I finally finished my baby quilt after sewing machine drama and bearding from the wool-cotton batting after washing. But now it's dry I am so disappointed. The batting seems to have shrunk unevenly I. Places andmuch more than the fabric, it isn't rectangular anymore and just looks used. I don't even feel I can gift it to the intended owners anymore. Is this normal?

All that work! I am sorry to hear that it didn't wash well.

I prewash my fabric but have never heard of anyone washing batting.

I am new to quilting and have 3 lapquilts almost ready to back. Would be very dissapointed after all the work.

Sorry, I can't imagine your disapointment.

That's terrible! I feel so sorry for you and your poor quilt.

Is there any way I can fix it? Prevent it from happening again? :cry:

i've never used wool batting, but i do remember blocking wool sweaters after they were washed.

wet the quilt again. not soaking/dripping wet. then block it. you'll need to lay it out on a flat absorbent surface ... like a mattress (with towels under, an plastic under that, to protect the mattress.) gently pat and stretch into shape. stick pins into it all the way around so it will hold that shape while it dries.

if you gift it, make sure to include laundry instructions.

Great suggestion Patrice.
I just read here recently about pre-washing batting.

I am just thinking out loud here, but I wonder if before you stretch it. Take the binding off. and then if it will stretch back out and lay flat, once it is dry before you put the binding back on, I am not sure how wide your border is, but put at least one or two rows of quilting right in the middle of the border to stablelize the edges before you put the binding back on.

I have noticed that many of the new batting pkgs say to pre shrink it... I have noticed the all cotton batting gives a wrinkly look. Wool has always shrunk...no dryer for it.Have it dry cleaned or wash with woolite and dry flat. The oldest quilts say to spread a sheet on the ground and dry them out of the sun.
I am lazy and I now use 80/20......the cotton to poly ratio. I do throw it in the dryer with a couple of wet towels to take out any creases and maybe shrink a bit.
I guess it comes down to reading the batting package, or the end of the bolt. Goggle washing batting and see what the newest info is. Things seem to change every few years..
Sorry about your beautiful quilt.
heres one article http://www.quilt.com/FAQS/BattingFAQ.html

The same thing happened to me! I had pre-washed the fabric, then tossed it in for a gentle wash and dried at low temp. It was Warm and Natural and shrunk unevenly. I have not had this happen before, and as you, was very upset with the quilt.

Do you still have the batting packaging? It should tell you how close your quilting has to be - can range from 3 or 4 " to 10", which makes a huge difference. You might need to add more quilting.

I haven't ever prewashed batting.

Me either and I talked with the Batty Lady at a show this weekend. I buy all my batting from her. She carries top of the line battings, Hobbs, Warm and Natural, Dream cotton, etc. She says the wools she carries wash fine, just don't put them in the dryer. Which I never put my quilts in the dryer anyway. I have just started using Hobbs Tuscany 100% cotton and it says right on the pkg will shrink 3-5% which I have seen on every cotton batting, I have ever looked at. But if you use cold water and not dryer I would think the batting should be fine.

I do have the packaging and it says 8", and the widest spaces are 4.5"-5" around the fairy tale squares, the rest is all closer. It also said to wash it on the delicates cycle, which I did, and I didn't dry it.

I wrote to the online shop I got it from advising them of the bearding, which i think makes it unsuitable for crib quilts, but haven't heard back. This is the last time I will even attempt wool batting. I have a few projects lined up for practice and think I'll stick to cotton or old fleece blankets.

I will try damp-squaring, but don't have much hope. If I gave it to the new parents it would probably just go wrong again every time they washed it, and they aren't the most careful people if you know what I mean.

I usually use polyester for baby quilts, it will beard, but does not shrink. The bearding can be a little bit of a problem with most quits. But easy to remove.

I just attended a class and the instructor told us Warm and Natural was the worst and you cannot prewash it because you will end up with stuffing in your dryer. She did recommend prewashing both fabric and batting, If you do one you have to do the other otherwise you will get uneven shrinkage in the quilt.

Try pressing the quilt with a hot iron, it might make it spring back and look a little nicer.

I am so sorry for your heartbreak.

I am so sorry about all your hard work,and it not turning out the way it should of. i would be heartbroken too.
i have never pre-washed batting and never will. i use Warm and natural 98 % of the time. I think alot of people that don't care for it, don't like the "drape" of it.
i happen to like my quilts, come out of the dryer "old looking". They only stay in the dryer for 10 to 15 minutes,then i air dry them the rest of the way.
i only prewash fabric about 5% of the time..Batiks,and solid colors,and flannels. that is all.
I would still give the quilt to the person it was intended for. the only way i can see to make it look less wonky on the ends, is to remove the binding and square it up again,then put the binding back on.

Thanks everyone for the support!
Do you think I should dampen it and try to dry it in the dryer? Also, how do I square a quilt, as I have never done it and don't really know what it is... :oops:

Actually, if you want the puckered antique look Warm and Natural is one of the best to use. That's why most folks don't prewash it. They WANT the antique look. You have to decide beforehand how you want the project to look afterwards. Are your FMQ skills and or SITD skills great? If not, Warm and Natural etc. are good choices. If you want a flatter quilt that doesn't draw up or shrink then an 80/20 or 100% poly choice are the best picks. But they tend to show the quilting stitches more... I don't stick with one batting as my desired end results differ. It all depends on what I want as a final product.

I think wool is one of the trickiest battings to use, since it will shrink so much in the dryer. I always think ahead as to who will use it and unless it were a wallhanging, I'm thinking it would be washed often. Although this was a negative experience for you, chalk it up to a learning experience. We've all had them. And will continue to have them!

here is a bunch of links for you to look at, a few are video shorts
http://www.google.com/search?q=squar...=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8

it actually should of been squared up before you put the binding on. it was what i was taught.
i have used:
a
plumb line (chalk/with string, people use on walls to start wallpaper),also my husband has a T bar..aluminum thing they use to square and cut drywall.

How disappointing. I am sorry to hear that this has happened to you. I will be getting the border on my first top and then getting it ready to hand quilt and this has been one of my biggest fears. I did a bit of searching and found this information on batting. Maybe this will help in the future with batting: http://www.quilt.com/FAQS/BattingFAQ.html I hope the suggestions you received on this board to fix your quilt work. Your fabrics and style are so cute. Best of luck.

Something tells me your instructor was selling something other than W&N, or she had no direct experience with it. I have used the W&N batting on all my quilts, but decided to try pre-washing for the first time recently. I followed the directions on the wrapper, even cheated by doing the washing in the washing machine, and had no problems whatsoever. The batt came out of the dryer looking great.

Here are some instructions I found about squaring up your quilt. The first part is about squaring up the blocks but the squaring up the quilt part is towards the bottom. Good luck.
http://www.quiltuniversity.com/squaring_up.htm

I think that after blocking it like Patrice suggested, that if you stipple the quilt so that it won't happen again. I know that it will change the look of the quilt, but the person receiving the quilt, will never know how you originally planned for the quilt to look.

Oh No!!!! That is so disheartening after all that work!!! I have never used that batting and now I'll be sure not to ever get any!!!
I don't even have any suggestions except chalk it up to experience and go on from there. I'm soooo sorry!!! :-(

Ditter

This sounds like the best plan to me too. Block, quilt more heavily, wash again, and hope for the best. It really is a pretty quilt. Be sure to let us know what happens.

Thanks again everyone, you are very kind. I will block it, but since this is my first quilt I made alone, I just managed Stitch in the ditch and straight lines. Not sure I want to attempt stippling quite yet.
Although if it all goes terribly wrong again I can use it as a practice quilt.

She was definately pushing Dream Cotton and Dream Cotton Wool which I think is extremely overpriced. She also really had alot of bad things to say about 100% cotton thread.

I was amazed. The quilt in my picture was made with Warm and Natural and I washed it after I got it home from the Long Arm Quilter, I love the puffy look and old fashioned look.

I think that most of the products this woman was pushing were all what the particular quilt store sold. She loves to quilt very very heavy and to me it was not realistic looking for a bed quilt but I did learn some good techniques. Next week we go back for one more class, wonder what tips she will give next week!

Patrice is right on the money. Making sure it is pinned securely while drying so it doesn't move is key. It should work out and be a whole lot better. Patience and a little work and I'm sure it will be fine.

I use only Warm & Natural batting. Have never had a problem.

But you know the little one this is intended will love it. AND won't care if there is a wrinkle or two. Do give it and let this child use and love it.

First I would block the quilt. For this amount of distortion, I'm not sure dampening will be enough. I would probably rinse it and spin it out in the washing machine. There may be a demo of how to block a quilt on Youtube.

Before blocking, I would probably spray starch both sides a few times (maybe outside, where overspray won't hurt anything).

Once the quilt is blocked and dry, I would add more machine quilting. Machine quilting stabilizes the sandwich so it doesn't distort. Looking at your photos, I'm pretty sure close quilting would have helped prevent this problem. Even though the package says you can quilt inches apart, closer is better. FMQ stippling, especially in the large blocks (but actually everywhere), would help a lot. It takes some practice to master FMQ, though.

I would probably never use wool in a baby quilt just because so many people are allergic to wool, and babies have such delicate skin. Hobbs wool batting is supposed to not shrink; I think they have a patent on a special bonding process for their wool. It's the only kind of wool batting I would ever buy, and then probably only for wall hangings. (It is supposed to puff up very nicely with fine machine quilting, resembling trapunto work.)

Edit: You know, I went back and looked at the photos again. That is really a cute top and backing. Rather than doing all that work to try to "fix" the batting, I myself would just set this quilt next to my favorite tv spot and take out the machine quilting while watching tv. I'd take the entire sandwich apart and re-layer it with a good batting. I'd be a lot more satisfied with the results, I think. Hobbs 80/20 would be a good choice for the new batting; I'm sure you'd be happy with the results from that one.

I was surprised to see on te labels to prewash the Hobbs batting too. It is just one more step to the process. Oh well.
I am so very sorry that this has happened to you.

I saw Prism99's suggestion that you could pick out the quilting and re-quilt with another batting. I would consider doing that too, if the thread and stitch length permit. I have picked out stitches from most of a queen quilt when I didn't like the way the quilter (me) did it. We all really want you to be happy with this quilt.

Thanks again, I am thinking about it. I have an old friend coming to stay for two days tomorrow morning, so won't get anything done then and will think more about what I'll do. It probably helps to get some distance from it, because right now I am just so frustrated this happened.
Hubby doesn't see anything wrong with it, bless him, and thinks I should just gift it as it is. I may take it all out. Stitch length was 3 on my Janome, which is pretty small and not undoable. I took one seam out the other day when I had a small fold in it and it was okay.

Ditto on taking it apart. It won't take that long, and my mom told me that ripping out threads teaches us patience in future sewing. A little extra time taking it apart will leave you happy to give that gift.

great idea, hope it works.

I looked at the photos yet again. If you can get it blocked, and spray starched, you could probably just machine quilt big X's through the squares and maybe do a zigzag in the outside border. (You could also add zigzags to the sashings, either inside the lines you already quilted or crossing over them.) This would be a lot less work than undoing all the quilting, especially since you already have the binding on.

The key here would be blocking it, which would mean stretching it out and getting it flat allover. The spray starch would help stabilize the top and backing so they don't stretch while you are adding the additional quilting lines.

The zigzag would be straight lines; you just have to stop at each point and turn the quilt. This is still pretty easy to do with a walking foot.

Here's a tutorial on how to block a quilt:
http://www.dreamweavers-quilts.com/q...hort-tutorial/

Thanks! I just looked at it again and it isn't that bad after a few hours. I guess in comparison to how it was before the wash it did look weird, but in comparison to antique quilts it doesn't look that bad. And the only other quilt I ever made was a wallhanging and batiks, so I didn't wash it after quilting.
I do have spray starch, but haven't used it yet. Does it go on when it's damp or afterwards?
I will get my friend to help me square it tomorrow so we can work on both sides.
Thanks for all the great support-you ladies are the best!

You can spray starch either way. I would probably spray starch the top while it is still damp, but after you get it blocked. I would spray starch the back after it is dry and you can turn it over.

I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but on the back side I would probably do layers of spray starch -- a light misting that is allowed to dry, followed by another light misting that is allowed to dry, etc. I think that helps it get absorbed into the fabric.

Let us know how it turns out!

I use the 80/20 cotton and poly batting at Joanns. Before using it I put it in a hot drying for a few minutes. It seems to tighten it up and takes the wrinkles out.

I've been looking at the pictures some more, and I think some of the distortion I saw at first may be just the way the picture was taken. Maybe your DH is right - it's fine the way it is. At any rate, blocking can't hurt and it might just help a whole lot. I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind the starch though - won't you need to wash again to get the starch out?