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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year


I am posting a photo of some roses I picked in the back yard this morning. I know a great many of you are in the grips of winter and I thought you might like to enjoy them with me. Wishing you all a GREAT New Year with much happiness and good health and if you have things to do once in a blue moon tonites your night! The second full moon in a month called a hunters moon or blue moon! Happy New Year! Be Safe as your celebrate!

3 comments:

Marit said...

Thank you for being on this battling the batting mission! Last night before falling asleep I was thinking of trying the same, on a smaller scale. Unwashed, washed, hand quilted, machine quilted in different ways. I was thinking about 4 - 5 different kinds of batting, not binding them, but let some of it appear on the edges...

I posted today on my blog about this idea of experimenting and journaling textures of quilting, and was kindly pointed to your blog by the lovely Janet.

So, a BIG thank you for taking on this task, and for your generosity of sharing. I hope you will be a bit specific about the different battings, or maybe give a comparison of different groups of for instant cotton battings?

sewbeit said...

Dear Marit,
Thanks so much for posting your comment.
This is a real education this batting journey I am on. My original goal was to bring a hands on, see it, feel it batting class to quilting guilds,not just give my opinion of a batting
but let them really see and understand the differences between them and why one would choose a bonded batting over a lets say a needlepunched batting. Or a blend over a single fiber. I hope it will be well recieved by the quilt guilds as an educational program for their members. Good luck with your testing, do you have the same brands available there as in the US?
Hugs,
Debra

Marit said...

Debra,

Thank you for your response!

Like I told you, finding your blog just felt like a more than happy coincidence...

I have tried a few battings myself:

My very first quilts were made using a flat, polyester batting with no loft and a unflattering residing folds (have no name, sorry) - made at least two big wall quilt with this (learning as I go / given poor advice) will never use it again...

I have tried Hobbs Thermore, thin polyester batting - made al least 5 lap size quilts, nice and light, not so good for dense quilting, very little loft for highlighting the quilting, nice drape...

I have tried a thicker polyester batting (no names) for one quilt, machine quilted in straight lines - like the thickness / texture of it...

I do like Warm & Natural Needled cotton - used in hand quilted wall quilts/ lap quilt, machine quilted wall quilts/ lap quilt, like it but sometimes would like more loft/ debt ...

Just found Hobbs Premium Cotton 80/20 cotton/ polyester - my latest "find" (imported on no shipping special) used for two smaller hand quilted projects and a wall quilt. Not yet washed. Like hand quilting it, like the loft/ debt after quilting..

I have some Hobbs Heirloom Premium wool batting - made one hand quilted small lap quilt. Like it, but haven't enough experience using it and washing it , yet...

And that's it.


My thoughts about texture as a result of batting plus quilting plus fabric choices involved:

being a bit annoyed I haven't taken notes of what I have been using (that will change)

wanting to build up a little hands on / show and tell sample library of different options in types of batting and types of quilting: meander, straight lines, hand quilting, density of quilting... using orphan blocks, old ufo's ( minimum of 15" square?)

I even wonder if it would be fun to do a quilting sample swap: quilt a sandwich, wash it, cut it up and send out to the swappers for inspiration / building a sample "library" (adding an unwashed piece of batting for reference)

Thinking it is one thing, doing it is another.

The selection of different brands of batting in my local quilts shops is limited. I think there is not enough knowledge / awareness about this important part of a quilt. (I am going to sample them, and make requests as I learn more.)

; )

Marit