" wide. It is again wider than it needs to be but is easier to handle and will be trimmed after it is stitched down.

Sprayed the strip with spray starch and pressed in half while it is still damp.

As you can see the starch holds the two sides together which is great. It also makes the strip stiffer and easier to handle. I use spray starch on almost all my fabrics to give them some body so wanted you to know the other borders and the top were starched lightly too.

I laid a ruler on the quilt at the 1/4" mark as I wanted the red border that width.

Next I put a fine line of glue about 1/8" away from the folded edge of the gold strip.

Laid the glued strip up next to the edge of the ruler.

Moved the ruler out of the way and pressed with a hot iron to dry and set the glue. (Don't worry, I used my small iron that was not plugged in for the photos as I thought I might just burn the fabric if I use the hot iron by the time I took several photos of each step)

Glued and positioned both top and bottom strips then the lengthwise strips. I keep the very ends of the lengthwise strips unglued for now.

To finish the corners of the gold strip I folded under each end of the lengthwise strips at a 45 degree angle and pressed then glued and pressed again to hold.

Now on to preparing the outside blue borders. I pressed under 1/4" along one long edge of the border pieces. I like to use this thin metal hem gadget I have had for many years. It doesn't have a 1/4" mark on it but I can eyeball estimate 1/4" and turn it over the metal and press to get a straight edge. Doesn't matter if the 1/4" is not real accurate but you do want it as straight as possible as you will see.

After the initial press over the metal gadget I removed it and pressed the 1/4" again to get a good crease.

I squeezed a thin line of the Elmer's School Glue on the turned under 1/4"

Next I laid the blue border in place - I just eyeball the amount of the gold I want to see and make all the borders the same but you could measure it like I did with the gold strips if you want. I glued top and bottom borders of the quilt on in this step.

Ironed the glued blue border to dry and set the glue. The last step is to turn the quilt over and open up the 1/4" seam allowance that was pressed under on the blue strip. Stitch in the crease - this will attach both the folded strip and the blue border to the red border. Press the borders out to check to make sure it is OK then turn to the back and trim excess fabric from the seams leaving only 1/4". I attached the lengthwise borders in the same way.

This is what it will look like on the back after the excess fabric is trimmed away.

When all 4 borders are stitched on you need to trim the outside border to the width you want to make them all the same size. (This is why you cut them wider than needed to begin with.

Do want to point out that the wild fabric under my project is to protect my ironing surface from the spray starch. I can always tell if I have the fabric down as it is hard to miss it is so bright!

Congratulations if you made it clear to the end of this blog entry. It is a long one to be sure.

Until next time....Happy Quilting

Lynn