backwards batting?
 

Hello!

on fons and porter the other day, a guest long armer was talking about the different 'sides' of batting. She said as it was made, it had two different surfaces. one side is sort of 'pre punched' and the other isn't. Turns out, you need the prepunched side UP to your top, to keep tufts of batting pushing thru to the back.

I have the kaleidoscope quilt pin basted and ready to quilt. You wonderful ladies helped me with the pattern, and I started before I hurt my hand. I did have trouble with seeing the batting on the back, but I also had trouble getting my tension smooth. I worked on a sample, and didn't really get it resolved.

My hand has improved, and I am anxious to try again. But you guessed it, when I checked how I have my sandwich layered, I do have the batting 'upside down'. Sigh.

How important is this for my finished product? Could the batting issue be confusing me with the tension? I have never had such a hard time with quilting layers, and tension. Have I just used the batting (warm and natural) the right way and been lucky?

Suggestions are SO welcome.
Thanks
Lara

I made many quilts before I even heard of the batting having a right/wrong side. I would not have known if I hadn't heard it here. Never had a problem with the quilts I made. Most were made with Warm & Natural batting. I wouldn't worry about it since you already sandwiched it.

I agree with Katie--I've never looked at a right or wrong side of batting whether I'm machine or hand quilting. I wouldn't take apart the sandwiched quilt.

I have had this issue rear its ugly head with Warm and Natural batting while Longarm quilting. It did not affect my tension but what happened is little tiny tufts of batting were being forced through with the needle (and yes this was a brand new needle) through the backing. I later learned these were often referred to as "Pokies". I searched the internet and found a great posting on the APQS forum about it with pictures showing right side and wrong side:

http://forum.apqs.com/index.php?/top...arm+%2Bnatural


I ended up cutting the batting and flipping it over and the pokie problem went away. I do not know if this is an issue with quilting on domestic sewing machines. The needles are much smaller on domestic machines so this would be why the previous posters may say they never checked and never had a problem.

The wrong side/right side up issue would not affect your tension. The only probelm with wrong side up is you can get pokies of batting show up on your back.

I, too, was recently informed of the right and wrong side of batting. I've made many quilts using warm and natural. Only one of them has white dots on the back. Unfortunately it has midnight blue fabric, so I could and still can tell. Apparently you and I have been lucky in the past. Your quilt will still look stunning, no matter if the back has issues or not. It will still keep someone warm. If you've already started it, then only you can decide if it will be worth it to un-do it or continue on. Good luck with your quilt.

I have use a much smaller size needle than a longarmer does , so I have not run into this issue of batting pocking through. I knew there was a right and wrong side to Warm and Natural , but could never remember which was which. Thanks for posting.

Someone on the board once wrote that to remember which way to put on the batting use the phrase "bump it up".This mean that the bumpy side goes towards the top. This helps me remember, though I still have trouble finding the 'bumpy' side, and I've made MANY quilts before knowing there was a right and wrong way. Good luck!

This is called bearding and used to be prevalent with polyester battings "in the old days" (may still be, I don't use poly any more).

I read the same 'right side/wrong side' thing here, but I feel that if it were truly a "worry about this" problem it would be noted on the batting packaging, like quilting distance apart information is, and it would be appearing in articles in all sorts of quilting magazines. Anyone seen articles on this in multiple publications? Me either.

Jan in VA (who really doesn't want or need another "got to" to worry about:rolleyes:)

Jan, I have been quilting a long time and can remember the polyester batting that bearded and even had this happen to one of my earlier quilts. What I had happen didn't lookor act anything like bearding that us "old timers" know of and think of when that term is used. It was actually tiny little bumps of batting. It looked different than bearding and only happened at the needle holes so I would say this is a slightly different problem. As to why the batting companies don't put a disclaimer on the packaging I couldn't say. It is a known issue amongst LAQ but not all LAQ have had it happen to them. I can tell you one thing, you would most definitely worry about it the first time it happens to you. Kind of like, "I wouldn't worry about prewashing or pretesting fabric because I have never had a fabric bleed on me". You would change your tune the first time a bleeder ruined a quilt on you. Once bitten twice shy. I will always makes sure I load W&N bumpy side up from now on.