• Managing a Large Quilt Sandwich:
  • Where can I find information about feehand
    machine quilting?
  • How do you manage a large quilt sandwich
  • What kind of sewing machine is best to do this kind of work?
• How do you decide on a quilting design, and how do you mark it?
• What kind of batting do you use for your quilts?
• Do you use the new basting sprays for basting your quilts? 
• Do you block your quilts to make them hang straight? If so, how do you do it?
• Can you recommend some good books on machine quilting?

• What thread do you use for your quilting?
• I'm having trouble with nylon thread snagging when I machine quilt, any suggestions?
• The Nylon Thread Rumor
• Any suggestions for machine quilting with metalic or other specialty threads?

  QUESTION: What kind of batting do you use in your quilts?

  Answer:  My favorite batting is Fairfield Cotton Classic, which is 80% cotton and 20% polyester. It's nice and flat and easy to handle for machine quilting. It has a glaze on the surface that clings to the fabric sandwich if you steam it before you baste. This prevents shifting, which allows me to do less basting. I have tried several, but by all means not all of the others battings on the market, and I keep returning to Cotton Classic. I tried Fairfield's Soft Touch 100% cotton, which I love working with, and will use in any and all quilted clothing, but I found that I like the little bit of loft that you get from Cotton Classic better for my quilts. I made a decision several years ago not to use any more 100% polyester batting in my quilts. I find cotton and cotton classic a much better choice for a number of technical and aesthetic reasons. 1. it never beards, 2. it can be blocked flat with a steam iron after quilting, 3. it doesn't shift and make puckers while you are machine quilting. 4. it just feels better. I know that there are a number of cotton and cotton/poly battings on the market, and I'm sure some of them are very good. I just haven't tried them because I know ahead of time that the Cotton Classic will work, and I don't need to experiment further.

For my three dimensional High Tech Tucks quilts, and for a few of my heavily machine embroidered fabric collages, I have used 100% wool army or navy blankets.  These are available at army/navy surplus stores.  They are very heavy and dense, and so quilts that are dimensional or distorted by heavy stitching can be blocked absolutely flat, and the weight of the wool with remain flat.

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QUESTION: Do you use the new basting sprays in your quilts?

Answer:  I do use the sprays for temporarily holding my paper templates in place while I'm piecing. I like plain old 3-M Photo-mount the best. I've been bringing the Sulky non-toxic stuff to my classes because it will not asphyxiate us in the workshops, and it comes in a little can that doesn't take up much room in my suitcase. It disappears as soon at you hit it with a hot iron however, which is actually a disadvantage for my piecing methods. I haven't used it yet for basting a quilt for two reasons.

#1: I live in Chicago, and the likelihood that the weather would be warm, not windy, and not raining on the same day that I needed to baste a quilt is pretty remote. I don't want to spray that stuff around inside my studio. When I spray my paper templates in the winter, I put them inside a cardboard box in my little studio bathroom, spray them quickly while holding my breath, and then close the door, and let the ventilating fan run full blast for several minutes before retrieving them. This would not be practical for a whole quilt. In the summer I take my paper templates to my outdoor dye studio and spray them on the table with all the window and the garage door open. This space is much too dirty to risk spreading a quilt.

#2: Most of the quilts I've made recently have been relatively small. I use Fairfield cotton classic batting, and if you steam the quilt sandwich the glaze on the batting with cling to the fabric and act almost like basting spray. If the quilt is a little larger, I put in safety pins, but I don't really find that they get in the way. I just remove them as soon as they get close to the area where I'm stitching.

I think spray basting is a great idea, and I will probably try it sometime, but so far it just hasn't been practical.

QUESTION: Do you block your quilts to make them hang straight? If so, how do you do it?

Answer:  When I finish a quilting, I lay the quilt face down on my (clean) rug, and steam it with a steam iron. I'm not really ironing it, just barely touching the iron to the back of the quilt. The pile of the rug prevents the relief pattern of the quilting from being flattened out. Once the quilt is blocked flat, I lay it on a huge cutting board on my black and white tile floor, and square it up. Click for larger image