High loft batting

[Betty J.]

I love this site. It always seems someone is asking just the right questions and getting just the right answers just when I need them. I am going to use a combination of wool batting on my Hoffman Challenge this year, and here I have all my questions answered about preparing the batting just as I am drawing to a finish the work on the top. Thanks everyone!

[Betty J.]

Can you post a pic of your top here?
Still learning how to usethisforum.

[Margo C.]

Can you post a pic of your top here?
Still learning how to usethisforum.

Welcome to the forum Marnie! You will find some helpful tips for using the forum here:

http://forum/forum-questions-and-sug...-the-tqs-forum

[Betty J.]

Can you post a pic of your top here?
Still learning how to usethisforum.

Marnie, Thanks for the interest, but I think maybe I won't just yet. If you're interested in seeing something of this however, you can look at the past two blogs I posted on my personal blog : http://blog.bjfabricartist.com/ that will give you some idea. I have only recently begun holding back the full pictures of completed tops and quilts that I plan to enter into contests. Nevertheless, I will post pics later on. This is a cool forum isn't it?

[Betty J.]

Sorry Betty,
I,m new to this and never thought about your competition. Can understand hesitance. I was going to post my quilt in question here. Would love to enter a quilt in competition one day. But mine are not perfect yet!

[Susan B.]

Sorry Betty,
Would love to enter a quilt in competition one day. But mine are not perfect yet!

Ha! So are 3/4 of the quilts in lots of competitions...NoT perfect! Is there such a thing? Beautiful anyway, go ahead and enter! It's a lesson in insanity :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Susan B.]

And hope that Ricky is one of the judges - he like to see the little imperfections, because they add interest :wink:

[Betty J.]

Sorry Betty,
I'm new to this and never thought about your competition. Can understand hesitance. I was going to post my quilt in question here. Would love to enter a quilt in competition one day. But mine are not perfect yet!

Please, apologies are not needed!!! I must say that beauty, interest, impact, rather than perfection is what we all strive for. I have seen only a small handful of nearly perfect quilts at the shows over all the years I've gone. You learn so much by entering a competition about where you need to work, where your work is really good, and it's just plain fun.

[Constance G.]

Random batting question here...can you split wool batting the way you can with some cotton battings? I have a package of Hobbs wool batting and it seems VERY puffy.

[Susan B.]

Depending on how much quilting you do, most of the puffiness will disappear in the "shadow" quilting, while the "sunshine" portions stand up beautifully (sunshine & shadow being Cindy Neeham's coined phrases in quilting). It's my favorite.

[Margo C.]

Connie, it the batting is larger than the quilt you intend to use it on, cut off a piece and make a sample with different densities of quilting to see how the loft behaves!

[Betty J.]

OK, I have this Hoffman Challenge quilt that is a wall quilt. It's only 40" x 38". I would like to use wool only, but I want it to hang straight. Will a small quilt like that do well with just wool, or do I need to add my 20/80 cotton in the back?

[Betty J.]

After closely examining my wool batting, I decided it was all it needed for this small quilt. So I steamed it and now I have it sandwiched with temporary spray adhesive. Looks pretty good. I like the evenness of the batting and the feel of it. I have never used wool batting before so keeping my fingers crossed I like the way it works.

[Lois B.]

BJ, I just finished my GMFG quilt and posted it in What will you finish in 2013. Haven't gotten it into my profile yet. Waiting till I get a sleeve done and hang it. It was the 1st time I used wool batting and I love, love, love it. Wonderful to work with. Compresses nicely for DMQ. Best of all, it dries very quickly. The finished quilt has the best springiness. It will be my batting of choice from now on. The quilt store owner from whom I purchased it pooh, poohed it, saying it was too thick to work with and then she said I would have troube with it bearding. Has anyone had problems with wool batts bearding? I don't trust the woman's judgement who was giving me all that negative advice.

[Betty J.]

BJ, I just finished my GMFG quilt and posted it in What will you finish in 2013. Haven't gotten it into my profile yet. Waiting till I get a sleeve done and hang it. It was the 1st time I used wool batting and I love, love, love it. Wonderful to work with. Compresses nicely for DMQ. Best of all, it dries very quickly. The finished quilt has the best springiness. It will be my batting of choice from now on. The quilt store owner from whom I purchased it pooh, poohed it, saying it was too thick to work with and then she said I would have troube with it bearding. Has anyone had problems with wool batts bearding? I don't trust the woman's judgement who was giving me all that negative advice.

Lois, I love your quilt! Thanks for the info on your experience with wool batting. I'll let you know if I have any problem with bearding, but I would be surprised after I examined the batting closely. It does have a heat set kind of scrim on one side, which I put toward the back. I was very careful not to pull and tug it as I got it into the sandwich.