Beautiful baby quilts: cotton and poly batting

BABY  QUILTS  

Custom or Computer.  Cotton or Poly Batting. 

 

  COMPUTER QUILTING

      This baby quilt is some custom and some computer.  I stitched in the ditch on the outside  piano border.  The center it is panto that the Gammill Statler Stitcher quilted out.

       Computer quilting is less labor intensive and a computer can quilt a king size quilt in one day or in less than five hours.  The value of computer quilting is consistency in the quilting.  The repetition of the design will not change.   Also Computers can quilt beautiful  design that some quilters will have difficulty replicating.  Another thing to consider Longarm quilting systems that have computer are expensive.   If you want clean work and consistency this kind of work is worth paying for.  

COTTON BATTING

      I love cotton batting.  There is variation of thicknesses of batting.  One of my favorite is WARM AND NATURAL BATTING.  It is a thicker batting.  It is easier to work with when your setting up the quilt.  Cotton batting doesn't dull the needle to quickly.    It is easier to manipulate when your rolling the quilt.   Cotton batting even when there is large amount of dense quilting doesn't stiffen and lays nicely.   One of the things to consider is cotton if not in a dry space will have the potential to get moldy. 

 CUSTOM QUILTING

This is another clients quilt and the whole quilt is custom.   Custom means that the quilter quilted it without the use of a computer.  I am doing more custom quilts this year and one of the things that are important about custom quilting is time is a factor. 

Custom quilts are move labor intensive and these wonderful quilters deserve to  be paid for their time and talent they have through much practice..practice..practice. 

 POLY Batting.  

        It is not may favor it.  It is hard to control when you are stitching the quilt top to the back fabric.  Another issue is High loft poly battings are Itchy.. Like nails running down a chalk board. UHHHGGG  I don't like it.   Also poly batting tends to dull needles.  You have to just be patient when working with poly as your rolling the quilt making sure that it stays square.  
        The benefits of poly is you can get dimension on a quilt.   Many quilters us it for Trapunto work.  Also poly doesn't mold.  Poly also makes a warmer and weightier quilt.  The quilt will also be stiffer. Some people love it.  


 

Bling on shirts

Bling on Shirt without a Hot Press



I did this shirt for some Elementary Teachers that wanted the team to look cohesive and wanted teachers to wear the same shirt. 

 Someone from the group got this smiley face crystal face design. They came to me because they didn't know  how to iron it on their shirts.  Without a HOT PRESS.




Template                                                                Crystals                                                                                          

 This is a template that I made to show you how to iron it on. 

Pour Crystals on the template get a painters brush and move crystals around and the crystals when they are upright they will settle in the holes of the template.




Transfer it is stick on the clear side and the bottom white side is to keep the crystals from moving or shifting.








Remove the back part.  The sticky side should have the crystals on it.  Stick it to the fabric and it should not move. 






Pressing sheet works great but if you don't have one flip the back facing down and iron the back of it will work well too. 



You can also place a thin sheet of fabric on top. 








Hold the iron in place do not move back and forth.  Hold for a count of 20 then move to another area hold for another count of 20.  Do this on the top with pressing sheet or fabric through the whole design and then do the same process on the back of the fabric. 





Then Remove the clear sheet if you got all the crystals hot enough to melt the glue all of the crystals should be fused to the fabric.  If not they will stick on to the sticky top paper and you will need to go back and re-IRON the areas that didn't get hot enough to melt the glue on the crystals.


Once all the crystals are fused on go back and re-Iron the top part of the crystals again and your finished.  Be careful the crystals are real hot and it will brand you I have stars and crystals on my elbow to prove how hot they can get.