Question re: Batiks
 

Hi, I am at a standstill with some batiks I bought recently at a craft show. These batiks were packaged and are all dark medium to dark and I am wanting to put lights in the mix, I have tons of light tone on tones, fossil fern and such. Having not ever worked with batiks before I am in a quandary as I spoke with a friend who is also a longarm quilter and she quite strenuously opposed the idea of mixing these non batiks with the batiks saying that mixing these is a bad idea as they do not play well and are a nightmare to quilt...her machine hates them???? I need to know if this is the case ie you should never mix Batiks with non Batiks.
Grateful for any and all input.
Cheers
Lonnie
from Australia

I have mixed them and never had a problem.

Mix them all the time with no problems. I am a pre washer of my fabrics but I don't know if that makes a difference.

I have mixed them particularly in bargellos and I quilt my own things on my Elna and have not had any problems.

I think I might be able to answer this, there is heavier higher thread count thicker Batiks, if you match your Batiks type with other non Batiks fabric you'll be fine. For example denim (Blue Jean) fabric even the 100% cotton has different weights with higher or lower thread count and thickness, you wouldn't mix the different weights thread counts thickness together or problems are sure to happen.

Mixing fabrics is the new "in thing".

LOL, it's your fabric, it's your quilt. In other words, make your own rules.

I mix them all the time - and I don't pre-wash :eek::shock:

I often use none batiks for borders and binding with batik top and back and never had a problem. Obviously that's not a huge amount of non batik in the quilt but as I said, no problems, and I quilt them on my normal domestic machine.

I mix them all the time and do not have problems, but I am usually quilting my own. Maybe her machine is temperamental and she has to fiddle with tension between the different fabrics?