I’ve used them in a number of quilts and art pieces. I’ve never had a problem quilting them on my domestic machines. They do often have a tighter weave than quilting cottons, but I haven’t noticed that that caused any problems.

I seem to recall a couple of years ago some of the long arm quilters were saying that they had more tension issues (or maybe it was problems with skipped stitches) with batiks, but may be misremembering...

Rob

I made this quilt in 2003 (yep, I labeled it.) I sprinkled it with batiks that added so much character to the quilt, I really loved it. Now for the bad news. The batiks have deteriorated along the stitching lines, one photo shows it along the machine piecing line, the other along the hand quilting line. This is only happening to the batiks fabrics. All fabrics for this quilt were bought new in 2002/3 from my local quilting shop to make this quilt. This is when I was new to quilting and did not have a "stash". I am very leery of those beautiful gems now. The good news is I have some of the fabric in my stash and I plan to restore this quilt by switching out those squares with the same fabric or another from the collection.

this is the pic along the hand quilting line. Any ideas what would cause this on the batiks only?

I have found that using a Microtex needle that has a very sharp and tapered point works well when quiliting the sandwich due to the tighter weave of batiks.

I use a sharper needle when piecing and FMQ batiks...Like a 70/10 or 75/11 because of the tight weave.

The quilt in my avatar did bleed a bit when it was first washed but there were a lot of reds and I forgot to instruct my son and DIL to use a color catcher.

I always use microtex needles with batiks because their sharp point pierces the closer weave of the batik better.

I have a small collection of batiks. Mostly scraps from making quilts for my mom... she loves batiks. A new, sharp, quilting needle is a good idea when you start quilting. Because of the tight weave, you can hear a dull needle pierce the fabric with every stitch.- Don't make your machine work harder than it needs to.

I've also discovered that I'm not fond of English Paper Piecing with batiks. The tight weave makes it much more work. I'll stick to quilting cottons for my EPP.

I love to use them also. I like their crispness when used in piecing. I did have trouble one time when I used a batik for the backing and quilted it on my longarm. I just couldn't get the stitches to be nice on the back.

Sometimes, if you have to remove a seam or a line of quilting, it looks like the stitching line will not heal up, but I think it always does after washing.

I LOVE to use batiks with black background fabric. As quiltingshorttime said above, it's like a "treasure chest full of gems".

Following with interest, I will be attempting my first batiks quilt after the Holidays.

I did purchase some batiks from a lady who was quitting quilting, 20 min. after I got the things home my house(condo) was engulfed in cigarette odor. Needless to say, I pre-soaked and dried outside in the shade. The one color that bled was a lavender and there was one piece that after more soaking I never did get the entire bleed out.