My foot's in my mouth...or not?

[Lois B.]

I totally agree with Lois and Margo. We used to iron wax paper with leaves between to preserve them. We put a brown paper bag on the ironing surface and on top of the wax paper to protect the iron. The wax, once melted a bit onto the fabric, would not come off easily. I would not use it for stabilizing. I do however use lots of Freezer paper.

As for Atlanta - I think I can say with confidence, no, we don't think wax paper is the same as freezer paper here.

[Lois B.]

I would have had the exact same reaction to that as you did. Sounds like a really bad idea to me!

[Lois B.]

In the 1960's the girls ironed their hair between two sheets of waxed paper to make it straight, smooth and shiny. I think it left a residue in the hair.

[Lois B.]

I think the wax paper is an old method ... and you use to use it with a sheet of wax then sheet of some kind of typing paper under it to keep it from sticking to the surface. This was before freezer paper existed in it's present form. Our resident quilt expert Sylvia who is over 85 years old gives us mini lessons on quilting techniques from THE OLDEN DAYS. Most of the techniques were pretty much make do get it done type techniques... those were used on utility quilts.. .. Fancy technique were used on wedding and fancy quilts. ....

SIGNATURE QUILTS were made using the stabilizing methods.

Nonnie
.
.

[Lois B.]

Nonnie, Now that makes sense. Get'er done so you use what's at hand. I remember needing to satin stitch a 1/4" strip to a quilt before I knew about fusibles. I scotch taped it in place sewed through the tape and picked out most of the tape with a tweezers. It worked. It's what I had.

[Constance G.]

The verdict: Waxed paper doesn't work. I tried ironing a square of waxed paper on to a square of prewashed muslin, such as I would typically do for making a quilt label. Even on a cotton setting, the waxed paper won't stick to the fabric. I get the sense that some of the wax is being transferred to the fabric, as the appearance of the muslin seems to be changed a little over the waxed paper area. Here's a photo of the product in question for our European friends.

[Margo C.]

Just as we suspected! The question now Connie, is do you remember which shop you were in during your travels where you heard the advice being handed out?

And, more important, will you contact them to let them know your findings? I know that there are lots of different ways to do almost everything in the quilting world, but this is just wrong, and it bothers me that it is being advised as a workable alternative to people who probably don't know better!

[Constance G.]

That's a good idea, Margo...I'll see if I can email them.

Sorry for the upside down photo. Maybe it will look OK to the folks in Australia?!

[Margo C.]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Margo C.]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Norma H.]

That's a good idea, Margo...I'll see if I can email them.

Sorry for the upside down photo. Maybe it will look OK to the folks in Australia?!

That might be the new trend. The other day I got a video from my DIL that showed my grandson doing his first crawling. I nearly fell off the couch when I opened it and he was crawling on the ceiling :roll: :roll: :roll: . Clever boy! :P

We haven't figured out why the computer turned it upside down. It was taken with her iPad. Does anyone know if it has a preferred direction when shooting. I mean the screen is always so you see it right but maybe the camera needs to be hold a certain way.

[Constance G.]

That's a good idea, Margo...I'll see if I can email them.

Sorry for the upside down photo. Maybe it will look OK to the folks in Australia?!

That might be the new trend. The other day I got a video from my DIL that showed my grandson doing his first crawling. I nearly fell off the couch when I opened it and he was crawling on the ceiling :roll: :roll: :roll: . Clever boy! :P

We haven't figured out why the computer turned it upside down. It was taken with her iPad. Does anyone know if it has a preferred direction when shooting. I mean the screen is always so you see it right but maybe the camera needs to be hold a certain way.

My picture was taken on an iPad also. I'm thinking you must be right about the directionality. Guess I need to get back to proofreading my posts!

Norma, congratulations on having a grandson with superpowers! Maybe you should sew him a cape instead of a quilt!

[Constance G.]

Sounds like 'wax paper' in the states could be our 'greasproof paper' in uk, now here is a curious thing I was talking to my Dad the other day about different types of paper, and he mentioned that to make greasproof paper it was dipped in an (acid?) bath which 'melts' the outer surface of the paper and causes it to go translucent & shiny (all the molacules smooth out & join up) and this is what makes it 'grease' proof.

I will give it a whirl & report back. But as Wendy says, I go for the wrappers of reams of copier paper too, unfortunately they are not all suitable as I have found out to my cost

Actually I won't bother to give it a whirl, because now I think about it, greasproof paper is what we use between the iron and bond-a-web to stop getting gunk on the iron. Still I tried it out for something else entirely and it works great for that

[Nancy R.]

So I wonder if your 'greasproof' paper is actually our 'parchment paper' rather than our 'waxed paper'. Our parchment paper works perfectly for keeping fusibles from the iron, but I don't think I would use waxed paper for that (although I haven't tried). Seems like the wax would melt onto the iron.

Nancy

[Margo C.]

Nancy, I think you may be right. Now we need to get John to work on "feel-a-vision"! :lol: