I wish I had an explanation or solution for you, but I don't. However, m any years ago, I made and sold my first consignment quilt, in a roman stripe pattern, using cotton fabrics in solids, plus black. Imagine my surprise and chagrin when the person who bought the quilt, called me and said that little holes had appeared in some of the black triangles. I was horrified, as it was the first quilt I had sold, ever, but I took it back, found that about half the triangles had little "holes" in them, but not all. I had purchased all new fabrics, but unless I accidentally switched out one of the black fabrics, I'm not sure. In any event, after much deliberation, I hand appliqued new black triangles on the quilt, then quilted over them, and thankfully, I did not hear about any more holes in the fabric. As careful as I try to be about buying my fabrics, this was a first for me.

Marking thread - my whole stash is batiks!!! Never heard of this, but don't have anything that is 15+ years either. Curious if anyone else has input. Do you know what brand batik it was?

I don't think it's the quality that makes the batiks expensive, it's the process used to have the gorgeous colors.

Holy cow, I've got a bunch of batik fabric!!!

this absolutely is killing me!!!! My green quilt that i just finished has some batiks in it and the backing is batik.

This past week at quilting, we actually had a conversation about black. We are working on a grandma's flower garden that has black centers and the centers all seem to be dry-rotted.

One of the ladies mentioned she had made a quilt w/ black in it and the solid black had deteriorated relatively quickly. I have a quilt in my head for my sister and it was going to have black tone on tone. Now i'm having 2nd thoughts because I surely don't want the black to deteriorate.

well this is a bit disappointing. I wish I knew someone in the fabric business who could explain this clearly. I have batiks in a couple of quilts that I have kept and several that I have made and gifted....

I hope we can come up with a definitive answer! I have been collecting batiks for a quilt I hoped to start later this year. I have several tone on tone blacks that were going to be the background. Now I'm not so sure.........

If you have seen how batiks are made you wonder that they ever hold up at all. Could be a chemical reaction to the metal in the dyes eating the fabric. A rust spot on cotton will rot before the rest of the fabric, because of the iron in it.

I haven't used any batiks and will avoid them if at all possible.

Thanks for the post, Ethel

So glad I have never really cared for batiks; however I bought a kit 2 yrs ago for a church raffle quilt that was batik, front and back. Hope it holds up.

My inexpert opinion is that this isn't a problem with all batiks. I made myself a batik camp shirt 9 years ago, and it gets washed probably every other week in the summer, in mixed loads that include jeans, regular detergent. It's beginning to show a little wear at the fold line where the collar and collar stand join, but no more than what happens with other cotton shirts.

Daffy