Potholders and Quilting...just a newbie's thoughts
 

Hi......I am a fairly new quilter and am making potholders. First I made a few with just one layer of Insulbrite... minimal quilting.... and when I washed them they came out fine. But after reading what gals/guys say to do which is to use one layer of Insulbite and one layer of a cotton batting.......I tested one out and when I washed it the batting bunched up a lot. So I started quilting quite a bit on another one but it still washes rather bunchy and it is much thicker than any potholder I ever owned before quilting.

Also, have a question about quilting things...this could just me be being nutty. The potholders I am working on have cute dog faces on them. Now that I have to quilt a lot on them I am not happy that I had to sew over the faces and now they don't look so cute with lines running throught the faces...ha.

Maybe I am being too critical and no one will notice?

Hi, pumpkinsundae, I just made about 60 potholders and I put cotton batting and insul bright income and fusible batting and insulbright in some, I have not washed them yet. I sewed 1/4 inch al around and then quilted an x through them. I hope they wash alright. Scarey

As a quilter, I enjoy reading suggestions/tips that others share. Of course, usually trying out the suggestions. Yet, they do not always help me the way they help others. I think that is because we all use the same principal for quilting but we all end up using our own techniques. Therefore, there is no right way and really no wrong way. So in the case that you are describing above...go back and use only the one layer and quilt it the way you like it.

If your batting is not preshrunk ... it will shrink up and cause the bunching.

I am certainly not saying this is right, only what I have done on some potholders I have made. I am a relatively new quilter, also. I cut two layers of a fabric to go with the recipient's kitchen, (not enough time to piece at the time). I put a layer of insulbright shiny side out next to each layer of fabric and put one layer of cotton batting in the middle. I machine quilted each individual potholder according to the fabric used, sewing around owls, fruit, sunflowers, putting an X on fabric that had only small various colored dots with white around them, etc. I used bias tape to go with the fabric. I learned a lot about binding while making those potholders. I sewed back side of binding through all layers.
I have noticed that different batting has different recommendations about spaces between quilting rows. I would not quilt all over cute dog faces. I would look around at batting (maybe finding this info on the web?), get some that allows more space between quilting lines. I would only quilt those dog faces where the quilting would emphasize each face. The idea of iron on fusible sounds good, also (maybe use both ideas).

Are you using warm and natural cotton batting because I haven't had that problem, might be the wrong batting

Minimal quilting is needed if you make sure the batting is sewn in the side seams. The batting shouldn't bunch up if it secured at all sides. I've never had a problem. I use 2 layers of insulbrite.

What is iron on fusible batting? Does it wash out after it is quilted? Where do you buy it. Tell me more about it. Thanks.

I practiced my free motion quilting while making potholders. Often I followed something designed in the fabric. I personally like a thinner pot holder and so one layer of Insulbrite was just great. I have given away all these lovely potholders and I need to make some for myself. Now I think I will practice different quilt blocks and make them cute potholders.