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I'm making this Dresden Irish Chain (a free pattern I found from Moda) and am planning to quilt it using some iteration of quilt-as-you-go using various scrap pieces of batting that I have left over from the past several years. I have no idea what kinds of batting these scrap pieces are, other than I know that none of them are wool or bamboo. I think I have only ever purchased all cotton or poly/cotton blend. Here's my question: If I use these various battings and they are not all the same, am I going to run into trouble when I wash the quilt if the batting doesn't shrink at the same rate or any other problems that I haven't thought of? Should I just buy yet another round of new batting? What do I do with this growing mountain of scrap patting? I have no desire to make placemats, bags, or other small projects..... Thank you all!!!

sewbizgirl

I use up my scrap batting by making a quilt-as-you-go quilt every so often. My blocks are 12.5”, so I cut my batting squares 13”. After quilting each one they end up being 12 1/4”.

You can use smaller pieces of batting to dust your house.

I would keep the batting the same in each block, rather than mix battings in one quilt.

Iceblossom

Many of us have pieced "franken-battings". The quilting helps keep the fabrics/batting stable, I think a quilt as you go method would be pretty perfect for using up width- or length-wise pieces. Try and keep the loft/density similar.

Each of us needs to decide what we are willing to save. Batting scraps is a hard one for many of us. I don't do small projects or frankenbatts any more, I try to go ahead and throw away my excess batting that is smaller than a crib top.

bearisgray

I think I would try to have all my batting be the same.

I would have the same concerns about mixed results.

slogan

[QUOTE=Iceblossom;8707746]Many of us have pieced "franken-battings". The quilting helps keep the fabrics/batting stable, I think a quilt as you go method would be pretty perfect for using up width- or length-wise pieces. Try and keep the loft/density similar.

So most of my "scraps" of batting are big enough that I won't have to piece them in any one block, and if I quilt quite densly, for example, each blade of the Dresen, and between each block, that will be enough to prevent any problems if the individual blocks' battings shrink at a slightly different rate? All of my batting is the same loft. Thank you so much for your help!

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[QUOTE=sewbizgirl;8707744]
You can use smaller pieces of batting to dust your house.

I never would have thought to use batting to dust my house. Then again, I never would have thought I should come away from my quilting long enough to do anything like housework!!!

Snooze2978

I have used the smaller scrap pieces of batting to dust my house also. Plus I keep even smaller pieces to clean my quilt frame rails as well as the table itself as I have curious kitties that think they need to investigate what's on top of my quilt table so batting tends to catch all the loose cat hair that a swiffer duster doesn't.