Batting

Batting is one of the expensive but essential parts of quiltmaking. Generally I have purchased rolls of 100% Warm and Natural cotton batting because I like how it machine quilts and how it hangs flat in wallhangings, and I like using all natural products... 100% cotton thread, fabrics, and batting.
I bought an 18 metre roll of Warm and Natural cotton batting in February 2015 and predicted it would last me a year.
It did! 
I was getting to the end of the roll and could maybe get one more quilt out of the remainder when I went on the Goose on the Loose shop hop and found a great deal on a roll of batting. It's an 80/20 batting which means 80% cotton and 20% polyester. I couldn't resist the deal so decided to give it a try. I hope I like it, cause I bought 27 metres of it!
Sometimes I have tried to keep track of how much batting I had used so I would know how much I still had. I would write the amount I cut off the roll on the side of the box. This system wasn't very helpful but seeing the scribbles was a blast from the past and brought back happy memories from finished quilts!
What kind of batting is your favourite?

Scrap Batting - Dog Beds

In January I wrote a blog post about how to use leftover batting scraps - click here to read it. One of the ideas was to make a dog bed. Most people throw small batting scraps, block trimmings, and scraps into the trash. 
But I save everything, and yes I have a "problem" (actually more than one!) Only fabric scraps that are less than 1" go into little dog beds (everything that is 1" goes to the Omigosh tin and everything larger than 1" goes into scrap bins). Batting scraps are only saved if they are larger than 6". Any smaller batting scraps go into a dog bed.

For example, you know when you are trimming a quilt to put the binding on? What do you do with the extra batting that you cut off?
I cut the batting into smaller hunks and stuff it into either an old pillowcase, or a bag that I have stitched with old fabric.

Full dog bed on the left & new bag being filled on the right.

Eventually you end up with a bag full of soft filling that makes a comfy little bed for an animal at the humane society shelter. These are used temporarily as they are hard to wash and dry, but they do give some comfort to a homeless furry creature for a period of time. And it gives my quilting garbage one more job to do before it hits the landfill.

Batting Ideas

One of the things that all quilters have kicking around in the sewing room is leftover batting pieces that are trimmed from the edges of finished quilts. What do we do with all that batting? 
Don't throw it out! There are so many ways to use this pile of wonderfulness! 
I did a demo at my guild meeting this week to share these ideas of how to use up batting scraps:

* make a large quilt using the “quilt-as-you-go” technique (see my sample quilts here and here)

"With a little help from my friends"  5" x 6"

* use small pieces as batting for miniature quilts (my favorite way to use up batting)

* make a sandwich with old/ugly fabric and batting scraps to practice machine quilting

* use batting squares to make rag quilts 

Baby Max on his dog mat

* make flat dog mats (like a miniature quilt with a little stabilizing quilting)

* use scraps to dust your sewing machine or house (with or without your swiffer)

* use small bits for pillow stuffing (with crushed walnut shells or on it's own)

* make a dog bed (throw scraps of batting, thread snips and fabrics into a pillowcase and sew up the end when full) and donate it to the humane society 

Machine stitched batting

* join smaller pieces with hand or machine stitching, or with heat press tape to make a full size batt

One tip for using old battings scraps is to toss them in the dryer before using them. Use a low heat setting to get the dust out if they have been sitting around for a while (years!) Otherwise you might start sneezing :)

And if you don't want to do any of these things, take your batting scraps to a guild meeting and give them to someone who will use them. 

Have a happy Friday!

Batting Scraps and Pink Lemonade Show

Nothing exciting is going on in my sewing room these days. I am doing functional tasks, like cleaning up and vacuuming... things that are boring but necessary. My goals this week are:

1) to clear off the cutting table (I'm sure you know how that goes...the mountain just grows and grows until there is no room left to cut!) and 
2) to piece together small batting scraps in order to make a batting that is large enough to use in my mystery quilt. I am using the Heat Press Batting Together product, which I quite like and wrote about on this blog entry.
For some quilty inspiration, hop over to Lori's blog. She has a Pink Lemonade Quilt Show going on, and the variety of quilts made from the same pattern is amazing! In honour of the pink lemonade show, I put a photo on my blog header of my version of "Pink Lemonade".

Batting Scraps

Since I have been working a lot with scraps lately, I thought I would show you a new product I am experimenting with. It is a fusible tape used to join your scraps of batting together to make a quilt size batt. I accumulate a lot of batting scraps and many of them I use up for miniature quilts. But I still have way more batting scraps than my minis will ever use up. I always say "You paid for the whole piece (of fabric or batting) so why not use the whole piece"?! 
In the past I have hand stitched and/or machine zigzagged batting scraps together and have not been happy with either the look of it, or the waste of time working on batting prep. 
This new product is called "Heat Press Batting Together". You can watch the video of how to use it at their website - click here. No instructions come with the little package, so the video was helpful. The little piece of plastic around the tape was annoying to remove...you have to cut it off (don't spend precious minutes looking for the end to peel it off like I did!) but be careful not to cut into the tape!
This product is just like having strips of fusible interfacing all perfectly cut for you. It worked great and I have constructed 2 baby quilt sized batts from small bits. Next I'm going to try using larger chunks to construct a twin size batt and see how that works out.

Sunday Sentiments

Is your family obsessed with FIFA? Even my teenage son has been getting up "early" *gasp* to watch the soccer games! I thought I might get a little stitching done on my "Journey" quilt while watching the tournament with my family,  but these games are too captivating and no stitching is getting done!

However, I have completed the boring job of stitching together scraps of batting to make a piece large enough for a quilt. The last time I used up batting scraps (click here)  I worried the whole time I was machine quilting about not stitching them together. It worked out okay I think for that baby quilt, but I'm not taking any chances with a larger bed sized quilt.

This has been a very lucky week for me...I received THREE quilty gifts this week! The first one came in the mail from fellow quilt blogger Julie. She sent me her baptist fan stencil to try with my next hand quilting project (when I pick which one it will be).

And she sent along the most gorgeous fabric that I have seen other bloggers writing about called "Rouenneries". It is so beautiful, and although it should go into the "too lovely to cut into" fabric pile, I think it will breathe new life into my Chocolate Covered Strawberry Sampler! Thanks Julie!

And Jackie dropped this new cutting mat into my studio mailbox. It has a rotating base, which is perfect for trimming HST's...have you tried one yet?

I am loving it and finding the trimming to be much faster...thanks Jackie!

And my third quilty surprise was a bag of scraps from Judy (hey...all these generous friends have names that start with 'J'...isn't that weird?!?).

I am totally inspired to cut up these scraps for another "leader/ender" project, although I am only half way through my current one!

Thanks Judy!

Relaxing Sewing at the Masters!

I have been trying to catch a little of the Masters golf tournament in Augusta over the last few days, but today I hope to watch most of it. I am not a golfer, but I enjoy watching that tournament because it looks so beautiful and sunny there, and I love to see the blooming zaleas and dogwoods, and the beautiful scenery. It makes me feel like summer is almost here!
And to continue with that theme, I looked around for something bright and sunny to work on during commercials. Look what I found?!?
I have had this baby quilt top in my closet for at least 10 years! Guess what was left to do?? I just had to sew on the 2 borders! I did the borders quickly, chastizing myself for procrastinating that ridiculously quick job for so long! The fabric is brushed cotton and is so soft and lovely to work with.
I had a spool of yellow Aurofil thread for the quilting, but only had bits and pieces of batting around. So I just butted the batting scraps, overlapping them slightly in some places, and pin basted it.  I have used batting scraps before but painstakingly hand sewed them together with zigzag stitches.  It's just a baby quilt that will be used and laundered frequently, so it doesn't have to be perfect. Do you think this will be a problem?

I am quilting it very simply, stitching with the walking foot 1/4" both sides of the seam lines. If the golf tournament is boring, I'll get a lot done on this old UFO!