Help! Mouse tore all batting from one side of pinned quilt sandwich!
 

I pinned DS's twin-size quilt sandwich and laid it out on the sofa so it wouldn't wrinkle before I got the machine back from repair and could quilt it. That was Saturday. If was fine last night. Tonight I came home from work and found the entire long-side lower edge had been attacked and batting ripped out all ragged.

Can you see from the pictures? The whole length is torn up. Must have for a been a whole mouse hotel.
What to do? I can't quilt it because not enough batting, and I already trimmed the sides to 2 1/2" all round. Can I carefully unpin and try to attach another piece/pieces of batting along that edge?

Does Joannes have something to tape together batting? LQS?

Appreciate any advice
thanks

there is an iron on tape that is specifically for batting - not sure Joann's has it but your local quilt shop should. Can also be found on line.

Yes, Joanns has it. Batting tape.

http://www.quiltinaday.com/shoponlin...ay.asp?i=30053
Here is a link to the tape with a video on how it works. I know Elanor used it on a quilt that was already pinned in one of her videos, but don't remember which one.

My pups have done this to my quilts before and I too was upset. I just laid more batting over the torn pieces and hand stitched it together. The batting tape should work fine too if you can find it. Once quilted it never showed a bit Sorry that you have to deal with this.

Bless her little mouse heart - She is making a nest for her spring babies. I hope you have a cat.

Sorry but that was my first thought. The batting tape or just hand stitching will add enough batting and it will not show.

Quilter68

Joanne's only has it on line but I will try LQS tomorrow. If no luck will try to neatly hand-baste.

I am now somewhat calm and I am going to go find some batting strips. But guess what I did with the cutoffs from the sandwich? I cut them into squares/rectangles along with the cutoff backing so I could use it to practice FMQ and test thread/tension settings HAH. Little Miss Efficiency!

Thanks for your help -

PS - no cat, and our old dog could care less.

Rather than the batting tape, just get some fusible interfacing, cut it into .5" - 1" strips and - tada - batting tape at a fraction of the cost!

Get a cat. Mice are bad news for a house, and they proliferate. If you can't get a cat, at least get a humane mouse trap and check it every day. We have liberated a lot of field mice back into the wild. :)

Oh dear, be sure the rest of your fabric is safely stored away from the mice. I would just unpin that section of the quilt, trim the torn batting so it is not ragged, lay another piece right up against it, and whip stitch the two together. I do that all the time when my batting is too short. For such a small area it would be easier than finding a fusible.

It's an 84 inch section - all the way down the side of the quilt which was draped on the floor. But could be done!

Our old cat was a great mouser, brought us many trophies in her day. I thought we had got rid of all the mice when they left the kitchen (in little body bags if that is not Too Much Info!). It never occurred to me they would still live here but 'eat out' every night!

I piece battings all the time, sewing pieces together to make whole batting for a full/queen size. I have tons of scraps from all the quilts I have made, those scraps are like fabric scraps, seems I can never use them all up. I just sew them together by hand with a large zigzag stitch, once quilted one can't tell I did it.

If you could see my storage closet with the bags of leftover strips and pieces of batting stuffed between books and papers, you would have a field day!

Do you machine quilt heavily? do your quilts get washed much?

My concern is that hand sewing might not stay in place when you make your sandwich and keep smoothing out the quilt top - does it ever roll up or lump up?

As a beginner if there are 10 things to go wrong I will find half of them any given day! This week I've found ALL of them, mouse included, plus dealer forgetting to finish my machine maint and putting my bobbin case in wrong twice.

Lay your sandwich out on a table; fold both the top and the backing back away from the damaged batting.
Trim away the damaged batting in a long strip.
Cut a new batting strip the width needed.
Butt the edges of the old batting and the new strip and use batting tape or a serpentine or zigzag machine stitch to join them (my preference).
Reassemble the sandwich and keep on keeping on!

But, I must say, it seems to me you have more problems than a torn batting if a mouse in your house has done such damage in one day. I hope you catch it....and all it's buddies.....quickly. Rodent droppings can be very hazardous to your health.

Jan in VA

Nasty little buggars! Cute- but destructive. The only good mouse is an outside mouse! Check all your fabric stash immediately, and put it in totes.

I live in the country with pasture all around and I understand the "mouse" problem. We put out the "mouse food" all over the house and got rid of the ones IN the house. But the best thing we did was to get an outside cat. We haven't seen a mouse in several years. He also catches moles and gophers. I will never be without an outdoor cat! We have since taken up all the poison, because our dog is inside a lot.

On the batting, just cut a strip and use a large whip stitch to attach it. Once you quilt it you won't have to worry about it moving.

Ummmm, I think I'd be a bit more concerned about the fact that I had mice in my house, than the fact that some batting was torn from a basted quilt.

I would cut away the ruined part of the batting and just lay in another piece. Once it is quilted it isn't going to shift. Maybe just use some spray baste to hold it while you quilt. Some mouse has a nice cozy home!
peace

No advise about quilt but you might find this interesting I came home from being gone 2 months. Mouse dropings all over my kitchen counters all dog food under sink ate up I bleached everything set out traps got 2 mice upstairs I guess they had did away with a few mice in there house while I was gone. Well I knew I still had at least one mouse left because I saw him. Well about 2 weeks ago I started seeing mouse droppings on my counter again now mind you I have 3 traps out. BUT EVERY morning I have to disinfect my counters I just can't seem to get rid of him

Get the mouse traps out and then baste a piece in and no one will ever know.

A new generation of mice are probably coming in because of the weather and the goodies. If they're anywhere in the house, it's just a matter of time until they get to the kitchen.

Glad you can fix the batting. And very glad that they didn't tear up the quilt top/bottom in the process!

Get a cat!! Your mouse problems will go away. Mine lives outdoors and I don't have mice anymore. Meantime, get the poison and set it in strategic locations: back corner of your counter, under the sinks (kitchen and bathroom) and in the laundry room. This might not be possible if you have a dog inside, but if you don't....this works.

I am so sorry about your quilt. There is a tape that will attach batting pieces. Probably JoAnnes would have it.

That's what I use too! Batting tape is too expensive

Just be glad that it didn't attack the quilt top. My mom always told me find the good in every situation.

Now you can trim away the bad section of the batting and attach a new strip. I like to fuse the join with a 1/2" strip of fusible stableizer or interfacing, then zig zag over the join.

I know you said you had no more batting, but guess you will have to get some.

Oh, and set some traps. LOL

I piece battings very often and I usually just whip stitch them together unless it is a firm one like warm and natural. Then I run a zigzag line tby machine to join the pieces. Batting has become so expensive .

My first thought was "buy a mousetrap."

I have seen the tape used for batting. It is awesome

yes joanns does have spray adhesive or the tape will work fine.

That makes me think of the time some years ago I had a flannel backed table cloth on a picnic table on the deck and the squirrels tore a good share of the backing off of the table cloth. Probably made good nesting material.

yes, this! JoAnn has very lightweight fusible, a whole "bolt" is very cheap ($6?) and you can cut strips/pieces to patch in batting. MUCH MUCH cheaper than batting tape (sure wish I'd have thought of that tape - quite the money-maker!). I've done this and it works great.

I mended the quilt batting with tape as I was not finding it easy to join two edges by hand - either thread too tight or too loose. When I pinned it back together I noticed a chewed area right on the seam at the right-angle corner of the outside strip of the corner triangle, of all places, so I had to perform a little strip surgery on each side of the strip, which I did by hand. Lessons learned there!

I looked under the sofa and to my horror discovered that it contained several of those little felt catnip mice, half chewed, and a rather thick scattering of mouse poop, along with other bits of fuzz. I don't think the catnip mice were pooping, but were the real mice playing with the catnip mice? Hmmmm. Poor old cat has been gone for a few years.

Housecleaner evidently didn't move sofa ever (shudder) so I am now on a real spring cleaning of my own! There's another positive outcome.

I put two traps out, baited with PB and toast, and added a couple scraps of batting on top to attract their attention, but no bites yet.

Well, all's well that ends well. :)

I hope you can fix it. And get mouse traps!

Wow - that's unbelievable!!

I've had mice use the fuzzy inside of a grill cover to build a nest in my gas grill. We found babies when we went to grill for the first time during the season.

Let's hope you don't have a nest somewhere in your house.

must be a reeeeealllly big mouse to do that much damage in one day.

I would have been freeked out.......would have unpinned and laundered top and back and used new batting......that piece of batting may be ok but i think mice pee also...................actually i have no experience with mice so am probably overreacting.

We have pasture all around us, so very familiar with the little devils. I use to use the old fashioned mouse traps but couldn't catch any mice. So now I use the sticky pads. When we had our house, yard, and shop sprayed they gave us some better sticky pads. Anyway, they usually come in the house in the spring so I keep pads out. But cannot keep the devils out of the vehicles. They chew up the wiring and make their nests. Automotive people hate when they have to get nest out to change the oil. lol One other thing about the sticky pads; other insects get stuck also (think spiders and scorpions).

First, I sincerely hope you set a few traps to get that bugger!!!!! You can also sort of tear the edges of a piece and "blend" it into that "eaten" area....should work fine...........

oh boy...a mouse is nesting somewhere close by...time to set some traps...gonna have babies...

Be prepared!! That'll make one heck of a mouse bed!!!! lol