Batting and Basting

What do you do? When you come into a bunch of batting and you have tops that ought to get quilted?

You: 1. Do an archaeological dig to find those tops that need finishing.
         2.  Find some have backs and batts with them--Score!
         3. Dig through excess/discarded fabrics in deep storage to find backs that will work.
         4. Figure out how many batts you can cut from a Queen size batt for those tops
         5. Cut the backs and also sleeves from the back fabrics.
         6. Cut that Queen size batt into the needed sizes.
         7. Clear the Dining Room table and pin baste until you run out of pins.

I was pleased and surprised to find all the backs I needed in the closet where I am storing the stuff that didn't sell last summer--some of which needs to find it's way to my Etsy shop. No fabric had to come from my studio stash, AKA "the good stuff".

Here is the sketch for dividing up the Queen size batt:

It helps to have a plan before you open up and start cutting into that very big batt. Three of the quilt tops already had batting and backs stored with them so I only needed to cut 6 batts of various sizes from this batt and so there is leftover for the next small quilts I make.

Now I have 9 quilts ready to go, to practice and to finish.

How did I happen to have extra batt? The Quilters Dream Batting company had a little giveaway on Facebook a couple weeks ago. Now I love that batt, using it almost exclusively, in Request weight, their thinnest. In addition to batting they were throwing in a copy of Catherine Redford's new book Modern Machine Quilting. I have taken a machine quilting class with Catherine in Chicago and find her a delightful instructor. She will be teaching and lecturing at my guild next month but I will be teaching out of state myself so will miss her.  I rarely enter these giveaways but this was easy to do: "Like" their page and tell them what you were currently quilting. As I had "Long Time Gone" under the needle, with Quilters Dream Request batting in it, I took a couple seconds to post that.

Imagine my surprise a few days later when they announced I was the lucky winner, selected at random from 1350 entrants!  Maybe I need to buy a lottery ticket. Here is what they sent:

7 lbs.of greatness

Twin and Queen Request weight, Twin and Queen Select weight, Queen Deluxe weight, and about 50 8.5" x 11.5" samples of Select, perfect for using in upcoming classes. AND an autographed copy of the book, which I am reading carefully and enjoying. Thanks, Quilters Dream and Catherine!

I've got a use for the Deluxe Queen batt I hope to tell you about later...

Another shot of all 9 of the quilts, now ready for quilting magic. The small Amish quilts at the top were made more than 30 years ago, when I handquilted everything--which is why they never got done. And the first one at the bottom is waiting for more pins:

Let's Quilt!

Barbara