Thursday, March 23, 2006

News Flash!!
Longer Bigger Cheaper!
Not a Male Enhancement Joke!
Another source for teflon pressing sheets has just reduced their prices. http://www.valeriehearder.com/supplies.htm
And now a bit of an explanation about the pressing sheets vs parchment paper. First read this.
I used the parchment paper in my class on Saturday and it worked great for the Bad Wonder-Under. We peeled off the fusible and laid it on our fabric, covered it with the parchment paper and fused on the stuff. Then it peeled off beautifully, just like good Wonder-Under paper should be doing.
However, when we worked all day with the same piece of parchment paper, it got dried and crinkly and was pretty much more trouble than it was worth. The wrinkles transfer to the fabric and then it isn't so nice.
Now, to the uninformed a bit of an explanation: We are working with fused fabric and no base fabric. We are cutting the fused fabrics and overlapping edges to form seams. The whole quilt top is made this way and there is NO BASE FABRIC AT ALL. It is all fused onto the release paper or in this case, the parchment paper.
Sure parchment paper is cheap. But teflon sheets are PERMANENT. They will outlast us, the dinosaurs and the cockroaches. They stay smooth and release the fusible perfectly forever.
Now that I have two entire bolts of the bad stuff, and still have not received the promised good stuff from the company, I am set to keep the bad stuff and just use the teflon sheets.
In the meantime I have decided
this is a good thing.
You may have noticed that I save everything, including the paper I peel off when I fuse. It is rolled up everywhere I can hoard it. Recently I have been bringing it to my workshops, just in case, and it was all put to use.
Now there is OPEN SPACE where it used to be stashed. With the advent of the Bad W-U, I now have LEARNED to throw out the paper. Amazing!
Since the appearance of the bad W-U, I have begun hoarding many varieties of teflon sheets, which I purchased to bring to my workshops for my students to use, just in case, I have also found that in their enthusiasm and excitement, they have inadvertently sliced right through the teflon sheets.
All of them have at least one large swipe of a slice.
From now on, I am selling them to the students, and saving myself the heartbreak of discovering the ruined sheets when I pack up.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:52 AM

    He, he....I have a table in my studio covered with that silver, heat reflective stuff for an ironing surface and then I lay the rotary mat over it....yep....have cut the ironing cloth....

    But, thanks for the info- I just ordered some of that teflon stuff from Val.

    teri

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  2. Anonymous5:07 PM

    Do you know the source of the bad Wonder under? The bad stuff we just got was from Wal Mart but the bad stuff we got this Jan was from a quilt shop.
    I tried the cold thing by putting my fabric in the freezer. Still a mess but salvagable.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:43 PM

    I took the WU back to the quilt shop where I bought it and they tried it out and immediately saw what I was talking about. Thanks for the tips and hopefully the Misty fuse I bought will be good. haven't had a chance to use it yet.Dee

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was at JoAnn's yesterday. They sell the teflon pressing sheets by June Taylor Clark. I got one with my 40% coupon. If your local JoAnn's doesn't carry it, try the online JoAnn's and use the coupon.

    Rosy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous3:09 PM

    Wow, so there's Bad W-U. I thought it was just me and was SOOO frustrated. Thank you for vindicating me!

    ReplyDelete

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