Please Give Me Quilt Batting Help?

Question

I'm making a quilt for when I go away to college and it's made up of about a million of my old t-shirts. I have the front and the back all done, I just need to finish it with the quilt batting.

I can't just re-do this if I mess it up, so i want to make sure I get it right the first time.

WHAT QUILT BATTING SHOULD I USE?

I want it to be really thin.

And I want to not have to stitch it every 5" because that would make my quilt look dumb. There would have to be little stitches right over my favorite t-shirts.

Ideas? Brands? Links? Anything helps!!! Thanks so much!

Answer 1

Warm 'n Natural or Warm 'n White would be good choices. Another excellent choice is a light-weight solid-color polar-type fleece. You only need to quilt where you want to quilt, since fleece doesn't require quilting at all and it won't fall apart. Another option is flannel - you can use either single- or double-brushed.

Answer 2

I've made t-shirts quilts, both for friends and for profit, using low-loft polyester batting.  I use fabric sashing between the shirts (I don't know if you did that) and machine quilt along both edges of each sashing strip.

If the t-shirt squares are large, I then stitch around the design itself on each t-shirt.  Most t-shirt quilts I have seen don't do this, but it looks awesome and will help keep the batting from bunching up with years of use.  When the quilt is washed for the first time, the batting puffs up, emphasizing the quilting lines and the t-shirt design.  

Answer 3

I use a brand of batting called Warm N Natural. You can find it at Joann's or sometimes at Walmart, sold either by the yard or in a package. It washes beautifully and you can even pre-wash it before you put it in your quilt so you won't have to worry about shrinkage. It's made by the Warm Company. They also make a white batting called Warm N White. It can be quilted up to 10 inches apart. Here's a link  http://www.warmcompany.com/wnpage.html

Good luck and enjoy your quilt.

Answer 4

Since you are using T-shirts, which are knit instead of woven, I suggest a very dense batting (as opposed to batting with more loft).  Check at your fabric store - I'm sorry I don't know the brand I have used in the past, but it is a thin, dense layer.  This will provide more structure to your stretchy T-shirt fabric.   As for the quilting you can do a hand tied quilt, or just machine-tack in matching colored thread.  I would never recommend skimping on the stitching, especially with a knit fabric.  Your fabric shop will have many stencils you can sketch on and stitch over your pencil marks.  How about outlining the text and/or logo on each T-shirt, as well as tacking all corners?

Answer 5

Hi. Its so neat that you've made yourself a tee shirt quilt! What a lot of work. Whew!

You may be better off using a large blanket, not too thick, as batting for this quilt, if you don't want to have any stitching over large areas.

Batting is made up of loose fibers of either cotton, bamboo, wool, or polyester, that are, these days, usually needle-punched (thousands of barbed needles that punch through the fibers many times to keep them all stuck together for ease and convenience until you stitch or tie your quilt).  Batting really does need to be stitched to the top and backing of your quilt, otherwise it will shift and come apart when you use and wash it.

I would suggest tying the quilt, but since it is made of T-shirts which are knit, the fabric will "run" if you try pulling a needle with yarn through it.

You will probably be happiest using a thin blanket as batting, since a blanket is already woven and will not fall apart with use and washing.  You still may wish to tack it in 20 or so places by using a zigzag stitch with the shortest length setting (just going back-and-forth in one spot for about 15 stitches).  If your machine only has a straight stitch, go back and forth about 3 stitches about 3 times in one spot.

Happy quilting!

Answer 6

Polyester batting can be very thin or very thick and puffy, depending on what kind you get. It is also very warm because it does not breathe - it doesn't allow air to pass through it. It is less expensive, but may need to be quilted much closer. You need to read the packaging to learn how close each particular kind needs to be quilted. Hobbs has a polyester batting called Thermore that is extremely thin - 1/16" - and can be quilted up to 9" apart. This is a great batting for hand quilting, but it also works well for machine quilting. It's used a lot in miniature quilts because it's so thin.

http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/Item--i-...

Cotton batting is thin but much more dense than polyester. If you quilted a thin polyester batting it would feel very flat and like there wasn't much batting there. Cotton would feel more substantial, but still stay quite thin and flat. As a natural fiber, cotton will let air pass through so you can leave the quilt on your bed year round. It will be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Again, read the packaging for how close it needs to be quilted.

There are other kinds of natural fiber batting, such as wool (believe it or not, this makes a great year round quilt) and silk, but they tend to be a bit more expensive. You can also find cotton/polyester blends, like Hobbs 80/20 (80% cotton and 20% polyester) that are supposed to be pretty good, but require quilting 4" apart.

The brand I use, Warm & Natural, can be quilted as far apart as 10", making it ideal for your t-shirt quilt. It's a light beige color, but you can also get Warm & White if you have a lot of white fabric on your quilt and are concerned about batting color showing through. It's thin enough to be fairly flat, but not so thin that it disappears.

http://www.warmcompany.com/wnpage.html

Answer 7

Put it on with the backing just around the edges. Then find a color of yarn and quilt it with ties instead of stitches. Not sure if I make sense or not......I hope I did.  

Answer 8

try these links. hope it helps.