Tuscany Silk Batting Musings

I love Hobb's Tuscany Silk Batting.  You can read more about it by clicking on the link.

Here's what I had to say about it the last time I posted about batting:

Silk - silk batting is something I started using a year ago as well.  I've found Hobbs Tuscany Silk to be a fabulous alternate to cotton batting.  The batting is 90% silk and 10% polyester.  I find that since the silk is a natural fiber it has the "stickiness" of cotton and lays flat like cotton as well.  I enjoy using it in my quilts.  If I want my design to really puff up, I would not chose silk as it doesn't have the puff of wool that I like.

Now, since then I've learned a couple of new things about the Tuscany Silk Batting I want to share.  The first is that it is slightly tan in color, not dark, just light like their 80/20 batting.  Not a big deal for most quilts, but I wouldn't put a white quilt on top of it as the white seams show through...ask me how I know.  Look carefully at the quilt below.  If you look just around the edge of the the colored ring (This is done is Island Batik's Drizzle Collection...so pretty!) you can see a white line where the seams overlap.  If I'd put this quilt on a white batting this would not be noticeable.

So here's the finished quilting. Can you tell?  Not really, so I didn't and don't worry about it, but it's something to think about when considering batting choices.

And now time for my next discovery.

When I was working my Pocket Watch quilt I used a small piece of silk batting.  This quilt was different for me in that I actually washed it.  I don't always wash the small things I make for this blog when I'm finished (I do prewash ALL of my fabric).  However, all those gears in the background were drawn with a blue wash-out pen and it had to be washed.  

I used my usual method of soaking in cold water, then wringing inside a rolled up towel.  I must admit I did then iron it dry from damp as I wanted to start painting it.  What I discovered when it was dry is that it has an INCREDIBLE drape.  It reminds me of my great-grandmother's quilts that have been used since the sixties with the nice draping cotton batting inside.  I wish you could feel how nice it is though the computer...

I will definitely use this batting again soon!

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy