The Annual Christmas Wish List

Great ideas all. Oh, by the way, I have a lifetime supply of angelina fibre (I'm a fly tyer). Didn't know about the film. Will have to check it out. Thanks. Frank

Do the Martelli cutters take any blade of the right size, or do you need the Martelli blades?

Julia in MN

You need to have blades with a round hole, no "notches" in it like the Olfas have.(The notches cut the screw that holds the blade in. Don't ask. ) The Martelli blades are about the same price as the Olfas and do last longer.

Pati, in Phx

Okay, been looking at the Martelli cutters, and, in the process, I found the Martelli Kwik Bind System.

Thanks, Pati! I thought the photos looked like the blades didn't have notches, so I was wondering if they were different. They do say that the blades will also work in most other cutters.

Julia > You need to have blades with a round hole, no "notches" in it like the

I've seen this advertised for years, but I've never used/bought it. $150 sounds like a bit more than I'd want to pay for a binding tool, when it's so easy to do it another way. But the joy of quilting is that what seems silly to one quilter may be absolute bliss for another.

Do get them some water-soluble thread and also a spool of fusible thread. Those are fun tools; I especially like using the water-soluble on the SM to make a binding be still so I can machine stitch the binding down neatly. Polly

On Dec 3, 5:53=A0pm, "Polly Esther" wrote: L... I especially like using the water-soluble on the SM to

How do you use water-soluble thread to do that? Thanks Bev in TX

Two more nice little gifts. I was just dusting the rubble from the SM and realized there were two more special Special things you might want to stuff in the stocking. I have a sort of flashlight - it's about the size of a ballpoint pen, an LED and the light is on about 3" of something that will bend and flex to get just all over the place in the bobbin area for discovering sneaky snips and gopher guts. The other cheap but VIP is my bottle of oil. Not just any ordinary bottle. This one is made by Dritz and has a very long and flexible snout so you can oil exactly precisely absolutely where you want to. I love 'em both. Polly

Waaaah. Sorry, Bev. I didn't see your question. Water-soluble thread as a help to machine stitching a binding goes this way. After you've stitched the binding on by machine and it's time for the dreaded marathon of handstitching the other edge: You put in a bobbin full of the water-soluble thread. On top goes a thread that's easy to see and (later) remove. White is good. Machine stitch your binding so that it is neat at the corners and even everywhere else. Think of this as basting. Then ! You can remove the water-soluble bobbin thread, change to a different matching or contrasting thread with a fancy stitch and stitch the binding down without any slip-sliding or wandering. The 'white+ water-soluble' forces every inch of that binding to be still and perfect. When you wash the quilt, the water-soluble bobbin thread will disappear and let you take that white basting thread out just quick as a wink. Well... maybe not that quick but really easily. Sometimes, I enjoy handstitching the binding - sometimes there's just not time like when the Yorkie has wet toes and the oven timer is dinging, the phone ringing and well, you know. Polly

"Bev in TX" On Dec 3, 5:53 pm, "Polly Esther" wrote: L... I especially like using the water-soluble on the SM to

How do you use water-soluble thread to do that? Thanks Bev in TX

Polly,

The last time I did a binding, I tried glue basting it (Roxanne's Glue- Baste-It). That worked quite well, as long as I was careful to not get the glue on the edge to be sewn. One does need to wash the quilt to remove the glue, but there are no threads to pick out.

Bev > ...=A0 After you've stitched =A0the binding on by machine and it's time f= or the

Elmer's School Glue can be used too a la Sharon Schamber

or

Julia > Polly,

I bought fusible thread for this purpose, but I haven't tried it yet.

For my last quilt I spray basted the quilt sandwich and did my quilting. Then sewed on the binding, flipped it to the other side and glued it down, hand stitched the binding after gluing. If you get glue on the part to be stitched (can't get a needle through it) dampen/wet it and proceed with the stitching. I washed the quilt and it came out of the dryer all soft and cuddly. I loved the whole process and will do the same with my next endeavor.

I don't remember the name of the spray basting stuff but I used Sharon Shambah's (sp?) Elmer's washable school glue method on the binding. It works great!

Bonnie, in Middletown, VA, where it snowed all day yesterday, but also melted a lot, there is still some left this morning.

I also use Sharon Schamber's glue technique on my bindings these days. It's *so* nice not to have all of those pins poking me and to know that my corners are nice and even before I've done any stitching. This technique also works well when machine stitching the second side of the binding, which I do on kiddie quilts that will get lots of rough use. :)

Yes, that's where I saw using glue :-) when binding a quilt. Thanks for the link.

I bought theRoxanne basting glue for some class that I took and then it sat unused for several years. Somewhere along the line, I ended up with another bottle for another class (I had forgotten the other bottle as it was hidden away some place). I've only used about 1/8 of the first bottle, and it takes so little, that I think I'll be using Roxanne's version for quite a while :-).

I do have problems with the nozzle clogging up, so I purchased Crowning Touch Fasturn Lil=92 Sticks from P3 Designs in order to be able to use it.

Bev > Elmer's School Glue can be used too a la Sharon Schamber

I came across a couple binding by machine videos, that have links on the following web page: