My Secret Adventures into Hawaiian Quilting - Other Crafts

H Haole'akamai Member The Polynesian Port of NOLA Joined: Jul 07, 2005 Posts: 2276	H Haole'akamai Posted posted on Tue, May 29, 2007 1:22 PM Whee!! I finished the needle-turn applique. Front Back My points, curves and valleys turn out a bit (quite?!) irregular but my needle skill really improved by the end of even this small part of the project Next adventure: Echo Quilting, a.k.a. Walk Softly and Carry a Thick Bat. I went to My Local Quilt Shop (MLQS) to get batting. Nancy Lee Chong recommends a 4oz to 6oz poly batting, but the only thing MLQS had was very thin cotton batting. They had about 5 different brands of the same very thin cotton batting, but nothing else. Not different sizes, mind you, different brands. When I asked about 4oz (since I've decided to make this quilting into a pillow top, I'm opting on the thinner side) poly batting, she told me, "Oh, no one uses that anymore! You don't want to use polyester, anyway; it beards [I can explains this term, if people want]! I suppose if you want it thicker, you could just double it [the very thin cotton batting she was selling] up." I did notice that the DVD was produced in the early 2000's, so I was unsure about the latest techniques in quilting. Maybe Nancy Lee Chong had been left behind :( ... I bought some of the very thin cotton batting, but with great confliction. I decided I needed to call Pacific Rim Quilting Co for assurance. Janice, Nancy's sister, who runs their store up in Snohomish, answered on the first ring. I told her what MLQS told me. Seriously, she chuckled and then told me that the reason why MLQS only carried one product (in five different brands) was due to the rise of Modern Machine Quilting. It's hard to stuff 6oz batting under a machine needle. If you use that batting, you won't see the echo quilting. Doubling it won't work because then your batting'll be the right thickness, but too dense and sleeping under it would be like sleeping under a concrete block - a tad bit heavy. "Bearding" is practically unheard of these days due to improved production techniques for poly batting and higher quality mass-produced cotton fabrics. In the 28 years I've been making Hawaiian quilts, only my first one beards and that's because I used a loose-woven cotton [fabric]. Alright! I knew Nancy Lee Chong wouldn't steer me wrong. I went out to Discount Fabrics (I get all my Dicken's (and used to get RenFaire, when I did that sort of thing) fabrics there) and found 4oz Poly Batting. It's thicker, but spongier. Anyone need a crib-size piece of cotton batting?

Whee!! I finished the needle-turn applique.

Front

Back

My points, curves and valleys turn out a bit (quite?!) irregular

but my needle skill really improved by the end of even this small part of the project

Next adventure: Echo Quilting, a.k.a. Walk Softly and Carry a Thick Bat.

I went to My Local Quilt Shop (MLQS) to get batting. Nancy Lee Chong recommends a 4oz to 6oz poly batting, but the only thing MLQS had was very thin cotton batting. They had about 5 different brands of the same very thin cotton batting, but nothing else. Not different sizes, mind you, different brands. When I asked about 4oz (since I've decided to make this quilting into a pillow top, I'm opting on the thinner side) poly batting, she told me,

"Oh, no one uses that anymore! You don't want to use polyester, anyway; it beards [I can explains this term, if people want]! I suppose if you want it thicker, you could just double it [the very thin cotton batting she was selling] up."

I did notice that the DVD was produced in the early 2000's, so I was unsure about the latest techniques in quilting. Maybe Nancy Lee Chong had been left behind :( ... I bought some of the very thin cotton batting, but with great confliction.

I decided I needed to call Pacific Rim Quilting Co for assurance. Janice, Nancy's sister, who runs their store up in Snohomish, answered on the first ring. I told her what MLQS told me. Seriously, she chuckled and then told me that the reason why MLQS only carried one product (in five different brands) was due to the rise of Modern Machine Quilting.

It's hard to stuff 6oz batting under a machine needle. If you use that batting, you won't see the echo quilting. Doubling it won't work because then your batting'll be the right thickness, but too dense and sleeping under it would be like sleeping under a concrete block - a tad bit heavy. "Bearding" is practically unheard of these days due to improved production techniques for poly batting and higher quality mass-produced cotton fabrics. In the 28 years I've been making Hawaiian quilts, only my first one beards and that's because I used a loose-woven cotton [fabric].

Alright! I knew Nancy Lee Chong wouldn't steer me wrong. I went out to Discount Fabrics (I get all my Dicken's (and used to get RenFaire, when I did that sort of thing) fabrics there) and found 4oz Poly Batting. It's thicker, but spongier.

Anyone need a crib-size piece of cotton batting?

Post #309604 by Haole'akamai on Tue, May 29, 2007 1:22 PM