Saturday, January 31, 2009

Hand Quilting On Bamboo Batting Evaluation

My friend Sandra tried Hand Quilting on the Bamboo Batting. She is an EXCELLENT hand quilter. I take her review as gospel. She REALLY knows what she is talking about. I copied and pasted her e-mail below.

Here's my evaluation on the Bamboo Batting Hand Quilting.

I looked forward to working with this batting. It feels so soft and breaths well. It's tightly punched.

Conditions:Using prewashed cotton fabric (top and bottom); used Aurifil thread; and Roxanne #12 between needle.

Looking for:Being able to quilt with multiple stitches (more than three) on needle and ease of travel for the needle

Results:The first single stitch traveled easily enough. I started with three stitches; there was a little resistance with pulling the needle through. I was able to put five stitches at a time on the needle; had to use the pliers to pull needle through. Too much drag; the needle would not pull through using my fingers.The stitches were 1/16" apart; stitching lines were 3/8" apart. I wanted to see how close I could stitch my lines together without running into any real problems. I split the different between the two lines which created the 3/8" space. The quilting became too difficult. Picking up stitches did not flow well and the distance between stitches almost doubled.

Bottom Line:could not pull needle through fabric with multiple stitches without using pliers for assistance. This batting has too much drag. I would not recommend this batting for hand quilting.

Sandra

2 comments:

Tonya Ricucci said...

this is wonderful information. thank you.

Debi R said...

I wonder if products from other manufacturers would make a difference in ease of hand quilting with a bamboo batting. I'm just learning how to hand quilt and my "tennis elbow" is already inflamed! Maybe I should learn how to machine quilt?