I came across this article from the Federal Trade Commission... It made me wonder about all of the bamboo quilting fabric and batting being advertised as being "green" "organic" and such. I don't know how it can be if bamboo clothing fabric is being treated with such awful, toxic chemicals...wouldn't it make you think the quilting fabric and batting are being manufactured similarly?

I know several members who are buying and using bamboo in quilting because of chemical sensitivities that they or loved ones have... or who are trying to go green....

Anyway...you can read this, do more investigating, or if you know more about this, please feel free to post here. :D:D:D

Thanks for the info. A few quilters have mentioned how they liked the bamboo/cotton batting. As I'm new at this, I'll stick with one of the Warm and .........'s.
Mary Ellen

Same with organic grown food. People need to get educated! The chemicals allowed for organic food are worse then the regular chemicals used on plain old food crops. And the no hydrogenated oils? It's cotton seed oil. Cotton crops are not regulated at all as food. So it gets the strongest chemicals available, ask any cotton grower if he would eat his cotton plant or the seeds. Too many heads in the sand and taking media hype seriously. Follow the money trail.

this is a chemical-free bamboo batting. bamboo is also naturally anti-bacterial. i've used it and it's very nice. the cost compares very favorably with warm and natural. the shrinkage is about the same. i've made baby quilts with it and it washes well.


http://reprodepot.com/kbcblr1190.html

Thanks for this link. If JoAnn's stops carrying warm and natural i will try this.

Inetersting - I've never used bamboo batting or fabric although I do have some bamboo socks! :mrgreen:

I googled around and found this http://organicclothing.blogs.com/my_...-facts-be.html

It claims that there are two ways of transforming bamboo into fabric - mechanical and chemical. The mechanical way is hardly used as it is so labour intensive, therefore expensive. The chemical way is toxic, especially to those involved in the process but also, potentially to the consumer. New chemical means that are less toxic are being developed. The marketing people concentrate on the eco-friendly way that bamboo can be cultivated and gloss over the manufacturing processes. There are accreditations you can look for when purchasing from organisations like the Soil Association and Oeko-Tex.

I googled this and it appears to be made in the good ol' US of A. :-D

The link I posted above suggests that bamboo products manufactured in the US are by implication, safe and eco friendly. I googled this product to see if I could find specific details on the manufacturing process (ie if it is mechanical NOT chemical) but no joy - the problem is that the brand name is 'Kyoto' so I learned a lot about the bamboo forests in Kyoto, Japan! :lol:

the full article from the FTC website: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/08/bamboo.shtm

i've never bought the stuff and hadn't planned to. too expensive altogether.

having read the whole FTC article, i can't help but wonder how the bamboo plants are processed before the stuff gets to the Kyoto plant for final manufacture of the battting. i can't find any detailed description of the entire process, from grove to batting plant, that proves anything either way.

i believe people should feel free to buy what they want, so i'm not trying to change anybody's mind. but the old adage, "buyer beware" still applies.

Thanks for the information. I had wondered about the bamboo batting.

100% organic cotton batting: is that completely chemical free?

Ummm... isn't bamboo a tropical plant? I've never heard of bamboo fields here in the USA. Can it even be grown here? 'Cause, never mind if the batting is manufactured here, it still matters where and how the bamboo itself was grown. ??

I just wanted to answer your question about can it be grown here. I live on cumberland Island, GA and it grows wild here. It's off the coast on the GA/FL border. it will take over an area.

Thanks for the info.

i live in central new jersey and it grows as a weed. talk about harvest-friendly, this stuff regrows faster than you can quilt it. a true renewable source.

It grows here in France too and believe me, it gets cooold. The locals grow it on rough patches of spare ground and cut the stems to use in the garden and so forth. They also use really tall ones to string the wire for their electric fences over the roads. :-D

I don't fall for the "green" anything, I only use polyester batting and I plan to continue. It turns out very well. I used the warm & natural in a few quilts - not any better than the polyester. I used it to make a bird cage cover and it shrank after I washed it and didn't fit any more. I think a lot of that "green" stuff is going to make fools out of lots of people.

the tall ones here are used as living fences instead of buying fences. also the towns round here have 6' fence restrictions, and the bamboo can grow much taller. as k3n said, they are evergreen.

Bamboo, and similar species, grow by their roots spreading out and they will grow anywhere and take over. The only way to prevent the spreading is to contain the root system. It is a very fast growing plant which is why it is considered green.

I am a progreen/organic consumer, but obviously am very naive as I didn't even think what had to be done to the bamboo in order for it to become a fiber!

I bought a package of it and have being wanting to use it. Now I will have to research it. I DO NOT want more chemicals in us or our environment.

BTW-any time you use a natural batting (cotton, wool, etc) wet and dry it first or it will shrink when you wash and dry your project. I personal love the puckering effect it give to quilts but that's just me.

Thanks for the heads up.

Me too - especially in more traditional projects, though I use poly for wall hangings and stuff I don't want to shrink. I have a little chart on the wall I made with a square of each type of batting, the shrinkage, how close or far you can quilt it etc. Bit obsessive, I know! :mrgreen:

when you get a 50% coupon the price obviously goes WAY down. that's the time to test it out. see what you think.

btw, does anyone know if cotton batting is chemical free, including w & n?

http://www.warmcompany.com/wnpage.html

They say the batting is chemical free but nothing about how the cotton is grown. :hunf:

Hope it isn't too late to ask another question here.

I've made a couple of baby quilts with the Bambooo Batting by Fairfield (the makers of poly-fil) but gave them away. Lately I've been making bibs with Warm and White (IIRC), ran out and have tried 3-4 bibs with the bamboo batting and find it has no "spring" to it. The old cotton batts had a more lively feel. Does that make sense?

Some article or other was discussing "drape" and how the lower loft products had "more drape" or draped better. Maybe this bamboo would drape well (1/4") but it feels more like a towel than a batt!

Anyone else think it is strange stuff?


Jois

i never had that happen. are you quilting too close together and making it stiff?

I have been thinking about this "organic" issue again. In the USA they still do not have a regulation that stipulates exactly what "organic" means in the food industry. So organic foods may or may not truly be organic, it is up to us to find out what the actual growers use as well as the processing plants... It can be organically grown and chemically produced or vice/versa... :roll: Until our government gets a firm regulation in place that stipulates what organic means...we are at the mercy of reading the fine print, or doing mega research if this is an issue for us.
I would have to assume that this is true of our fabrics, clothing, and everything else that is sold with the "organic" label on it.
"Natural" is another misused label too :roll:

Don't I just wish!

I mean compacted - maybe that is the better word. The rest of the bibs felt squishable, the bamboo feel like I put a towel inside. It's probably just the wrong batting for bibs!

Thank you,
Jois

i wonder if it would have been better with thicker batting. that would have had some puffiness, maybe.

Thank you, butterflywing, I guess that has to be it. As soon as we get snow plows through here I'll go hunting for something else.

In Central New Jersey? You might be snowed in, too!

Jois

close to 6" is all it ended up being. we have a cobblestone driveway, so that was a pain. but a nice neighbor did it with his snowblower.

I know it grows well here in Arkansas I've seen diffrent spots where it's growing like wild fire were it is planted.I would really like to get some started here on the front of my property.I love the way it looks.I even like using it for curtain rods instead of all that metail in my house.An I also love to go fishing for cat fish
an have a couple of bambo poles that we use when we're at a lake instead of the Arkansas river.

there's a site that someone brought up recently called (i think) manquilter.com or themanquilter.com. it's a website by a guy who does professional quilting with videos that explain how he does certain things. i'm losing focus, here. point being, he says he only uses bamboo. so i'm thinking it must drape pretty well.

http://manquilter.com/ this is him.

So what do you think of Rayon?

See this:

http://natural-fabrics.suite101.com/..._bamboo_fabric

Very intersting thread all! Thanks for all the info. We had it growing in our garden in Western Australia and it took over! In a climate where we did not get rain for 6 months of the year to boot!! I do understand there are many different varieties tho.

Gal

IMHO, all this big deal about eco-friendly and global warming is to get us to buy more expensive stuff to "save the Earth". Bah, humbug!!!

Bamboo grows like weeds on steroids in California. I guess we have just about perfect growing conditions for most things. Bamboo here is almost considered a nuisance, because it can take over a whole yard or field really quick.

Hummm, just what I suspected!!!

bamboo grows like crazy in central new jersey also. i don't think there's any climate that's unfriendly toward it.

it's lighter weight than cotton and unlike poly it breathes.

Thanks for the new info.

Have to say I haven't seen any grow in Minnesota or Wisconsin....

it grows like weeds in Arkansas to