Pages

Monday, August 4, 2008

Piecing Batting

I cannot throw away the strips of batting that are left over after cutting off a piece of batting for a quilt. The pieces are too small for a baby quilt, yet it seems like such a waste to throw them away. Lately I've been using up my batting scraps pile by piecing them together so that they are large enough for a baby quilt or wall hanging. It makes me feel like I'm saving money and using what I have. And that's a good feeling.

Maybe there's someone out there that hasn't tried piecing together batting for a quilt. So I thought I'd share what I do.

I lay the pieces next to each other so that they are overlapping by a small amount.

Then I lay my ruler over that small double layer and cut a straight line all the way from one end to the other.

As you can see you end up with your two sides with a nice straight edge for sewing, and two small strips that are to be thrown away.

Next I take the two pieces to my sewing machine and choose a large zig zag stitch. I butt my pieces together with them centered under my foot, and guide with a hand on each side to make sure it is feeding evenly.

When you're done sewing, your batting is ready to use in your quilt. And no one will ever know that the batting inside is pieced.

But my secret is out...yes I pieced the batting for my DQS4 quilt. And now on to the quilting!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the how-to! I have lots of little pieces of batting and now I can use them for larger projects!

Trisha said...

I do that too! I really should pre-piece my batting together because too often I am in a hurry and just cut a whole piece off the roll of batting. If I sat down and put smaller pieces together in advance then I would have them on hand to use. Great tutorial!

Karen said...

Aha! I finally see what you are doing with your doll quilt! I love the umbrellas in the sand and triangular water. So great, good job Tina!

jacquie said...

i do that too. it seems such a waste not to use those cut off pieces. i love being thrifty!