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

Batting Week - How do I choose?

If you're anything like me, you look at the wall of batting at your local quilt shop or show and can end up feeling completely overwhelmed.  While batting is hidden inside our quilts, it does have a major impact on how a quilt turns out.

I've done a comparison of Hobbs battings before which you can read all about here.  I've learned even more since I wrote this, so here we go!

Let's explore the different types of batting:

Cotton - cotton batting is flat, flat, flat.  It's fabulous when layering because the fibers of it "stick" to the quilt back and top and make it easy to pin.  A recent discovery I've made is that when you're doing a lot of fusible applique a cotton batting is fabulous.  It sticks and keeps the applique flat.  It doesn't puff out so the fusible isn't distorted which is wonderful.  After choosing this type of batting for a small project I realized the value it has in fusible applique quilts and will definitely choose it again for this purpose!  Another advantage of cotton is that it doesn't have to be quilted as densely as other choices.

 I like to quilt feathers and I must admit that I like them to puff, which is why I usually don't choose cotton.  But there are some blends available that do have some puff and a lot of cotton.  Many show quilters will put two layers of batting in their quilts (first cotton, then wool on top).  The cotton helps the quilt keep it's shape and hang nicely.  The wool allows for the puff.  I do this on small pieces, but have chosen not to on large pieces because it makes the quilt heavy and a bit challenging to drag through my domestic machine even though it has a 10 inch harp space.

Okay, so what about cotton blends?

Cotton/Poly - My favorite Cotton/Poly Blend is Hobbs 80/20.  It is "sticky" like cotton batting, but has a little poly in it making it a tad warmer and giving it a little more puff.  It is my batting of choice in my quilts for my children as it is durable and easily washable.  You can read more about it here on Hobb's website.

My Flower in a Pot #6 was done with one layer of Hobbs 80/20.

Cotton/Wool - This batting was new to me a year ago.  It's amazing!  I love Hobbs Tuscany Cotton/Wool blend which you can read about here.  It's 80% cotton and 20% wool.  It has the stability and "stickiness" of cotton batting and a little puff of wool batting.  I love it and can't wait to put it in my next show quilt that has fusible applique.  I guess I'd better get started on that one...

My Flower in a Pot #2 was done with one layer of Hobbs Tuscany Cotton/Wool.

What else have I tried?

Wool - Hobb's Tuscany Wool is my usual batting of choice for show quilts.  I absolutely adore the puff it gives my feathers and motifs.  I have used it in garments (mostly vests) and find it equally lovely (though I can only wear these garments in January as they are super warm!)  It drapes a little more than cotton.  I find it absolutely fabulous.  I have used two layers for even more puff.

My Flower in a Pot #7 has one layer of Hobb's Tuscany wool.

Polyester - I must admit that I am not a polyester girl.  Yes, I have used it.  However, every time I do I have regretted it.  I am sure that people use it quite successfully, but I find it has drawbacks.  The biggest one being bearding.  Bearding is when the fibers of the batting poke through the top of the quilt and you can see little balls of it forming.  Think about what sometimes happens to sweaters called pilling.  Same idea.  Because of bearding, I do not use polyester batting unless it's an 80/20 cotton to poly blend.

Below is a picture of a quilt I had quilted about 10 years ago.  Yes, this quilt has been on my bed and perhaps that's why it has bearded more than a quilt that has been on a wall.  It has poly batting of some kind which was chosen by the quilter.  No, I'm not mad that she chose it, but it's a bummer that the quilt is now all covered with white balls of poly batting.  It's especially noticeable because the quilt has a purple background.  This quilt is why I never choose poly.

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.

My Flower in a  Pot #1 has one layer of Hobb's Tuscany silk.

And there are more choices too, but these are the ones I have personal experience with.  One of the things I love about going to a large quilt show is buying small sample squares from Hobbs batting to try out what's new on the market.

Come back on Saturday to talk about what two layers of batting is like!

I hope that helps you choose and I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

All Fired Up - The Quilting and Binding

"All Fired Up" is my second quilt as an Island Batik Ambassador.  It uses their new Fire Island line of fabrics coming soon to a quilt store near you!  Be sure to look back and see the other three parts of the series on how I made this miniature quilt!

When we last left off, the quilt was marked and ready for quilting.

I knew I wanted this quilt to be a show quilt, so I decided to use two layers of batting.  The bottom layers is Hobbs 80/20 and the top layer is Hobbs Heirloom wool. Many show quilters use two batts with wool on top to make their quilting pop.  I generally don't do this on my large quilts because it makes them really heavy, but I love to do it on my miniatures.

I then pin-basted the quilt.  It's my favorite way to baste.  Admittedly, I am a bit of an over-pinner, but my backs are FLAT.

Here is the quilt once it was quilted.  I was able to do all the feathers and outlining with just over one bobbin and the outside fill around the edges too a second bobbin!  I recently took Wild Quilting from Cristina Cameli on Craftsy and she talked about combining designs in one area which I did on the outer border.  I combined pebbles, swirled large pebbles, and outlined teardrops.  It makes the edge more interesting.

I was planning to put these feather designs pointing towards the center of the quilt, however my mom suggested that having them pointing towards each other would add an interesting design element.  I'm really glad I did it that way instead!

Here is a closeup of the feathers in the center of the quilt.  It's the first time I've not marked my feathers on a competition piece.  I am super happy with the results.

Here is a picture of the trimmed quilt before I added the binding.  You can see that I decided to do an interestingly shaped binding treatment on the edge of the quilt.  I took a class on binding in Houston a few years ago and have a great binding book to use as a reference.

Putting the binding around this shape was a challenge, but it turned out to be easier than I expected.  What was REALLY CHALLENGING was dealing with these little bitty inside points and making sure to overlap the binding in the points like you see on scalloped edged quilts.  Needless to say, this was extraordinarily hard and I decided that a mini was definitely NOT the place to learn this technique.  I finally made the decision to rip off this binding after an hour of frustration.

I then took an oval template and adjusted the edging of the quilt so it was all a flowy curve with no inside points.  I actually really like the shape and am quite happy I changed it.  I then cut new binding and sewed it on.  It was much easier the second time around!  Since the binding needed to stretch around curves I used a single layer of bias binding.

You can see that I use binding clips to hold down my binding while I sew.

TA DA!  The finished quilt.  It only took me a little over an hour to tack down the binding by hand.  It was MUCH easier to do flowy curves in the binding than points and I am VERY happy with the final results!  Off to show it goes soon.

Back to my Flower in a Pot Series on Wednesday!  Happy Quilting!

Suzy