Exploding Quilt Batting

Today, we’re going to talk about quilt batting.

I call it “batting” because I live in the US. People in other parts of the world sometimes refer to it as “wadding,” which makes me laugh because it brings to mind (to mine, at least) big lumpy globs of stuffing. For purposes of this blog post, it will be called “batting.” No doubt that sounds just as odd to the non-US folks. Language is fun.

I have discovered that quilters have very strong opinions regarding batting. The hand quilters at my church all seem to prefer polyester batting. Someone explained to me once that that is because needles glide much easier through polyester batting than they do through cotton. In my limited hand quilting experience, that seems to be true. Apparently, the absolute worst combination for hand quilting is dense cotton batting inside a quilt pieced of tightly-woven batik fabrics.

Quilters of long ago used whatever kind of batting they could get their hands on, which might include old flannel sheets or wool blankets. Modern quilters are spoiled in our choice of battings. We can select from 100% cotton (organic or not), cotton/polyester blends, silk, bamboo, wool, and combinations thereof. Battings can also be low, medium, or high loft, which is an indication of how much they “puff up.” (Remember those puffy comforters from the 70s and 80s?—high loft polyester for sure.) Some battings have “scrim,” which is a a fine mesh added to the batt to help keep the fibers together.

Depending upon what look the quilter might want in the finished product, some people even combine several different types of batting in a single quilt, using polyester for loft and cotton for definition.

When I started quilting, I used the batting I could find at Joann Fabrics. That was almost always a product from The Warm Company, usually their Warm and Natural 100% cotton batting. Occasionally, I’d be able to find the Warm and Plush batting there, too, which is my all-time favorite and a slightly heavier version of the Warm and Natural. Last year, though, all of the Warm Company’s products started disappearing from Joanns. I couldn’t get Insul-Bright for potholders. Warm and Plush batting was nowhere to be found, and Warm and Natural started disappearing, too.

Apparently, the president of The Warm Company sent out a letter last year stating that The Warm Company products would no longer be sold at Joann Fabrics. No reason was given. Perhaps it was a dispute over wholesale pricing. Who knows?

Hobby Lobby carries The Warm Company products, but our Hobby Lobby’s packaged batting inventory tends to be on the thin side. I’ve also used batting from Hobbs, Quilter’s Dream, and Pellon. I keep a stash of batting on hand—I stock up during sales—so it wasn’t like I was hunting for Warm and Natural batting. Joanns started carrying batting from Fairfield. I’ve used the Fairfield Toasty Cotton and 80/20 cotton/polyester blend batts with no issues.

This long story does have a point, and it’s this:

For the neutral diamonds quilt, I pulled a batting of the appropriate size out of the stash. It happened to be a package of Fairfield Organic Cotton. This is the first time I have used this batting, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary when I unfolded it, laid it out, and pin basted it between the top and the backing. When I started working with it, though, the batting along the edges of the quilt—which extends past the top and gets trimmed off when I am finished quilting—did what you see in the picture, above. That’s never happened before.

This batting doesn’t have a scrim. Batting packaging always comes with a recommendation for quilting density. Battings with scrim can be quilted less densely, sometimes with lines up to 10” apart. This packaging recommended quilting no farther apart than 4”. That’s not unreasonable. I don’t like ultra-dense quilting where the quilt has so much thread in it that it can stand up by itself, but I do like enough quilting to hold things together.

I spent several hours yesterday quilting the center of this neutral diamonds quilt. I stitched in the ditch along all the seamlines, which created a grid of quilting lines no farther apart than 4”. In some areas, they are only 2” apart. I am not sure that is going to be enough quilting. The feel of the quilt is amazing—it is just the kind of quilt I would want to cuddle under while watching television—but I worry about the stability of the batting. I don’t want the batting to disintegrate and lump up the first time this quilt gets washed.

I am going to stitch in the ditch along the seamlines of the narrow dark brown border and then do closely-spaced loops in that wider brown border. The center section may need more lines of quilting, but I’ll wait and reassess. I won’t buy any more of this batting, however, and I shouldn’t have to. Apparently, The Warm Company and Joanns have resolved whatever differences they were having, and Warm and Natural quilt batting is supposed to be coming back to Joann stores. That’s also an American-made product, so hopefully there won’t be any supply disruptions.

****************************************************

Everything is lush and green outside thanks to the rain. I popped out to the greenhouse yesterday to check on seedlings. The tray of lettuce is gorgeous:

When he built the greenhouse, the husband also made several large trays (2’ x 3’) with mesh bottoms. These are great for starting lettuce. Sometimes we harvest the lettuce for salads and sometimes I transplant the seedlings out into the garden. I’ve been transplanting from this tray, but we may also have to start eating some of this. I can just cut off what we need and let it grow back. If we get a break in the rain today, though, I’ll plant more of this out in the garden. This is Ruby, which is my favorite lettuce variety. In the greenhouse, the leaves are green, but once I plant it outside, the leaves turn a beautiful ruby red color.