No-sew products for piecing batting scraps, and more

Rarely (if ever) does the size of a quilt batting perfectly coincide with the size of your quilt top. There are always trimmings and irregular-sized pieces left over. And... the frugal and efficient makers that we are... we save them. Right? 

Using Heat Press to fuse batting scraps together.

If you're not making a lot of little projects—mug rugs, zippered pouches, soft books, and such—you probably have a "collection" of these miscellaneous chunks... too big to throw away but not quite big enough for a current need.

Heat Press to the Rescue
I posted two methods for joining batting pieces together: by machine in this post, and by hand in this post. But here is a great product for piecing batting scraps together—using an iron. It's called "Heat Press."

Heat Press is 1.5" wide and is packaged in a roll.

Heat Press is a lightweight, fusible tricot product. It comes on a roll: 15 yards by 1.5" wide. Just lay out the batting pieces, butting them together. Cut a length of Heat Press to cover the join and fuse (low heat with the iron*). Easy and fast and the product is undetectable when machine quilting. [NOTE: I have not tried it with hand quilting, but would be interested in hearing anyone's experience with hand quilting or hand stitching with this product. How 'bout you, my blog stalker, have you hand stitched with this product?]

*The package instructions recommend different heat settings depending on the fiber content of the batting and whether your iron has a teflon plate or not. Be sure to read this so you don't melt the fusible or damage the batting.

More products for other uses
The Heat Press website is chock full of helpful information: video demos, tips and information about related products such as an Appliqué Tape and (OMGosh) a "Stretchy Hem Tape" for working with knits that comes in white and black! Anyone tried this stuff?

These products were invented by Jeanne Harwood, a quilter, garment sewer, instructor and consultant to apparel manufacturers. The products are 100% Made in the USA and can be purchased through the Heat Press website or ask for them at YLQS [your local quilt shop].

Got batting scraps? Use 'em and fuse 'em for your next project.

Countdown Day 6: Piecing batting, method 2

6 days until Chattanooga AQS QuiltWeek®.
Rapid-fire post #2. Here's another way to join pieces of batting together. This method works well if you have a large batt laid out on a table ready for basting and you find it's not quite big enough.

Batting prep and Cutting:
1) Slide a cutting mat under the batting. Overlap the two pieces of batting.
2) With the rotary cutter, cut a curve through both layers.
3) Remove the trimmings and abutt the pieces together.

1) Overlap the pieces of batting. 2) Cut a gentle curve through both layers.
3) Remove trimmings and abutt edges.

I like to make a curved cut so the join is more random and distributed—not in a straight line. This minimizes the chance that the join coincides with where the quilt might be folded.

Sewing the Seam: Use a thread color that blends with the batting so it won't show through the quilt top. (A darker thread was used here for visual purposes.) Thread a hand sewing needle. Knot one end of the thread or use a few short stitches to secure the thread.

Join the pieces with a hem stitch,

Batting joined with a hem stitch.

… a zigzag stitch or whip stitch.

Batting joined with a zigzag stitch.

End with a couple of small backstitches to secure the thread. I normally don't make a knot on this end. The stitching just needs to hold the batting together until the piece is quilted. Once quilted, the batting stays in place and no one knows it was pieced.

Anyone else use this method to piece batting?

Countdown: 7 days 'till Chattanooga AQS QuiltWeek

The AQS QuiltWeek® Chattanooga is a week away: September 16 - 19. To prime the pump, I thought I'd do a rapid-fire series of short quilting posts on various topics—whatever comes to mind—a tip, a tool, an exhibit, or a photo of something that is currently in the works. (LOL… that's an on-going list that gets ever longer.) So, with 7 days to go, I'll start with a tip.

I recently learned this tip from a fellow guild member, Dawn J., at our guild's annual Cuddle Quilt workshop. Ever have chunks and pieces of batting that are too big to throw away but aren't quite big enough for the project you're working on? Yup, we've all been there. This is a quick seam method for piecing batting:

Use a 3-step zigzag stitch to piece two pieces of batting together.

Dawn abutts the pieces of batting together and uses a 3-step zigzag stitch on her sewing machine to secure the join. The batting lies flat—no lumps. The 3-step zigzag is flexible, is secure and probably easier to sew than a regular zigzag. And, it's fast (compared to one of the methods I've been using, which I'll share tomorrow).