I know the Essex Linen went through a very popular phase a few years ago and while I love seeing the texture of it, everything I've read about using linen or linen blends in quilts has made me very wary of using them. Quilting is hard enough without the fear of your hard work unraveling after a few washes!

I have no affiliation with this blogger but I really love her writing and she wrote this wonderful post years ago about quilting with linen after her own experience: https://www.stitchedincolor.com/blog....html?rq=linen

What about black for a background? TP uses such saturated amazing colors and black can really make those pop! Even gray could work well depending on the pattern.

I have found linen to be quite stretchy and guess if I were to use it again, I would starch the heck out of it before cutting.

I use lightweight fusible interfacing for t-shirt quilts to help retain their shape. Might help with linen.

True linen comes in different weights. Washed linen does wrinkle but the more it's washed the softer it gets but will likely always need pressing. I used several of my grandmother's linen napkins once. For myself and my brothers, I had an iron transfer made at an office store and I used the napkins to press the picture onto. I did a border around the napkin and did some quilting in the border and a decorative stitch around the join of the napkin to the border. Came out great. When my parents passes I got the one I made for them back. Family heirloom no one ever thinks of doing.

I pieced/quilted a table runner using Essex linen and batiks. It did not fray to any great degree, certainly no more than other good quality quilting cottons. I do wash on a gentle cycle. Not sure I would use it on a large scale simply because there are various types/weights of linens and each might behave differently.I don't mind doing a light press but don't know if I'd want to do it for a large quilt.




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