Does anyone know why a quilt seems to weigh much more after it's been quilted? Seems funny to me that it feels lighter prior to quilting. Does a spool of thread actually weigh that much more? It just puzzles me. :?:

Could it be because they are more dense?

It only feel heavy to me when I have been wrangling it through the throat of my machine LOL :D:D:D

Now that you mention it they do feel heavier the more you quilt them!!! Ok next time I get ready to quilt I am going to weigh myself first then quilt it and weigh myself again :)

Quiltforme, will you tell us what you weigh???? haha

Of course now it would be up to you to determine if I was telling the truth :)
:roll:

Yeah, just like when the driver's license bureau asks if you still weigh... and you just say "Yes!" Who do I think I'm kiddng...

So this is a good question, thread alone isn't very heavy, but once the quilting is complete, even before binding is added, it does feel heavier! I too will do a before and after weight, but I'm only fessing up to the weight of the quilt. Not my weight! Ha ha ha

I think the thread weighs more than we realize. I don't quilt heavily so my quilts don't feel heavier but when a lot of quilting is done on a large quilt you've got a LOT of thread going in there.

That's why quilts aren't used on our bed.DH has always said they're too heavy.We use an older comforter that is very light but warm.

It weighs more because it is filled with love!

Good one!!!!!

I just asked this question to myself the other day.. I have one I took off the Long-Arm I can hardly lift now.. WHY IS THAT?

I like Barbara's answer......

That Must be it

I think that you just wore yourself out doing all that beautiful long arming. that is why you could hardly lift it. hehe :mrgreen:

I like Barbras answer too!

Great answer!!!!!!!!!

I love that quote well said

I have a friend that sends me quilts in those "whatever will fit" boxes from the UPO. He always includes everything -- quilt top, batting, backing and thread. I don't send the thread back -- usually use about 1/2 of the cone. It's HARDER fitting the quilt back in the box than when it comes to me. When he sends them, they fit nicely and the box doesn't bulge. When I send it back in an old or new box, the box bulges. I've wondered the same thing.................

A mystery - theoretically, it should only weigh as much more as the weight of the thread used -

think that's true.

How many spools will it take. Pick that amount up and see how heavy they feel.

I think when it's quilted less air is in the batting so the quilt feels weightier and not so airy.

Well, of course! How silly of me to not think of that. Love is priceless and you can't put a value on it. But, you can include it in your quilt and it's there for as long as the quilt is used.

Thanks, Barbara, for solving this mystery.

Reminds me of a funny story. My daughter has a cat that used to be huge (he's lost weight as he's gotten older). One day she was wondering how much he weighed, so I said "weigh yourself holding him and then without him and subtract".

She picks him up, goes into the bathroom and comes running out visibly distressed, yelling "I weigh 125 pounds". I said "you're still holding the cat". Turned out he was 16 of those pounds. She could be so blond sometimes. :-D

I now return you to your regularly scheduled topic...

Mine never asks, they just put the same weight, but you can bet if I loose weight, I will set them straight.

That's my answer too. Density.

Girls, girls, girls, the denser the quilt the heavier it is the less quilted the lighter it is. Compare a tied quilt to a quilted quilt and you would be surprised at the difference. I used to sell quilts in a consignment store and you would be surprised at the weight of densely quilted ones. Especially when it came to shipping them.

Watch your candy intake in between weigh-ins!!!

And, they take up more space!

Two thumbs up!

Hummmmmmm?!

I wondered that too. I sent two boxes to Rose (rosemaynes) for quilting on her longarm - one box had the tops and backing materials and the other had the batts. The total for shipping the two boxes to her was a little over $45. Same box (one for tops and backings) was used to ship back the finished (except binding) quilts and the shipping cost is $67. And actually there is a little less of the backings and the batts, since they were trimmed to mount them. Strange. Glad to know that I wasn't the only one confused about this.

Trif, love your dog!

I attended an Ami Sims lecture years ago. She said she could tell the difference between a machine quilted and hand quilted item blindfolded. The machine quilt is heavier. She said it was because you are using 2 threads instead of one. And this was before machine quilters began to do dense all-over quilting.

I agree with Ladydi64, the more densely you quilt, the more the quilt weighs. I think putting all 3 layers together
has some thing to do with it.

The batting and backing and thread add to the total weight--combined they all weigh WAY more than the top alone.

MEEEE TOOO! :D

I just got my new driver's license yesterday, and I didn't lie for a change :XD: :thumbup: