LoisN

OK. My friend gave me her grandmother's quilt top for me to quilt. It has polyester blocks put together with cotton blocks. The polyester has pulled up and would need to be stretched back to square before quilting. Any suggestions on how to do that? Should I use some sort of stabilizer on those blocks? If so, what do you recommend that I use?

ctack2

My grandmother and great grandmother made me a quilt several years ago that was a mix of cotton and polyester. It was a nightmare! For years, everytime my grandmother visited, she ended up doing repairs on it. It finally got to the point that it wasn't reparable anymore. It's really sad because they are both gone now.
As she was going through all the repairs, we discussed that in OUR opinion, the only help for it would be to go over every seam with a top side zigzag stitch to try to hold it together. We never did that - it was a king size quilt and a lone star pattern, so there were a lot of seams.
Good luck with however you decide to deal with this.
Carol B

Newby0709

My grandmother made one also, except she tied it.

Prism99

Polyester does not shrink, but cotton does. Was the top washed or rinsed at some point? If it wasn't, then I wonder if the polyester blocks turned out smaller than the cotton blocks and the quilter "eased" the cotton blocks to the poly creating ripples.

If the only problem is squaring up the blocks, you can do that by blocking them with starch. Sharon Schamber demonstrates this method in several Youtube videos.

Since you mentioned shrinking, this one might be the most relevant:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQkF0...next=1&index=2

However, if my theory about the cotton blocks being larger than the poly blocks is correct, what you would really need to do is shrink the cotton blocks. That would be this video (which has a 2nd part to it):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6apl...next=1&index=1

Heavy starch will stabilize the blocks through the quilting process. For this type of quilt, you would want to quilt lines very close together (at the least, quilting lines on each side of every seam line) to reduce strain on the seams with use. Polyester frays much more easily than cotton, so the quilting is essential to avoid stress on the polyester.

quiltingfan

I have one that I need to quilt from my grandmother. She must have made all her later quilts out of polyester she loved the stuff. What do you use for the backing? Thanks Beth

LoisN

I've just got cotton for the backing. I'm just afraid that the polyester will draw up the batting and backing when finished.

wvdek

If nothing else, we have learned not to combine the two different fabrics.
I am sorry you are having such a time with this. Hope you find a solution.

Darlene

My MIL used poly and cotton together and I have had no trouble with them. I will take a pic and show it sometime.

littlehud

Wow, this does sound like a nightmare. No polyester for me.