Your quilt top is done, and now all you have to do is go buy the batting and backing. Yay! Be careful, though -- choosing your batting and backing are very important decisions, and will affect the warmth, thickness, drape, and effectiveness of quilting. In addition, your choice of quilting thread is crucial to the final look of the quilt -- read on.
Batting
Although it is common to run to Joann or Hancock fabrics and purchase the "fluffy polyester" batting, this is a mistake. The polyester batting you purchase at these stores is very weak, and will tear apart readily. It does not stand up well to the small stress placed on it during longarm quilting. In addition, it will fall apart inside of your quilt and form clumps in some areas, and no batting in others!
The better option is to go to your local quilt shop and pick up some quality batting. If you do not have a local quilt shop, or do not have one with a comprehensive choice of batting material, I carry Quilter's Dream batting, and will work with you on choosing the right material for your project. There are a number of options beyond 100% cotton batting -- look at all of the options below (taken from the Quilter's Dream website). I can get any of the materials below, and we can meet and look at samples of all of the different battings available.
Quilters Dream Cotton is 100% Pure Cotton Batting. We start with the finest USA natural and environmentally friendly cotton and specially processed Dream
Cotton so that you can quilt up to 8" apart. No prewashing necessary! Available in Natural and White in four lofts:
request, select, deluxe and supreme.
Quilters Dream Poly uses our exclusive blend of
the new fine microfibers. Dream Poly has exceptional drape, breathability and comfort surpassing all other polyester battings.
Quilts beautifully - you will feel the difference! Available in three lofts in pure white:
request, select and deluxe.
Midnight
Black Dream Poly is beautiful true black batting that
enhances the richness of dark and vivid fabrics. Quilters Dream's
exclusive blend of fine denier black microfibers imitates natural fibers.
A soft black quilt batting that has exceptional drape, breathability and
comfort. Available in two lofts, request and select.
Quilters Dream Blend for Machines
70/30 is soft to hug, yet takes the tug! It is made of 70% cleaned natural cotton and 30% fine denier polyester blended in perfect harmony and needlepunched onto an ultralight scrim base.
Dream
Angel Heavenly Batting of 100% Flame Retardant Fibers has a wonderfully natural look and feel. Heavenly for both hand and machine quilting, this batting really is as soft as an angels wing. Pure white
in color, this batting is available in two lofts: select and request. This is the batting you need for children's / baby quilts.
Quilters
Dream Puff A lusciously light batting with exceptional warmth and a soft resilient loft of almost 1/2 inch. Dream
Puff is 1.5 times warmer than down and almost twice as warm as high loft polyester battings.
So light, breathable and wonderfully comfortable, you will be amazed at Dream Puffs superior warmth. Pure white.
Quilters
Dream Wool Made with a blend of fine Domestic and Merino wool,
this wool is scoured and super-washed for superior cleanliness and to
eliminate shrinkage. Quilters Dream's unique processing creates wool
batting with exceptionally soft drape, uniformity and strength. I really love this new batting for its lightness and drape; the quilt can be machine-washed, even with the wool batting.
Dream
Green is an Earth-friendly batting that is TRULY Green. This soft, cozy batting is made completely from recycled plastic bottles - even the
packaging is made from recycled products! Available in the select loft, this batting has a light green color. With no scrim or resins, Dream
Green meets our highest standards of quality, function and performance.
Backing
Backing is another important choice when you are finishing your quilt. Ideally, you would like to pick a backing fabric that contains the thread colors you are going to use on your quilt top, so the back coordinates to the front. Oftentimes, it's best to choose the backing fabric and the thread simultaneously.
In addition, many people do not like to piece their backing together, wanting to avoid a seam down the back of the quilt. The trouble is that most quilt shops do not carry a large selection of wide 108" backing fabric, so there are few choices. I've run into this myself.
Fortunately, now we have SewBatik to the rescue! SewBatik offers over 70 different varieties of 108"-wide batik fabrics to coordinate with your quilt. These fabrics are not carried in quilt stores -- you can either order them via the internet, or I can purchase them for you! Cost for these fabrics is $18.98/yd, a pretty good deal when you consider that sewing three 40" yards of fabric together would cost you around $30/yd and all the extra sewing time!
I know that you are worried about ordering fabric over the internet, because you can't see and touch it first. No worries -- I have samples of the complete collection of SewBatik 108"-wide fabric! When we meet to discuss your quilting needs, we can go over the thread and backing choices at the same time, and you can be confident in your decision, having seen the actual fabric!
If you choose to order over the internet, please use my
Longarm Associate Number: LAP-1265 -- place in the "Special Instructions" field of the order form
This will tell SewBatik how you found their website, and allow me to keep carrying this material for you. I know that we will be able to find a fabric that matches your quilt.
What if your quilt isn't ~100" wide? Even if your widest dimension is as little at 60", I would still recommend the SewBatik fabrics. You will be able to use the extra fabric for your binding material, and can save the rest for a future project. Quilts narrower than 60" should probably stick with the normal 44" fabric -- if you like SewBatik's fabric line, they also carry the narrower-width fabric as well! If there is a demand, I will get samples of the 44" fabrics in the future.
Note: Since these are batik fabrics, you need to pre-wash them before using them on your quilt. If you order through me for one of your quilting projects, I will pre-wash the fabric for you with synthrapol as part of the quilting service!
Thread
Finally, we need to talk about thread. I carry and work with Superior Threads, an American company that is recognized as the leader in quilting threads. To make it easier for you to choose your thread, I keep "color cards" of all of the quilting threads, so you can actually see the thread that we will use on your quilt! Superior has solid threads, variegated threads, muted threads, shiny threads, cotton threads, poly threads, metallic threads, threads of different weights, everything you could ask for! Rest assured that with this variety of thread available, we will find the perfect match for your quilt! This is actuallly more important than people realize -- the choice of thread can make or break a quilt. It's very important to have a large slection available so we can choose the perfect thread for your project. I custom-order the thread that we choose for every quilt project (I actually lose money on the thread, but I think it is that important to get the right colors/weights; plus, it builds up my thread collection!).
If you would like to purchase some Superior thread for one of your quilting or embroidery projects, let me know, and I will place an order for you.
