I absolutely love batiks, the color, the richness, etc. and have purchased (of course enough for everyone on the board to quilt haha). But I have read so often people discussing how batiks are a challenge to work with and now I am intimidated to use them. Why are they difficult to use?

I love batiks & use them all the time & have no problem. I think it's more a personal opinion really. I prewash mine too, even use some Downy when I do, & have never had a problem working with any of them. Try them, you will probably like working with them!...

I'm sure most on here would all love to have as many Batiks as you have so just use and enjoy them.

I am making a batik wedding wall quilt for my son and soon to be DARLING DIL!!!
Anyway, I am hand quilting it and it's working out beautifully! I machine pieced it. No problems and soooooooo pretty!! :D

i use batiks all the time and also make my own.

i have never had a problem working with them.

i do set the dyes with retayne so they won't bleed but aside from that my experience has been great.

I believe that most batiks have a tighter weave. Also the process of dying and using wax gives it a bit more toughness. I have had trouble ( a bit) with putting pins in. Some pins just don't want to pierce the batik fabric. I purchased some button head pins...just for cute. Was going to put a couple in a gift pin cushion. I discovered they are the SHARPEST pins I have found! I got them on the notions wall at JoAnns. Not with the quilting stuff, but by all the pins. Now they are my favorite pin.

I'm with fabric_fancy, have had no problems working with batiks but would strongly recommend pre-washing with a colour catcher. I'm not familiar with retayne, but it sounds like a good suggestion.

I dont find them difficult to work with. I prefer them over regular prints because they tend to have more body and a stiffer hand.

I dont haveany problems with them either!

I have discovered I prefer batiks for hand applique`. The tighter weave from all the shrinking that happens in the dyeing process translates to less fraying of edges when doing needle turn. I use silk pins since it is harder to get some of the more "robust" pins and needles through it.