Going Batty

No, I am not referring to my mental state. Nor am I gearing up for Halloween.

Last Monday the Gateway Quilter's Guild hosted Denise Mullenix from Fremont as our guest speaker. Her topic was quilt batting. I took copious notes, but hope the other member who said she would write a recap of the information for our next "Threads That Bind" newsletter comes through, because I know there were a few details I missed.

One issue Denise covered was shrinkage after washing. Her research shows that the Warm & Natural and Warm & White that is 80% cotton-20% polyester averages 3% shrinkage. A 100% cotton bat averages 5%.

With that news about the shrinkage, I started sweating bullets about the bat I have already cut for the quilt I am making for the wounded soldiers project the guild is sponsoring. The dimensions are to be 48" by 68" to fit a gurney or hospital bed. I already preshrunk some of the fabric I plan to use and I already cut out a section of the Pellon 100% cotton batting 50 inches wide because I know that the quilting process often takes up the width and height by about a half-inch to an inch. So, if there was going to be 5% shrinkage in that cotton batting, my width might end up only being 47-1/2 inches and my finished quilted width even less.

Denise quoted the "manufacturer's recommended" instructions for pre-washing batting that included putting it in a bathtub with hot water, gently wringing it out and then laying it flat to dry. She also mentioned that a wet king-size bed quilt batting is a lot of weight to wring out plus she personally has no place in her house big enough to lay flat something that size. (Join the club, Denise.) She uses a commercial steamer-pressing machine she purchased to shrink her batting. I can't help but wonder how much space that baby takes up.

A guild member who has been quilting for years spoke up to say that she pre-washes her quilt batting in the washing machine on gentle and then drys it on gentle and they turn out fine.

To find out if my batting would shrink and be too small for this project, I washed it. In the washing machine. Actually, I let it soak for five minutes in hot water, let it wring out, and skipped the rinse cycle. While I was at it, I also threw in the rest of the cotton batting which is enough for two more large quilts. Then I dried it all in the dryer on warm/hot for about 55 minutes. There were a few damp spots where the bat clumped together, so I loosely folded the big piece in quarters and the small piece in half and left them on top of my bed (on a clean sheet to protect them from any Archie fur that may be on my bedspread) to finish drying.

And the final results were -- drum roll, please -- no shrinkage that I could tell on either piece. I make no claims, and pre-washing batting may produce different results for others. But all I got out of the exercise was slightly softer batting and two nice little piles of the softest, whitest fluff balls that you would ever want to see from my dryer lint trap.

So, my 50 inch wide piece is back with the fabric I am collecting for the wounded warrior quilt and the rest of the fabric that I pre-washed today is sitting on my sewing table next to the gigantic tote bag I threw together the other night which is currently holding the rest of the washed quilt batting. Now that I have the batting situation worked out, it is time to get that fabric pressed, folded and ready for cutting.

Sharon's Sweet Summer and Cheerful Quilts

My friend Sharon keeps busy taking care of her household as well as being involved in helping others. Although she is just barely on the south side of eighty years old, she goes to the rest home in Turlock once a week to sing for the old people. She had been doing this for forty odd years.

Sharon also makes lap quilts for the rest home residents. She uses fabric scraps of all kinds and stretches her quilting budget by buying cotton sheets to use as backing. She and another friend Celeste, who considers Sharon to be a second mom, get together once a week to pool resources and sew either baby quilts for the new mothers in Atwater First Ward or lap quilts for the rest home. I do not meet with them as often, but I occasionally offer fabric and batting. Now that I have the Brother on the quilt frame, using that to quilt the layers on some of the quilts is starting to be part of my contribution.

Sharon asked me to machine-stitch two quilts she has put together. We pinned them together two weeks ago and I brought them home. Friday I set up my two six foot tables, putting one table on risers to  turn it into a pressing table by covering it with an old mattress pad and a heavy beach towel. I pressed the quilt I have named Sweet Summer (blues & pinks, etc.) with the pins in, using the second table to hold the weight and keep it from sliding off the pressing surface.

 

Sweet Summer being pressed

The second quilt had a lot of uneven seams and puckers when Sharon and I pinned it together. I took it apart and pressed and trimmed the backing and top separately. It still is a little uneven, but was much easier to quilt with a minimum of puckers once I pressed the quilt top on the big table.

Sharon claims she deliberately does not make her quilts really pretty because the pretty ones often get stolen by the staff or family members. However, I think these two are beautiful scrap quilts. Sharon has an excellent eye for color and balances her light and dark blocks to be visually pleasing.

Cheerful

Sharon says she likes to use cheerful colors for the lap quilts intended for the rest home. The one quilt with a lot of yellows and pinks is definitely uplifting, which is why I named it Cheerful.

These two quilts are larger than lap quilts and are to go on twin beds. Sharon is making them ahead for Christmas. She knows there are always a few rest home residents who do not get a gift or a visit at Christmastime. She plans to present these quilts to some of those residents.

After pressing Cheerful, I removed the risers so the tabletops were even. I clamped the backing fabric to the two tables pushed together to keep the fabric from puckering and bunching up when I added the batting and the top. I used safety pins to baste the pieces together and to hold the edges in place. Then I used the flat butterfly pins to attach the top to the leader for the quilt frame.

Cheerful on the quilt frame

Since I had my smaller leader already in the quilt frame, I attached my lap quilt, "Dogs and Cats at the Beach" (more later on that quilt when I finish the binding) and stitched it first. After all, it was the first quilt in the queue to be stitched. Then I did three rows of Sweet Summer before calling it quits last Saturday.

This morning, starting at about 7:00a.m., I worked to finish Sweet Summer. Sharon gave me her pink thread -- cheap stuff from Walmart -- and never again. What a mess! I had at least one break each row, broke two needles and fought to remove at least two major rat's nests (and countless minor ones). Fortunately, I used light blue Gutermann's for the bobbin thread, so I was okay there.

Because Sharon used a 100% polyester batting, I used a loose freehand meandering pattern to help bring out the loft.

Sweet Summer with meandering quilt stitch

After a break, I put Cheerful on the quilt frame and  completed that. I used some of the Coats & Clark polyester wrapped polyester thread that I had left from an earlier project for both the top and bottom. I had a couple of breaks and one rat's nest, but much better. I used a combination of freehand meandering plus a lot of loop-de-loop on Cheerful.

When I use cotton batting, I do not usually need to secure the bottom edge until the very end. However, the polyester batting is not as heavy. In order to keep these quilts as straight and smooth as possible to avoid puckering, I used claw clamps (lined with strips of batting) to secure the fourth side.

I finished both quilts by 5:00p.m. Keep in mind the temperature rose to about 108 degrees today. Although I ran the air conditioning unit in the studio, it still was in the eighties inside most of the day. By 5:00 o'clock, I was hot and tired, but finished.

Cheerful finished with meandering loop-de-loop stitch

Okay, not quite. Later in the evening I tied off loose ends and clipped threads. But, now Sweet Summer and Cheerful can go back to Sharon so she can trim the edges and add the binding.

Christmas in August is always fun.