Carpenter Star – Cutting the Fabric

I ran across Sharon Schamber’s tutorial on flake-free starching a couple of months ago and decided to try using it on this project. So far, I’m very pleased with the results.  It definitely made cutting multiple layers easier and more accurate.  I did find I only needed to starch each fat quarter 3 times (versus her five). I’ve already gone through one can of Niagara’s Heavy Starch. I’m now trying the more cost-effective measure of mixing my own. I mixed together 1 cup of Sta-Flo concentrated liquid starch with 2 cups of water in a spray bottle. It works just as well and is considerable less expensive! So far, fraying is almost non-existent. It will be interesting to see if that holds true when I start assembling the top.

I received my background fabric in 2 cuts: a 3-yard section and a 7-yard section. According to Electric Quilt I should have 1½ yards left when I’ve finished cutting my background squares. I stopped after using up the 3-yard section to piece my border blocks. Today I will finish cutting the 6½ inch and 7 inch squares.