MaryKa

What is this and is it in all batting? I would prefer 100% cotton and Some I want thicker as it needs to keep street people warm during our winters. My church gives out blankets/quilts every October so this is where all my quilts will go that are for giveaways which most will be for.

quiltedsunshine

I found this about scrim. “Scrim” describes a light layer or grid of woven fibers added to some cotton battings. It acts as a stabilizer and helps to hold the batting together while quilting. This can be a good safeguard if you're just starting out, or if you prefer a design with wider spacing between quilting lines.

Here's an interesting article about scrim. https://artfabrik.com/tutorials-2/ho...de-of-batting/

I think scrim is a good thing as it helps hold those fibers together.

ToBoldlyQuilt

Can I ask why you want them to be 100% cotton, and also why you're giving quilts rather than blankets or sleeping bags? From what I know, something like a quilt is more likely to be stolen in that situation. Polyester is warmer than cotton, and also much lighter. Cotton takes a long time to dry after getting wet, too. There's a reason why sleeping bags aren't made of cotton. I started thinking about ways to make an all-cotton quilt warmer without having to spend a fortune on deluxe cotton batting, such as using corduroy for the quilt back, but that has the same drawbacks: heavy and takes longer to dry.

If you are aiming to help people who are sleeping rough outdoors, I suspect quilts aren't a good option. Have you spoken to charities who work directly with unhoused people, and better still, to people who have lived experience of this? Why not donate items they really need, or simply money? Perhaps make a bunch of quilts to raffle off and send them the proceeds?

Alternatively, if you want to send quilts to people in need, there are lots of folk in poverty who have roofs over their head. I've been homeless, but I was "hidden homeless", which is really common. I was sleeping on friend's floors, and then in council homeless accommodation, and eventually was put into a long-term council flat. I was very lucky that the council homeless accommodation was a one bedroom flat, as a lot of folks are in hostels and such. Anyway, the point at which a quilt would have been something I could use was once I had a reasonably stable roof over my head and was no longer packing up a bag and moving around every few days or weeks.

A lot of people are having to choose between heating and eating these days. Disabled people are particularly at risk. I've just made a quilt in a week (this is more of a big deal because I'm disabled and only sew by hand) for a friend who has the same disabilities as me, can't afford to heat her home properly, has terrible circulation, and was shivering despite four layers of clothing and the bedding piled up. So I made her the warmest quilt I could, which meant needlecord both sides, plus a bit of velvet in the top, cotton velvet is surprisingly cheap, and polyester batting. The only thing I bought was the batting, the rest was stash.

Mkotch

For very cold conditions, would wool batting be better?

MaryKa

Hang on everyone. Please understand I am NOT upset by any suggestions or ideas or questions. When I post I hope people with better knowledge about quilting than what I have answers and gives suggestions. Momma was a great quilter and I quilt but nothing like my Momman did. I need the suggestions to help me get this project finished.

I was homeless for 3 years and had my van that had a broken drive shaft but I still drove because I did NOT know it was broken until I got a flat as I entered a Sam's Club parking lot to get a set of new tires. A friend of mine who is a State Trooper was there to pick up his POV and return home off duty. The van was placed on the rack and the manager called me AND the Trooper into the garage with the news about my drive shaft. My friend asked if he would replace all my tires and then asked me where I was staying. I pointed to the van. He called for backup and the 2 of them went with me to the Red Roof Inn -- one in front and one in rear with light bars on while going 35 mph on the freeway. When we arrived they made certain I was parked and paid for 2 weeks. I was also told I better not be found driving that van on the road again. I agreed and explained I thought the stearing column fluid container had a hole because it was always leaking out. He looked at me then said I was right it has a hole the size of his fist and repeated he better not see it on the road again.

I do know what it is like to be homeless but have shelter. I also know what it is like to sleep in the barn because they didn't have an extra bed for a non-guest. I slept in an empty stall.

As to donating "what they really need" I have AND I do "donate things they really need" like food and non-food staples--paper towels, napkins and toilet paper as well as otc pain relievers. I buy food for those I see on the streets and ask my Officers to do welfare checks if there is someone in distress. These individuals also get fed by the Officers.

My church supports the many agencies that are already established to give shelter and items in need. I have several friends that are Officers and Fire Crew members and they have all said quilts are what the homeless and shelters ask for.

The next reason I'm making quilts also is I have FREE fabric given to me almost every week from the people in our quilting guild and at present I have 51 packing boxes (18" tall x 12" square size) FULL of fabric and several pieces on my dining room table. I sit in a power chair as I am also disabled so my quilts will all be machine sewed and quilted in strips from 3-5 inches as it is easier for me to work with the larger sized blocks.

Sometimes I even have free cotton/batting and they all say it is 100% cotton. It's also left overs and in mostly trash-type bags so I get no extra information about it.

I watched some quilt show on youtube that showed how to quilt individual squares anand then sew them together with 3-inch shashing between the blocks. I will try this with some blocks and striping pieces before I committ to doing a large quilt. BTY, the largest size quilt I will be making is Twin. I can make more quilts and if they have kids they can sleep next to each other and lay the quilt turned sideways to cover the kids.

As to using 100% cotton--my mother never used anything else so it's in my blood. This is why I asked about the scrim. Momma never used anything call scrim. Our cotton was puffy, had lots of seeds and the quilts were always extremely warm.

In case someone is thinking about clothing -- YES I do make clothing first if there enough fabric to make a slack and blouse set for the kids. Sometimes I get homesick for the past and even make some fancy skirts for girls. However almost all of my fabric is from quilts so it is mostly scrapes.

I didn't know they made a wool batting. Do they have this in the USA??? That might be even better at least for baby quilts.

As for sleeping bags/blankets--I don't have that kind of money and I need to do as many as possible. Also every quilt may go to shelters. I have no idea as I will not be giving the quilts to anyone except to my church. The pastors are in charge of what happens to them after I give them to the church.

ALL new and extra ideas are very welcome. Thanks to all who have posted ideas.

ToBoldlyQuilt

If you want to test the material content of batting, there are burn tests you can do. I'm still not sure why you're worried about scrim. You're not hand quilting, are you? It's meant to be quite helpful for machine quilters. Do you have ethical objections to synthetic fibres? I'm uneasy about that too, but recycling is a good option there, I think, and you're using up batting people have given you.

Speaking of using wide strips, I made this last week using wide strips, and it's still a fun design. Get a square to use for the centre, then keep sewing strips as you go around, like a giant log cabin. After a while, you start joining pieces to make the strips long enough, which is where it starts looking more interesting. You can simply put them into piles by width to work with. Not quite enough of this blue 5" strip for this side, find the purple 5" strip from earlier and add a bit of that.

Corduroy lap quilt

Are you relying on the church to decide what's best for the quilts, and are they relying on you for the quilting knowledge to guide them?

Wool is one of the most expensive battings, and is more easily damaged by washing. I don't think people use it for donation quilts.

If you're using the batting you're given, and budget is important, that's fine. Just remember that cotton is heavier and not as warm as poly, and it takes longer to dry. That doesn't mean a cotton quilt won't make a fine, warm quilt, but it makes a difference to which situations it's best suited to. I used recycled poly for the batting in that corduroy lap quilt, because it needed as be as warm as possible, and I use it in wheelchair quilts for the same reason. If you're caught in the rain when you're out with your wheelchair, or run into some mud, you want something easy to wash, and which dries fast. You do not want a quilt going mouldy. At this time of year, I'm not using my beautiful wheelchair quilts, it's too wet and muddy, so I'm using some hi vis yellow fleece I folded up and stitched together.

On the other hand, cotton breathes better, for anyone prone to overheating, which is one reason why I use it in my bed quilts. If you like heavier quilts, it's great. You can tumble dry it, which will be an advantage for people with a tumble dryer.

You do not have to personally fix all the problems of the world with your quilts, love. You sound like you're doing a huge amount already. If you have the materials for making quilts which are more suitable to people who are in unstable but housed situations than people who are living on the street, then that is still really useful, and you can find good places for them to go. A quilt would not work at all for someone living on the street. It'd be far too bulky and heavy, and once it got wet, that would be a nightmare. It would weigh even more and would have no chance to dry properly, so it would get mouldy. Also anything nice gets stolen fast. The reason why two-factor authentication locks unhoused people out of services is because 2FA requires a phone, and since unhoused people's phones are stolen regularly, they end up getting locked out of their email, and then can't access support services without email. I understand that you have a strong emotional connection to homelessness, but this is not a problem that is helped by the direct application of quilts. On the other hand, when someone who has nothing finally gets a home, a quilt will finally be useful and much loved.

You mentioned that you're disabled too. How about your local disabled community? If they're anything like mine, many of them could really do with a quilt. Ask around! I'm sure you love your church, but a lot of us have not had good experiences with churches, so you may find going through your disability contacts gets you to people the church wouldn't have connections with.

quiltsfor

Beautiful, well said!