Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Tuesday Tutorial: Save That Batting!

As all quilters know, the cost of cotton is rising -- a lot! So we need to save any way we can.

I certainly am more careful to use every last scrap of fabric. But have you thought about saving small pieces of batting (wadding, to my friends Down Under)? I used to toss the cut-off pieces of batting after a quilt came back from the long-arm quilter.

But no more!

I read about Marti Michell's "Marti's Choice Fusible Tape" on her website.


Marti uses it for quilting large quilts in sections, but Aunt Marti uses it to make big battings out of little pieces!

To use the fusible tape, make a clean, straight cut on one edge of each piece of batting. Place both pieces on your ironing surface (I use a Big Board) with the straight edges flush.


Preheat the iron to slightly cooler than the "cotton" setting, with steam.  Begin at one end and roll the tape over the cut, pressing as you go.


According to Marti Michell:
Marti's Choice Fusible Tape won't gum up machine needles and is soft enough to needle easily by hand. Use it to stabilize seams and bias edges, and for low-fat machined quilting in sections! It's PERFECT for low-fat machine quilting in sections -- when you divide the batting, use Marti's Choice Fusible Tape to fuse the batting together again!
It's only necessary to tape one side of the batting. Really, it won't pull apart when you quilt. The tape is flexible so that you can't tell where it is once the quilt is quilted!

The tape costs $10 for 30 yards (2" wide style). I mostly use this method for baby-size or lap-size quilts.

I easily save the cost of the tape by using the cut-off batting from two or three quilts for one lap-size quilt.




From the desk of your auntmartisignature

11 comments:

  1. I have used that - well the same type of thing - and yes its great

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  2. I have a couple of customers who use this and it is wonderful! No problems from a longarm quilters point of view!

    AND ---Thank you so much for the easy two step binding! I share it with everyone I know and LOVE using it myself on all of those every day loved quilts!

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  3. Pellon makes a version of this as well, and you can buy it on the bolt. EK150 and EK130 are the products. If you buy it off the bolt, you just can't beat the price. I'd be very interested to see a comparison after they are washed. That was my fear with the batting tape that the cotton batting and synthetic tape wouldn't shrink the same and there would be lines along my quilting. But so far, so good.

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  4. Yes, I've used this and love it. I have never had any problems with it and it has saved me money by using my left over batting.

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  5. Looks handy. I normally zig-zag stitch them together to make them bigger. I have a wadding scrap bag for smaller projects.

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  6. I love this stuff. It really saves the time of stitching battings together.

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  7. THANK YOU!!! I've never heard of this...will give it a try!

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  8. I agree; this is a great cost saver.

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  9. I've never used that tape before but I just might have to try it. I have zig zaged my scrap batting together to make bigger pieces.
    Thanks for sharing

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