quilt help - starch??

[puppydavies]

anyone use starch for quilting/patchwork/applique? how do you do it and get it even?

i get most of my info from american sites and they're full on for their starch, but spray starch is really expensive and i've tried mixing the powder but it went really clumpy. in the us they have concentrated liquid starch (i think?) but i can't find that here.

also i've heard various tales about bugs eating your quilts, scorching and colours fading and apparently that can all be sidestepped by using "sizing" instead of starch. i can't find that at all here - does it exist or is it called something else?

lol, esoteric questions, i know, i'm not hugely expectant of any replies, but worth a shot

You may have already seen this and it may not answer your question, but perhaps you could ask your question there and see if you get any further...

www.equilters.com/library/tips-hows/starch1.html

Least you got a reply and bumped a little

Gilly

Also this website was advertising on teh above website. They might be able to help you. It's in the uk at least!

www.kershaws-starch.co.uk/buydirect.html

Another article with the reason for using starch

And a UK supplier

I've never used starch (but I'm not a big quilter) but I think if you used decent cotton then perhaps you'll have less movement.

I know you can get a spray that "sticks" layers of quilts together temporarily so that there is less slippage when quilting.

For applique I use Bondaweb to hold the motifs in place while I sew

thanks so much to both of you - the starch supplies site solved all my problems! i followed the mixing instructions on my tub of starch before and ended up in a complete mess. but cooking the mixture as per the instructions on the faq worked a treat. i didn't starch the life out of it like i've seen some people do, but it worked to keep my bias seams stretching out of shape.

thanks again