Thread shrinkage

[Lynnie L.]

I preshrunk the fabric that I used in my daughter's quilt, used 60 wt cotton thread to piece together. With the quilt finished I washed it in my machine on 'hand wash' cycle then, dried it on low heat. It came out with puckered seams. If I had used polyester thread would this have happened? What can I do to prevent this situation from happening in my next project?

[Helen W.]

I preshrunk the fabric that I used in my daughter's quilt, used 60 wt cotton thread to piece together. With the quilt finished I washed it in my machine on 'hand wash' cycle then, dried it on low heat. It came out with puckered seams. If I had used polyester thread would this have happened? What can I do to prevent this situation from happening in my next project?

BleuRose,
What kind of batting did you use? I have never heard of quilters complaining about thread shrinking, but it might. My guess would be that it might be the batting if you used a cotton batting. I had quite a bit a rumpled look when I washed this wall hanging last week in prep for putting the applique on it. I just find it easy to the quilting first, build the applique and put it on as a unit. To get rid of the rumply look, I used a press cloth(old sheet) and a lot of steam. It laid right down, and I it looks nice and flat now. When I am
making a large quilt with warm and natural cotton batting I use the press cloth( wet) and iron the batting. It actually shrinks it some. My first time I washed the batting. Don't do
that, it was a mess. You might try steam and a press cloth on a small area. When you stitch a seam and it draws up a little, by steaming it, it relaxes the thread and get rid of
the little bit of gathering look. Good Luck. Hopes this helps. HelenW