I've gone Completely Batty!: 8/8/10

Friday, August 13, 2010

2 more battings tested

I just finished testing Fairfield's Fusi-Boo (fusible bamboo) and Fairfield's wool. The wool was great but I have grave concerns about the fusible product. I washed a sample of just the batt (not quilted) in HOT water and soap to remove the fusible as Fairfield states it washes away completely. I found it would still fuse after this process so it did not wash away. I wish I had a time machine to travel forward in time and see for myself what affect these chemicals will have on our precious quilts in say 100 years. I am sure quilters of old would be horrified to see how some of the mordants in the dyes of their time ate away at the fibers or changed the color completely

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If you have always wanted to know more about the different kinds of battings available and how those differences will ultimately affect your finished quilt you have come to the right place…
Welcome! Come on in and sit a spell, visit with me as I attempt to discover all that there is to know on the subject. Please write me with your questions and join up to follow this blog. We are bound to learn along the way. A good place to begin is with the terminology, there you will find batting terms you may be familiar with and some you may not that will help you understand the nature of batting. It’s pretty important stuff after all it’s the “meat” in the middle of these elaborate quilt sandwiches we make.

How I prepared the batting samples

Each batting was cut into two 12” squares for the quilting samples; they were layered and quilted by machine in ¾” grid between two squares of bleached muslin. One sample square from each brand of batting then received a single line of hand quilting to test for ease of hand needling. These quilted squares were then rotary cut to 9 ½” squares and bound. (Note: There are a few brands of samples that are cut to 8 1/2” because the what I received from the manufacturer were pre-cut 10”squares) One of these bound samples was then hand washed in hot water (as hot as my water heater would allow, which turned out to be 127.4 ˚F) with powdered detergent and dried in a hot electric dryer. Each brand tested will include an unquilted sample of each batting so you can examine each brand for hand, neps, scrim, bonding seed waste debris, loft and color. Every sample of batting, and quilted samples, washed and unwashed, were then labeled as such.
All muslin used in the samples is 100% cotton and was pre-washed in hot water and dried in the dryer and ironed smooth using a steam generator iron. The thread used for machine quilting is mercerized 100% cotton. The thread used for hand quilting is glazed 100% cotton.

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Friday, August 13, 2010

2 more battings tested