A word about wadding

I get asked quite often which waddings (battings) I prefer. Having just had a reordering frenzy, I thought it might be a good time to share my thougts on the subject.

For me there is a clear winner, and were money no object most if not all of my quilts would contain the same wadding. Wool. I was about to say I’m not that picky about which brand, and that is almost true. I do like the big name washed and preshrunk ones. I’ve used plain carded batts and will do again, but they are not machine washable, by any stretch of the imagination. Trust me. I tried the samples and it wasn’t good. Why do I like wool so much? There are several things going for it. I would say everything actually

• it’s wonderful to quilt through and compresses well to fit under the machine.
• it has amazing loft and quilts down to nothing without getting stiff
• on the bed it has great thermal properties, it keeps you warm but not sweaty
• it tends to hold creases less than other waddings
• offcuts shred to make fantastic trapunto filling
• it’s surprisingly light for it’s loft and warmth

The only downside is cost. It has been about 50% more expensive than cotton and up to twice the price of a poly cotton blend. However that seems to be changing. Matilda’s Own, which is what I am currently using is now only a couple of pounds more per metre than my preferred blend. Hobbs, is still rather more, but I suspect once the price shifts on one the others will probably move too. I can supply wool wadding to customers for their quilts if they wish.

The wadding I use most of these days is Warm Bond. This is not a fusible wadding, but a blend of 80% cotton and 20% polyester. I’ve tried quite a few blends, and to be honest they all work. I’ve stuck with this brand because it’s been the most consistant. I like my cutomers to feel they are always getting the same grade of wadding, and I really don’t like dealing with complaints (who does). It is the most expensive of the 80/20 waddings (as far as I know please do tell me if I’m wrong) but it’s great to work with, has a lovely loft, washes well and as I said is consistant. Obviously, quilting for others I get ti use quite a range of waddings. I really like some of the cheaper blends on the market. They feel good and quilt up well. I have some concerns with the number of inclusions in some of them, and I’ve noticed they mostly suggest pre washing the wadding now. Personally that isn’t a job I would want to do, so I advise looking  carefully at the wadding before buying it. If it has large (think peppercorn size) pieces in it I’d steer clear, if nothing else they are hard and can break needles. Half that size and I would worry about using itwith light colours, but a delicate dusting of specks all over hasn’t caused me any troubles. Again if you know differnt pleas let me know.

I do get quite a few quilts where the quilter wants a pure cotton wadding. I have mixed feelings abotu working with the pure cotton waddings. I find that some of them are very fragile. The thinest don’t seem to support my quilting terribly well or indeed their own weight. They can be very prone to stretching and tearing. I tend to stick to Hobbs 100% organic cotton and Warm and Natural. The Hobbs is the lighter of the two and most people prefer it. being me I like the Warm and Natural better. It is quite firm which makes it easy to work with, and it has a higher loft which makes the quilting stand out better. I find that once it’s been used and washed it softens up nicely as well without going completely limp. Of course if you are looking for the delicate very thin traditional look, this won’t be your wadding of choice.  Another cotton wadding which I am a huge fan of is Quilters Dream Supreme. I was lucky enough to get a sapmle pack of all their waddings and when I first saw this I knew it was a marmite moment. This was going to be love or hate. You will never call another wadding board like after feeling this one. It’s really thick. Even I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. Well it works amazingly. I don’t know how it would respond to use on a bed, but for art quilts it is fantastic. It holds quilting really well and stays flat. It really does support art beautifully. I suspect it would also hold creases like nothing else, but I’ve avoided testing that theory. It’s not cheap, it’s not easy to get, but if you like making art quilts you might want to give it a go.

A new wadding that I am rapidly falling in love with is bamboo. There are several brands and blends out there. So far all the ones I’ve tried have been fantastic. They are especially good for quilt as you go projects, being thin, grippy and happy with the iron. They do feel a bit squeaky when layers of wadding rub on each other, but I can live with that. I haven’t found it to shrink much with washing and I love it on the bed. In many ways it’s similar to wool, but without the loft. I do have some reservations about how it will fare over time. Bamboo is processed quite heavily to get to a useable state and is essentially a rayon (which is made from wood). Rayon is fairly well known for not being durable. Sadly the only way to be sure how it is going to work out is to use it. So that’s what I am doing. I’ll report back if I notice any deterioration. I’m pretty hard on my quilts so hopefully if it can stand up to me it will be fine for other people.

There are many other specialist waddings available. I have several that I want to try out. I love the idea of an all silk quilt for example, though with 6 cats it’s low on my list of things to do. I’m largely driven by the feel of a wadding. If it feels nice I’ll buy some and play with it, if not I’ll avoid it. Fair? Probably not, but it works for me. One specialist wadding I did try and like was the alpaca blends. However I found they performed in much the same way as the 80/20, so much so I can’t tell them apart. At that point they just aren’t worth the premium to me. Maybe people more sensitive than me will feel a difference. If I am quilting for you and you would like to try a different wadding, just ask. I usually have several on hand, although I may not have used them much yet.

You may notice one rather large family of wadding is missing. Polyester. In general I don’t like it, and I don’t use it. I can’t deny it is cheap and has great loft, but having made a couple of quilts with it in I can’t live with it, I find it gets very hot ans sticky, yet somehow doesn’t stay as warm. I do use it when I need heavy faux trapunto on something that won’t be on my bed. It can be a real life saver if you have some less than flat blocks. Of course your blocks are always great, but I’ve had my share of DD, the really curvey ones. Tehy really look great with a thick wadding under them and heavy quilting in some areas. In fact I think sometimes they come out better for having gone wrong.

If you would like to explore some of these waddings and your local quilt shop doesn’t stock them there is an online source in the UK. ASDING have bailed me out of more than one tight spot (usually related to black wadding) and are great to do business with. They also offer sample packs so you can give lots of waddings a through stroking before comitting.

Birthday unsurprise

I know you are supposed to be surprised on your birthday, but this year I am quite excited about a non surprise. It’s still not certain but a well know web site might be giving me a lovely present. Of course something urgent could come up between now and then, but keep you fingers crossed it won’t.

Whups, just to clear up any confusion, it’s not my birthday yet. I just relaly hope this cool thing will happen on schedule. I’ll point you in the right direction whenever it happens, but I am really hoping it will all come together.

What have I been up to?

Mostly I’ve been sleeping. It’s what happens when I get ill. I sleep, a lot. Fortunately I seem to be getting better and have been able to spend some time quilting today. The down side is, I am now starting to worry about all the deadlines that are looming. This time of year is always quite manic. It seems that every show comes up at once and there are no end of entry forms to deal with. Just to bring this home to me, the form for the World Quilt Show arrived this morning. This is a show I particularly like. Mostly because they make it so easy to enter.  The quiltsd from each country go to one collection center in the country and are then sent en mass to America. This makes it much cheaper to enter than most international shows and ensures the quilts are insured in transit. Another bonus is that the show is in several venues, so the quilts get seen by a huge audience. The down side is it clashes with Houston and Festival of Quilts. So I need to do some careful planning before I decide what is going where.

I don’t feel like there has been much of a holiday. I guess that’s what happens when you sleep through it. Still the new term starts on Thursday and I am looking forward to it. There are still a few places on my new Thursday afternoon class, so if you would like to join it get in touch with Patchwork Corner as soon as possible. The wholecloth class on the 20th is now full. Sorry to all those who missed out this time.

All the packages

Yesterdays class certainly lived up to my expectations. My students were keen, worked hard and had lots of good ideas and questions. I will be interested to see where they take the techniques I showed them. I stayed for dinner and chatting and well you know how it is when quilters get talking, it was late when I left and even later when I got home. So by the time I got home my main thought was bed. Then I found a stack of interesting post on my desk. Cool! Lots of things I had been waiting for had arrived. I had a quick look before giving in to the bed idea.

No sooner that I got there, Tet mentioned that Phoenix was back. OK I had to go and check on it. It’s arrived home in great condition. Thanks to the guys at the Lancaster quilt show. However I also found I had more post. He had said I had got all the post but still. I now have a whole raft of new toys to play with for my garments at the Festival of Quilts. Obviously being me I am not going to do anything simple of traditional am I? So I needed a whole load card for prototyping and some fastenrs to go with it. There was me thinking paper fasteners no longer exisited.  I also have several new materials to test. I’ve got some ideas for things that might be possible in quilts but haven’t been done yet. If I want to do them I think I will need to spend some time in the lab (quilting studio come engineering department). Don’t worry I am keeping notes so I can share the process after I unveil the pieces

I even managed to get some quilting done today. I’ve had a week when I really haven’t been up to it, and it has felt sogood to be back at the machine. The machine is sounding completely different after it’s service. It really have appreciated the new gear grease and I think with the new brushes it is running faster. Taht could just be me being slow though so I am not certain yet.

Two things that might make you smile

Firstly alternative jobs for me if I ever want to stop quilting,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7541455/Ferrets-key-to-bridging-the-digital-divide-between-cities-and-rural-areas.html

and then Uncle Bud teaches dogs to read,

http://amisimms.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/teach-your-dog-to-read/

What can I say, I have to fill my time with something.

I’m weird

I suspect that isn't news to regular readers but I thought I would share it anyway. It seems last weekend really took it out of me. Today I feel very ill and somewhat frustrated. I have so many things I want to be working on. I haven't ben on the longarm for days and I am really missing it. The quilt currently on the frame belongs to one of my students and is from my next sampler quilt book. It is designed to be quilt as you go but she decided she would rather I quilted it. It will take quite a lot of work but I know I will enjoy it.I also have a book on making armour I would like to be playing with. I know card won't work quite like metal, but I think I should be able to adapt the techniques. I also have several clothing patterns awaiting my attention, but it won't be today.Fortunately I recently bought a new laptop to improve things in my art quilts by numbers class. The old machine was free and rather old. Not a problem in itself but the screen was getting very hard to see. That meant I could only have two people at a time working on the machine, hopeless for big classes. The new macjine has a much larger, clearer screen. It's also relieving the boredom for me today, I may not be able to quilt but I can watch quilting DVD's. Sad isn't it. Ill in need ot time off and yes I chose to watch quilting. Told you, I'm weird.

Home at last

This is going to be a very quick post. I am exhausted and I need to get some sleep before teaching tomorow. The class today was a hoot, thanks guys, you were great. The Prince of Wales, Southport, is not a hotel I will ever stay in again. If you want to know why google for reviews, they are all pretty acurate. Premier Inn however was lovely. Now to try and make up for missing a nights sleep.

Southport and stuff

We made it. There were indeed a lot of roadworks but mostly the traffic was moving. The weather even held for us, only raining when we were in the car and stopping each time we needed to get out. The venue is quite easy to find and despite looking very modern on the outside the interior is full of fantastic period architecture. I didn't think to take a picture on my phone so you will just have to believe me. We unloaded and scoped out the theater. We also had time for a coffee in the dinner room. It has the strangest acoustics. Everything echos. You need to talk quietly and down to nothave an echo. Apparently it goes away when the room is full. Very odd. The photograph is of the lake behind the conference center. The whole of Southport is full of lovely buildings. It must have been staggeringly beautiful in it's heyday. I've been told that the town is now working hard to restore the buildings. I hope they do, this is a lovely town that deserves to be looked after.I've not heard anything from Lancaster so I guess Phoenix didn't place in the competition. I would love to have a picture of it while it is there though, so if you are at the show, please could you take one for me.I am also waiting to hear about another American event. It's always worth lookin at www.thequiltshow.com, and indeed subscribing to the shows, but perhaps there is more to come?

Southport here we come

The car is packed I think we have everything, well I have left the kitchen sink and the first aid kit, but I think I have everything else. Now it’s about time we headed north. Apparently the M^ is all roadworks but even with that we should be there by mid afternoon. See you all at the Quilters Guild AGM.