Friday, December 27, 2013

Almost at the Half Way Point

I am almost at the half way point on this quilt - OH MY GOODNESS!!  I cannot wait to be finished.  I have half a dozen more ideas floating in my head and I have quilts coming in soon!!!  Tomorrow is our second Christmas with my Husbands family...a day of play...then after that I have to buckle down because that only gives me one more week to finish the quilting on this.



I have been getting a lot of questions about what batting or what thread I'm using.  This is Glide thread on the top and in the bobbin - the cream fabric is mainley natural muslin - meaning there are natural imperfections in the fabric.  I like the look personally - and I like even more the idea of an elegant design over what is normally thought of as an inexpensive utilitarian fabric.  I love love love Glide thread because it tends to quilt up somewhere between a very fine thread and a thicker polyester thread...it's perfect for sort of, all purpose quilting.  You can do a lot of dense quilting without a terrible amount of thread build up or you can do really simple designs and they look very elegant and fancy with Glide's bit of shine.  I wind my own bobbins and have yet to use the magna bobbins but I hear great things about them!  I also like that Glide comes off the cone really smoothly.  I have only had one cone out of the forty or more that I've purchased from them that I had to use a thread net over.  (The price is right too - and they have one all across the board price...so I pay the same for the thread as you!  I am not affiliated - just a fan!)


I am using two layers of batting - and I prefer two layers of a lower loft batting to one layer of high loft batting.  It just gives a better more fuller look in my opinion.  Dare I say I even like the look of a "faux" trapunto look with two layers of batting and dense quilting versus real machine trapunto over top another layer or two layers of batt.  Or maybe I'm just lazy and would rather quilt the crumbs out of my quilt instead of cut away batting...  LOL!  :)


The top batting is Hobbs Tuscany Wool - I have never used this brand of wool before this quilt and I have never made a quilt this size with wool, but I do like Hobbs 80/20 quite a lot and they are very consistent so I thought it would be a good wool to start with.  I do love the fullness and the loft...but I don't like the memory retention and the sort of looseness of the batting.  When on the frame I like to poke the sides of my quilt where there is no top with pins while I am adjusting things and wool doesn't make a very good pincusion!  :)


The bottom layer is an off brand equivalent to Warm and Natural.  I have no real strong feelings about Warm and Natural either way other than to say that Warm and White tends to beard and beard bright white through my fabric so I rarely if ever use it anymore.  I honestly don't care for cotton either because I'm a machine quilter - I feel like poly and poly blends show off the quilting better and I like even more that poly batts tend to retain fold lines less.  I do however really like the look of these two batts together (wool and cotton) - though in the future to get more bang on the back I will probably layer wool with Hobbs 80/20.  Hobbs and Quilter's Dream have been my two favorite battings so far...and both are pretty economically priced.

Alright, happy sewing!  Hopefully I'll be DONE next time you hear from me!!!  :)

9 comments:

MulticoloredPieces said...

Hi, Valerie. Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting so that I could find your wonderful blog. Your quilting is drop-dead gorgeous and I see that you use the machine as an artistic tool...which got me to thinking that one could do some very interesting still-lifes with a long-arm! May the New Year bring you many creative adventures!
best,
nadia

Marjorie's Busy Corner said...

Wow!! I don't know just what else to say. Except I envy your quilting. heavens...it is stunning

Ineke said...

Beautiful quilting!

Sewing Junkie said...

Your preferences are interesting to me about the batting. I use a lot of 80/20 from Hobb's. I really have been eyeing the wool batts. Thanks for the info. Chris

Vroomans' Quilts said...

WOW - it is just smashing! You can get 'er done!

quiltedfabricart said...

Your quilting is stunning! Thank you for sharing all the info :-)

Anonymous said...

Hey, there!!!!! I use the 80/20 all the time but haven't layered the wool on yet. Will have to do it (I do have a batt lurking in the closet!!!) as soon as the 6 January quilt jobs are done!!! This next month is going to fly by!!!!! Your "wedding(?)" quilt is turning out so well!!! I would love to see a peak at the pages in that book you got....e-mail???? Hugs......Fellow Feather Fanatic........

Clipping Path said...

very Gorgeous Quilt,
Clipping Path

Elita@Busy Needle Quilting said...

Hi Val! I found you through a YouTube video and I'm now following you (in the nicest possible way-ha!). I am dedicated more time to my own LA biz here in Switzerland and you are an inspiration. I have found my own sweet spot with Quilter's Dream batting, wool in particular, so that's what I use & supply but it's always good to see what's working for others. Keep up the fabulous work!