Saturday, August 28, 2010

Don't toss that out!!!!

A little recycling finishes the Row Robin quilt. A short time ago, a friend called me to say that while helping her daughter move they had discovered this huge roll of Thinsulate Insulation hidden away and forgotten up in the attic (you know the stuff that goes into coats, gloves, and so on) She could not take it and her daughter did not want it........If I had no use for it .....well it would be heading to the landfill. So this baby is living at my house.
I knew it would be great for free motion quilting practice and maybe some small pieces but what about an actual quilt? I decided the Row Robin quilt was a good one to "test" this stuff on.
It has been machine quilted on my domestic machine and been through the washer and dryer. It came out great, you would never know that this is not expensive batting. It kept it's shape, no stretching, no bearding, no distortion and it is uniform in thickness. In case this experiment did not have a happy ending I did not want to waste expensive fabric on the backing so I purchased a 100% cotton sheet at the thrift store for that purpose.
Something else I had wanted to try, was using a water soluble thread trick, you see, normally I spend a good long time thread basting by hand my quilts to prepare them for the free motion work, mainly because I hate using pins. But not this time! I pin basted the sandwich and then with regular thread in the bobbin and the wash away stuff in the needle I stitched in the ditch (sort of) to anchor the whole sandwich together then removed the pins, now I was ready to do the FMQAfter the quilting was complete I took an artist paint brush, dipped in water and ran it down the water soluble thread stitching lines. The basting thread on the quilt front dissolved which made the thread on the back simply release completely. TOO easy!!! Here is a close up look at how this was quilted.

16 comments:

Kitchener Quilter said...

That thinsulate will make a super warm quilt. I used to use it in lightweight ski jackets for warmth without bulk. Warmer than down, but without the michilan man look!

Royce said...

Wow what a huge roll of batting. Glad it works so well in your quilting. That's a treasure! I'd gotten some of the fusible thread, but not tried it yet.

Royce said...

Oh dudh, on the thread. That's a great idea.

Robbie said...

I thought this 'robin' was really interesting when you put it together and the quilting has finished it off beautifully! Very nice!

Terri Stegmiller said...

The quilting on this quilt is lovely.

Anonymous said...

I think your bee mates are going to be envious of your row quilt! It is a beauty! Your quilting is awesome!!

Dolores said...

I am impressed. Well done and what a great friend.

Needled Mom said...

That is a huge roll of thinsulate. Glad that it worked out so well.

Sherry said...

Hey this is wonderful. I loved how you did your quilt. What a great idea about using water tread I will ahve to get me some of that thread. Thanks for the great info. Are you going to be around next weekend I will be in London on Monday and would love to get together if you have some time.

Mary-Kay said...

That quilt looks great!

Clare Wassermann said...

What a great idea - the soluble thread - I will try that one! Mind you I like my little tacking gun - it saves a lot of time especially on small projects

Quilter Kathy said...

That's a big role to use up...isn't it so great that it worked out well?!? Neat idea about the water soluble thread! I'll bet you're the first one in your robin to finish your quilt! Can we see the other ones somewhere on line??

Joan said...

That looks fantastic! What a great huge roll of batting - lucky you!

Diane J. Evans said...

Love the idea of the water soluble thread for basting! I assume that your quilting lines cannot cross the basting lines, or else the bobbin thread would not release when you dissolve the top thread, correct?

Your quilting is superb -- I love the way your creativity made this quilt a winner.

Diane

Carol said...

The quilt looks great and I love the soluble thread tip.

Finishing Lines by K.Sperino said...

beautiful!

Copyright Jill Buckley