I worked on piecing backs and batting today.
My stash is pretty extensive but I have NO 30’s fabrics so finding a backing and a binding that works with this donated top was a challenge. Finally found a yard of a solid blue for the binding and a blue flannel print for the backing.
After all my hard work … I’ve got 4 ready to go. Three of them have pieced batting … and I’ve still got more batting pieces to use up. I figure that for every 3 tops I quilt, I can a free batting from the leftover batting strips and with batting as expensive as it is, that’s a bonus. I zigzag the pieces together on the sewing machine.
I’m knitting now while we watch the Lightning play and after the game I’ll go downstairs and hand stitch another binding.
Interesting about the binding piecing – I’ve tried a couple times and always end up with a ridge I don’t enjoy where the two pieces join. My machine doesn’t do zigzag, maybe that’s the issue. Meanwhile I have a growing backlog of binding pieces I need to find a solution for.
cheers,
ceci
BATTING piecing, not binding piecing. I must be tired. Sorry to be incoherent.
ceci
Ceci,
I have a Longarm, and I just S-L-I-G-H-T-L-Y overlap my batting when joining pieces. Works great, and I can never find the “bump” when I’m finished. I used to hand stitch batting together back in the dark ages ( over 15 years since I’ve had my Longarm) when I machine quilted on my DSM. Have you tried spray-basting your batting just where it joins?Or using a very light fusible cut to about 2” and fuse the pieces once you’ve straightened them a bit? I’ve done that a few times, but find just butting together or overlapping a tiny bit works just as well. Just my experience. I wasn’t happy when I zig-zagged together. I must have stretched the batting because it was ALWAYS distorted when I did that, and the joined area was awful. Batting would never lay flat for me after I zigzagged it. And looked uneven and “odd” in the finished quilt. Again, just my experience. Good luck. Things are so expensive that it feels good to “Frankenstein-Batt” some of those leftover pieces. Have a friend who joins pieces as small as 2”!!! That’s crazy to me. I use those small pieces for dusting. And then just toss them. MANY uses for small pieces of batting if you check online👍👍.
You are such an inspiration. I love the idea of zig zag batting. These days we can benefit from each savings.