Needle Holes in my Quilts?

[Martha D.]

For some reason today, I was looking at a small piece I'd printed out on the EQ fabric and machine quilted in just the right light and noticed that that right light shone through most of the needle holes from the machine quilting. That prompted me to look another machine quilted piece I'm working on, and that one is doing the pretty much the same thing, just not as bad. That one is pieced from good quality commercial cotton fabrics.

Then I looked at a hand quilted piece, again pieced from good cotton fabrics, and while it's not nearly as bad, I can still see light through some of the needle holes. I'm afraid to look at some of my more heavily hand quilted pieces. I don't think I want to know.

The machine quilting on the EQ one was done with a #70 sharp needle, using 60 weight Mettler silk finish thread. The other machine quilted one was done with a #80 topstitch needle, using 40 weight Superior variegated thread. The hand quilted on was done with a piecemakers #12 between and Coats&Clark quilting thread.

The common denominator in all these quilts is the batt. I have been using Quilters Dream Cotton, Request for some years now. It's the thinnest they make.

So if any of you are also using this batting, would you hold your quilt up into the sunlight and let me know if you have visible holes too? And then maybe you can tell me what to do in future to avoid the needlepunched effect. Or maybe this is normal and nothing to worry about?

Thanks!

[Jill B.]

This a very interesting topic and look forward to what others have to say.

[Beth A.]

I have found that needle holes alway appear larger just after quilting and before the quilt is washed.

Washing tends to "plump up" the fabric around those holes and make them disappear.

Don't get too focused on this until you try washing your quilt.

BethMI

[Margo C.]

There will always be holes because that's how the needle gets from one side to the other and they will always be more obvious if you hold it up to the light and of course the smaller the needle and finer the thread the less noticeable the holes will be.
Beth is right, washing and drying will minimize them, but they will still be there. In the meantime, I suggest you use the quilts in a dark room...overnight....on top of the bed! :lol:

[Karen M.]

There will always be holes because that's how the needle gets from one side to the other and they will always be more obvious if you hold it up to the light and of course the smaller the needle and finer the thread the less noticeable the holes will be.
Beth is right, washing and drying will minimize them, but they will still be there. In the meantime, I suggest you use the quilts in a dark room...overnight....on top of the bed! :lol:

HaHaHa :lol: and many thanks for the giggle Margo....that solves the problem right there doesn't it!

[Dawn S.]

Okay, a quilt is usually on the wall, on a lap, or on a bed. Right? We don't usually "hang" them in front of a window, so really, there is no problem. Needle holes are a natural thing for every quilt, but as Margo said, the smaller the needle and finer the thread, the smaller the hole. Just like a mistake in a quilt, the more we focus on it, the bigger it gets!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

[Teri L.]

I'm with Margo on this one. If you're using a natural fiber other than cotton I also encourage the heavy use of fabric softener this will help the fiber relax.
If you're using something other than a natural fiber...well lets just say that's why quilts belong in places other than wide open window spaces.

Teri

[Martha D.]

You're quite right Margo. Of course the needle makes holes in the quilt. I just never saw the sunlight shining through any of those holes before, and it surprised me.

Most of my quilts these days hang on a wall, or would be hanging on one if I had any walls left. But if I only hang them on walls in dark rooms, then I can't sit around admiring my work. Might be better, that. LOL

I have been hand quilting for about 40 years now, but I have been machine quilting for maybe 40 days. I have no standard with which to compare my results, and that's why I asked.

I did try washing the little EQ fabric one under the kitchen tap, despite it not being finished. It was an experiment and will never be finished. There were not nearly so many sunshiny holes after, a good thing.

Apparently this problem is not really a problem, but still I wonder if using a cotton/poly batt would leave the same sort of visible holes? Or wool? Or a thicker cotton batt? Or?

[Margo C.]

Because I almost always use an 80/20 batt I haven't really checked to see, but I think that a more fluffy batt would probably make the holes less apparent, especially after laundering. I do know that as a long-arm quilter, I can place a light under a quilt on my frame and the holes will let me know if I've missed quilting any areas, especially if the quilt has busy prints where it's hard to see the quiting lines! It's something I do now with every quilt I make.

There was a little quilt show recently at the nursing home where my MIL lives, and the quilts had been hung in the "Sunshine Hall" where both sides of the hall are just windows. In the morning you could see through the quilts hung on the East side and in the afternoon you could see through the quilts on the West side of the hall. Not just needle holes, but you could see every seam line and which way it had been pressed!! It was as if there wasn't even a batting or backing on the other side! I was surprised at what so much light reveled!

[Margo C.]

Lets just hope the 'quilt police' don't hear about that 'xray' and start checking my 1/4 inch seams that way!!! :shock: ops: :roll: :lol: Sandi in FL

[Jill B.]

Lets just hope the 'quilt police' don't hear about that 'xray' and start checking my 1/4 inch seams that way!!! :shock: ops: :roll: :lol: Sandi in FL

Ditto Sandi ops: ops: ops: