Janet's Creations

Janet's Creations
Gemma's "I Spy" hexagon quilt

Monday, March 18, 2013

Economical Spray Glue for basting from stuff you have at home :)

I have tweaked a recipe from a member of the Quilting Board forum that I follow.  Mrs. Beasley posted a recipe that I finally got around to trying yesterday, I modified the recipe to keep in step with my cooking style.  The spray glue mixture sprayed easily out of the bottle and had a nice adhesion to it.
So here we go!

3 cups of water
1/2 tsp salt
8 ounces or rubbing alcohol
clean spray bottle


- In a pot place 2 cups of water and 1/2 tsp of salt bring to a boil and reduce to a gentle boil.
- In a gravy shaker (or a jam jar) put 1 cup of cold water and 3 tbsp of flour - shake until the flour and water are combined.
- Whisk the flour mixture into the gently boiling water like you are making gravy and let it cook until the consistency of gravy/egg whites/ thin gruel.
- Remove from the heat and let it cool down to room temperature.
- In a clean spray bottle add 8 ounces of rubbing alcohol and the cooled flour mixture, gently shake and go sandwich a quilt.

*** There was one posting that someone had sprayed a quilt and left for a few months and they had some mold grow.  Since I am not going to leave my two quilts that I sandwiched yesterday that long I can't say for certain that this does or does not happen.  I just wanted everyone to know that this had been reported.

13 comments:

  1. What's your verdict? Do you like this better than the Elmer's glue?

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  2. It is funny that you would ask that question yesterday :) I have done two quilts now using this spray glue, one Warm and Natural and one premium quality polyester. I was very pleased with the home-made spray glue! I did do the sandwiching on my ping pong table and I ironed the layers together as I was in a hurry both times. The quilt I finished last night was a queen size made with a zillion half square triangles and the poly batting and it went amazingly smoothly. I do like it better than the Elmer's Glue; it is easier to squirt a spray bottle rather than squeeze a glue bottle. Pictures to follow.
    Thanks for asking and if I can answer any other questions just let me know.

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  3. Hi, Janet... Thanks for the post! I'm interested in hearing more about your process. How much spray do you use? I tried this recipe, and it worked great in places, but didn't hold well in other places. I thought I'd applied the spray pretty liberally and evenly, so I'm not sure what happened. Ended up pin basting just to be safe. Looking forward to more pics so I can figure out where things went awry!

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  4. I think I might just give this a try. I have two baby quilts I was going to try and use the Elmer's glue method on. Maybe I will try this method on one and the glue on the other.

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  5. Hey Janet! You are too much!!!! Too qood that is!! I just read about this glue recipe on The Quilting Board and I posted a couple of comments. I think I may start a blog myself. I'm inspired by you being a self-taught quilter....me too! I want to share with family quilting, pictures of life here in Redding, CA and recipes! Thanks for sharing the good stuff!!

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  6. Oh Janet, one more thing. I decided to try my my ZipList Recipe Clipper and it worked. It took your recipe and put it in my recipe box! Then I thought I better remove it completely in case someone gets into my recipes and decides to drink the glue.

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    Replies
    1. I have used this so much that I have the formula memorized! I have even added a dollop of Elmer's Washable School Glue to th mix and it works great - I have to use more when using a polyester batting through and I have been ironning as I go along :)

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  7. Sew Ladies, when you use this spray glue, do you spray the glue then iron the top onto the batting, and then spray glue the back and then iron it on. Or do you layer it spray and let dry on it's own? I have never done this way, only have used basting or pins. Thank you so much .

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  8. I made one batch the other day....and then made another batch today...and my spray bottle keeps getting stopped up. How do I correct this? When it cools do I want scrape the bottom of the pan to get all of what has settled there into the spray bottle?

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  9. Flour has different gluten properties - it sounds as though you mixture is too thick, I would heat up some water in a measuring cup until really hot and add it to the mixture you already have, I would try 3/4th of a cup. Are you by chance using whole wheat flour? Nay, I bet you are just using regular white flour :) I do not scrap the stuff out of the pot as I usually am in a hurry and pour it straight in my spray bottle. I hope that helps you out :)

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    1. Okay...I am using white flour...I will not scrape the bottom of the pot. I strained out the bits this morning, hopefully that will solve the problem. So yes this help a lot THANKS!

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  10. Am I supposed to use whole wheat flour or regular white flour?

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    1. Regular flour as it will be coming out of a spray bottle and whole wheat may still have fiber in it.

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