Piecing Batting
 

How many of us cobble together batting to fit irregular or outsized quilts?
My latest is 94 square. I didn't want to waste a king size batting and the queens are 90 x 100+. I turned the batting and trimmed it and basted the cut off to the short size. I only needed to insert a piece about 10 square at one corner. I wouldn't do this on a customer quilt but for mine I economize where I can.
MaryKatherine

i've done that many times. sure is a money saver

Once it's quilted, there's no way anyone can tell you pieced the batting. I do it all the time, even on small projects.

Nearly every quilt I make - I have to piece the batting. I bought a roll of batting once and that worked the best minimal piecing but it was a lot of money to shell out at once :)

I also do it all the time. I can't afford to waste my resources, I'm on a budget. No one has ever complained! ;-)

I use the batting tape. It's faster and easier for me then sewing batting together. It's almost impossible to tell it's been pieced together when quilted. My guild has six or seven longarmers and they bring in big bags of batting scraps to anyone that wants them. They have more scraps then they have time to mess with piecing together. No one in our guild has to buy batting at all if they want to piece the scraps. Many times we have too many batting scraps and have to donate them.

I do for mine and for Charity quilts that I quilt for our group. I have tried and use both (depends on the mood) batting tape and sewing it together. Haven't had any issues so far

I buy batting by the roll and piece it when necessary. When I've accumulated a lot of batting scraps, I sometimes piece them all together for a quilt. Batting is too expensive to waste. I have tried whip-stitching (too much work) and using tape, but I've found that zigzagging the pieces together works best for me.

To me, it is not even that batting is too expensive to waste. I feel wasting anything is wrong and I try not to take anything for granted. We live in a beautiful world with limited resources. Besides, who is going to see if I make a mistake sewing batting?

This is what/how I do it as well. See nothing wrong with piecing batting for any quilt.

I don't save a lot of leftover things, really all I save is my quilting leftovers. Stored clutter gives me stress. I will give it away instead of tossing it and that's as green as I'll be.

I have lots of pieces of batting from previous quilts, but I have never used them yet. I have the batting tape, but have never used it yet, either. I think I'm chicken. I always use a full piece of batting.

You gotta do what you gotta do. I've done it often but not on a real arge quilt. My question to you LAQers. Probably not a good idea unless its your own quilt on your own machine? Just thinking there might be more stretching and torque needed on a LAQ frame, or doesn't it matter?

I have not done it yet I save large pieces and think it is a wonderful idea.

You are right to add the extra rather than "size up" for just a few inches. I have a drawer of batting scraps, I use just about every square inch of batting. Its amazing how quickly you can have enough for a project.

How do you sew the batting together so it is a consistent thickness all over? It seems like it would be thicker at the joined edge. I've had issues with it being thicker and thinner just from trying to get it smooth when I'm doing the sandwiching. What am I doing wrong?

I butt the edges and do a whip stitch. This piece was at the edge so it didn't need to be as strong as it would if was closer to the center and taking more strain in construction.
MK

I butt the edges together and use a medium zigzag stitch. It works fine with no added bulk. I have never noticed any stretching or wonkiness but then I don't use a long arm to quilt my messes.

I but them up and zigzag...never had a problem. I do it with all of my quilts.

For smaller items, I have pieced larger pieces leftover from quilting projects. At first, I used to zigzag them together. Then I used the joining stitches. Now I use either flatlocking on the serger or the batting tape. I really like the way the last two methods work.

I piece batting for my quilts. It saves money.

Buy lightweight iron on interacting, strip it and works great at much less cost than the tape.

I zig zag, but also try to cut the edges in a "wavey" pattern instead of a straight edge

I piece batting with the whip stitch for myself and quilts I give away, I cannot tell any difference after it is all quilted. I donot piece batting for customer quilts though I just wouldn't do that.

I recently pieced enough batting to make 4 charity quilts. I use the triple-stitch zig zag to piece it together. I agree that once it's quilted, no one knows the difference.

I butt the pieces together then sew it with a fringe foot and a zig-zag stitch.<o:p></o:p>
This keeps it together with out compressing the batting. <o:p></o:p>

I do what I need to do - like the batting tape. Makes life easier!

Yes I have cobbled batting to fit

Once I had to piece the batting for an oversized king size quilt. I used the batting tape and was pleased with the results. Now, I use my left over batting for practicing FMQ. If I ever master that, which is doubtful, I will probably piece batting. I'll probably use a large zig zag stitch.

Idid it on one of mine as a can you tell? I still can't tell which corner it is on Norman any quilting friends.

I also piece my scraps together by butting the edges and zigzag stitch, I've used it in dozens of quilts...no one but you know after it's finished. I don't quilt for profit I give all mine away.I do this cause it's fun and saves my sanity....so I have to be thrifty since I do give them away.

Exactly how I feel as Alwayslearning wrote :I do it all the time. Once quilted it is like the rest of the quilt.

I piece whenever necessary to get the size I need.

I do it all the time. I call it Frankenbatting. It's become an obsession!!

Wasn't the objective of quilting long ago about being imaginative & thrifty? If need be I piece my batting, either by zigzagging it or using the fusible tape. I don't find a problem with either method.

Haven't done it on a quilt yet but have done it on bags. I don't join it. I just plan it to come up to a line I'm going to quilt along, sort of like quilt-as-you-go. It's never gone anywhere.

If you don't like joins and have lots of scraps, gift them to someone who makes bags or soft toys! I love finding small pieces of batting in my stash, always an inspiration to make something :) .

So true! I piece my batting all the time. It does not show, and I dare anyone to be able to tell where it was pieced after the quilting is done. Here's a tip I can pass on: when I have scraps of batting I trim the edges square, then measure and fold the piece. I write the measurements on a small brightly colored sticker ( like you use for yard sales) and place it on the lower right edge of the folded batting. I then store all the pieces in a big plastic tub with the folded edges on the same side. When I need a piece of batting for a table runner or placemat I can just thumb through the folded edges and look for a measurement that's close to what I need. Same thing with piecing 2 or 3 larger pieces. I can pull out the pieces that, when combined, will give me the size I need. A giant zig-zag seam later, I have "free" batting!

I always piece my left overs, why throw them out or give them away. Use in a quilt, table runner, hot pads, wherever!

I try to use the same type of batting for most quilts. I save the scraps and piece them into other batting when necessary. I square the edge of the pieces and mark their size when storing them. I purchased tricot fusible interfacing by the yard (I think it was 60" wide. Then I cut it into 1.5 inch strip using my rotary cutter and mat. That was a huge savings-in fact, I packaged it up in baggies and shared with my quilting friends.

What is batting tape?