Wednesday, March 14, 2012

pieced batting

I'm cheap when it comes to quilting -- I think I've probably mentioned that a time or two. Sure, I've got a few expensive toys and a large fabric stash, but I try to get the most mileage I can out of my quilting supplies, whether that means chain piecing to conserve thread, or piecing bits of leftover batting into usable sizes.

If I've got two largish pieces and a big project to quilt, I'll zig zag them together on the sewing machine. But if I'm working on a baby quilt, I usually just lay the pieces out like a jigsaw puzzle and use extra pins when I baste that section. I quilt so densely that the batting's not going anywhere once the quilt's done.



A friend sent me a roll of Heat Press Batting Together, a flexible fusible tape that joins pieces of batting into usable sizes. This stuff is neat!

I had a hunk of batting left over from the big project that was just barely too narrow for baby quilts. With a couple of lengths of this and another narrow strip of batting, I put together two hunks that were exactly the size I needed.

The instructions say that it works on polyester batting. I'll have to try that next, although I'm a little nervous about getting my iron too close to something that might melt.

Purple Sue looks even cuter now that she's quilted, doesn't she?

8 comments:

beaquilter said...

I love that batting tape, and I will say it holds up on a long arm too, you just have to be careful, I only iron it on one side, don't know about you??

Missy Shay said...

I really like purple Sue!

Denise :) said...

Oh THANK you for sharing this product! I always save my batting pieces, but I've been afraid to try piecing the big chunks...I just made small projects. LOL! I'll have to look for this. I keep a back-up iron -- for wax paper crafts and stuff that I'd not want to put my *good* iron to ... perhaps that's what you need! :)

Brenna said...

I was just sighing last night over my large pile of not-quite-big-enough pieces of left over batting. Will definitely have to give this a try...

Unknown said...

Oh I'm cheap too. Like to make the batting go a long way as it is so expensive at times.
Love the girl...purple is so girly isn't it?

Needled Mom said...

I love that tape, but have not used it on the polyester bats yet. Another good tip is to cut lite fusible interfacing in strips and use that instead. It works great too.

KaHolly said...

Being frugal leaves more money for more fabric and tools!! Nothing wrong with that! Thanks for the tip.

Terry@ a quilting blog said...

I try to use up every bit of batting and use either this tape or just stitch the pieces together as well. Your Purple Sue came out so cute..TFS! :o)
~Terry~

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