mona202

I am making a quilt for my daughter and her new husband. It has both light and dark purple along with white however, I am using black muslin for the backing to make it a little more "manly" for the new hubby. What color thread should I use to quilt it? Again, the center is white with embroidered wedding date, then surrounded by white with purple accents on to darker and darker shades of purple but even the dark colors have flowers on them so that is why I am "manning" it up with the black backing. Can you advise? Keep in mind I am just learning FMQ and would like to stipple it on my regular home sewing Kenmore.

Johanna Fritz

I am sorry. I am a visual person and cannot picture it. However, make sure you use black BATTING. Yes, black. If you don't it will "beard" on the back and new husband will be picking white cotton fibers off the black backing. It really makes a difference. I used the cotton batting from Jo Anns. You will most likely need to get it at LQS, vs JoAnns. Please post a quilt photo. You can always use a monofilament thread on top, and black on back. THere is a "smoke" colored (darker) monofilament. THis thread used to be like fishing line. Now it is soft, blends beautiful and highlights the surface design, rather than the stitches. Good luck.

mona202

fantastic and glad you mentioned the battingl I bought the regular Natural batting and never thought about it coming through. I have a dark brown blanket I bought online and it has the fuzz from the batting coming through ALL the time. Thanks for the tips! You saved me embarrassment. I didnt even realize there WAS black batting. I will post a pic once I figure out how to use my new phone and camera. lol

Mona

mhansen6

But won't black batting show through the white fabric on the front? It might make the white look gray.

DogHouseMom

Yeah ...that's what I'm thinking too. I don't know if I would rescue the back and suffer the front.

Unless ... two battings??

As for color thread ... if you want the quilting to show why not use purple on the white and white on the purple. If you don't want the quilting to show use white on the white and purple on the purple.

soccertxi

I have heard of batting bearding thru, but have not had that problem. I just quilted a large quilt with light, medium and dark purple with a natural muslin border. I used a soft green for the quilting. I have found it you match the thread to something, it will disappear as it hits the color you matched it to. Since then, I try to pick a color that contrasts, but does not stand out too much. Do you have some scraps of the top fabric you can audition the thread color on before committing to it? Don't forget, we want pictures!

mona202

Hey thats a good idea on the audition. I have plenty of scraps I can test it on! I will post pics once done but am now in a quandry as to use dark or light batting. Hmmm. I dont really want to use 2 but maybe if I stipple enough, it wont come through the back?

soccertxi

I have never used a dark batting...I think if your fabrics are not too thin, you should not have any problems. I have had trouble getting fuzzies all over a solid black, but that solved itself when I finished the binding. Do you have any friends that have used a black batting that might have a scrap you can try?