Review of Lapel Stick and a GIVE-AWAY!! (now closed)

 Hello quilters!

The GIVE-AWAY is now closed!  Thank you to all who entered and congratulations to the lucky winners!

I was lucky enough to be asked to do a review of a fabric glue stick called Lapel Stick.  I have mentioned this product in my Valentines Fabric Postcard blog post to lightly fuse the hearts down and I really liked using it for that purpose; but, I thought that I would try Lapel Stick in a couple of less obvious applications.

First I thought that I would really challenge test this product to see how strong it was by using it to hold my binding down when I bring it to the front to machine sew on the binding.  I was very skeptical that this glue stick would be able to hold the binding down since you really have to hold it with pins or clips.  I applied the Lapel Stick to the binding and then folded it to the front and pressed it down with my hand.

I removed my hands from the quilt and guess what??

 

The Lapel Stick fabric glue was strong enough to hold the binding to the front!!!  I couldn't believe that this glue was this strong!  I then took the quilt to the machine and used a decorative stitch to hold the binding down.  I expected the needle to become gummed up a bit like it does with other fabric glue sticks.  Well, guess what?  The needle was not gummed up at all even after all four sides were stitched down!  I was so pleasantly surprised with this.  The binding remained soft and very nice.  Since this product is water-soluble it will come out in the first washing.  I think I am in love!

I have also tried using Lapel Stick to hold down the sashing strips in my Crazy Short Cut Quilts before I machine sew them down with a decorative stitch.  It worked amazingly well and, again, it didn't gum up the needle at all!  I'll be showing this product to my students in my Crazy Short Cut quilts class for sure!!

 

I next decided to using Lapel Stick to help me miter this border print on my son's quilt top.  I will provide a bit of a mitered border tutorial for you now so keep on reading!!  I sew my borders together - here I am using two borders.  Then I pin them onto the quilt body and sew all 4 sides on stopping 1/4" before the end of the quilt body.  I don't press at this point but I do take the quilt over to my ironing board and tackle each corner one at a time.  Lay out the quilt on the ironing board with the right boarder flat and fold the top boarder up on the diagonal - it will be a 45 degree angle.  Take your time with this step - it will be worth it!

You might want to increase the size of this photo to see the pins in this step.  Since this border print has lots of lines to match up I take my time and line up each of those lines and make sure that they are intersecting properly.  The pins are standing straight up and sticking right into the ironing board.  I do the same thing with the first boarder to make sure that the corners are all lined up.  This step takes a few minutes but it is sooooo worth it to make a spectacular miter.  When the lines are all matched up it really looks like you have multiple borders and it will really enhance your quilt.  Now I know that some of you are probably saying - umm Katrina that's not how you put pins in a quilt!  Don't worry the pins are just holding the position right now and are sticking into my ironing board.

Use your iron and give the areas between the pins a quick press so that you will have a sharp crease in your top fabric.  This step will be important a bit later.

Are you seeing why using your ironing board is so important to the way I miter my boarders?

This is where the Lapel Stick comes in!  I have used other fabric glues at this point that are heat activated and I was never very pleased with how they got really hard and were difficult to sew through.  I was very excited to try the Lapel Stick here.  I use my finger to lift the top fabric up between the pins and dab a bit of the fabric glue in the areas between the pins.  The Lapel Stick really holds the fabric in place.

 

Next remove the pins and take the quilt top to your sewing machine.  There are now no pins in the quilt top at all.  Starting at your stitching line where you stopped 1/4" before the end of your quilt sew directly on the crease that you pressed in earlier.  You may need to increase the size of the photo here to be able to really see the crease.  It is very visible while you're stitching it and the fabric glue is holding the layers together without shifting at all.  Lapel Stick didn't make the fabric hard at all and it was very easy to sew through.  I was extremely pleased!

 

And Voila!  We have a perfect miter!  The miter is still soft and not hard at all.  This will be easy to quilt through!

You will now miter the remaining three corners one at a time.  Once all the miters are done you can press your borders.

I've been doing my mitered borders this way and have always been pleased with the result - I am even more pleased now that my corners are not hard!  Lapel Stick gets two thumbs up from me!

If you have any questions about this little tutorial feel free to post them here and I will do my best to answer them!

Now for the GIVE-AWAY!!! (now closed)

Lapel Stick gave me two tubes to give-away to readers of my blog!!  This is a great product that I really think every quilter should try.

So now how to enter to win one of these tubes - I think that having two lucky winners will be the most fun here:

For one chance to win comment on this post!  Tell us how you would like to use Lapel Stick.  Please make sure that you are not a no-reply or anonymous poster - I need to have some way to contact you!!

For a second chance to win FOLLOW my blog and add another comment.  If you're already a follower just tell me that you are in the comments and you're entered!!!

For a third chance to win blog about my give-away and come back here and leave another comment telling me where I can find your post.

We'll draw on Friday so get entering and Good Luck!!

Also, come on back tomorrow for my special Valentine's Day Accuquilt Go project post!!!  I love the little project I made for Valentine's Day!!