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Originally Posted by Prism99
(Post 7961401)
Regarding close quilting resulting in a cardboard feeling, I discovered that problem on a doll quilt that I heavily quilted with regular cotton thread. What I have found since then is that dense quilting will not stiffen a quilt as long as the quilting thread is polyester. I have densely machine quilted a large quilt with Glide polyester thread, which has a similar thickness to the cotton thread I used in the doll quilt, and the dense quilting did not stiffen up the quilt at all. It all depends on the thread.
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I am one who ditch stitches around blocks or major design elements for stability as I work. The, I add the design quilting using a variety of threads. I use Bottom Line for the ditch stitching and mostly King Tut for the decorative or design quilting. I am branching out into some polyester threads. I use mostly 80/20 batting but have used silk and wool and really like them. We have so many options and get so many different results. I took a class many years ago from Harriet Hargrave for machine quilting. She gave us (for a price) a stack of 15 or 18 inch squares of a variety of batting samples. We put tops and backing on them and made samples. A great teaching experience. I put labels on mine so I could see what would happen with various combinations. This would be a great guild project. Several people could each buy a specified batt, bring it to class and share with others in order to get a variety of samples.
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quilting distance for Batting.
Originally Posted by zozee
(Post 7961235)
If so dense it feels like cardboard, that doesn't for comfort make, in my opinion. Too far apart and you risk lumpiness and the whole thing falling apart after many washings. It seems that a "minimum" of 10" is much too liberal. That sounds more like an absolute maximum, but even so, makes me shake my head. I'm of the mindset that 5" is a better maximum (you still get a fluffy quilt) but that some motifs have lines as close as 1/2" apart in places, which is very aesthetically appealing if it enhances the piecing.
Probably a happy medium for making sure that 12" blocks won't bunch up would be to at least stitch an X through each one and of course also "in the ditch", right? I always use the rule of thumb - a fist apart. It makes it so much easier to remember |
I understand the manufacturer's recommendation to be the absolute minimum of quilting required to keep the quilt together after a wash. If I put a lot of effort into making a quilt, I definitely won't skimp on the quilting and stay in the minimum range. The design will have to be adjusted to fit the quilt.
It's a good reminder, particularly for beginners, that we need to understand all aspects of the quilting process - quilting distance based on batting being one of those factors. |
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