Use It Up!

You've heard the old adage before: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without". Well, that's what I'm doing, with my batting strips. I buy batting on 30 yd. rolls, the width is either 93" or 122" depending on if it's a queen or king-size roll. When I cut batting for specific quilts I am usually left with ample sized strips remaining, they're never discarded; the proof is shown in the photo here. I have an upper cupboard in the sewing room FULL of these batting scraps, all labeled with their dimensions. Well, as we know, there has been a batting shortage with incredible delays in shipping thanks to COVID and the cotton going first to the manufacturing of PPE. So, it stands to reason, that if I don't "make do" with what I have on hand I may very well be "doing without" (or at least waiting for a good long time!) when it comes to batting. I had tried using the fusible tape for joining batting in the past but really didn't care for it at all; it left a stiff strip at the join that was detectable to me even after the quilt was sandwiched and quilted. I wasn't happy with that. I decided to try another method. 

I made a clean cut along the two edges to be joined together and lined them up exactly next to each other, being careful not to overlap them but gently pushing them to meet in the middle. I put on my walking foot and set my machine to a stitched zig zag (#16 on my Bernina) sometimes used as a mending stitch. 

I didn't pin anything but carefully helped to guide the two edges together by resting my hands on either side, I let the machine do all the work; I didn't push or pull on the batting at all, simply guided it smoothly under the foot.

Here's what to join looks like, it is smooth and completely undetectable inside the quilt sandwich. I don't use any of these cobbled-together battings on customer quilts or on any other than those for myself. And, naturally, I only join together identical batting weights; I typically only use Quilter's Dream Blend so that's not a problem for me. If you use a variety it would be helpful to label your batting strips and scraps with the brand and loft weight along with the measurements, that will save you time and energy in the long run when you're rummaging through your own leftovers. 

Undoubtedly there are many ways of accomplishing this frugal task 

with the same result, this is simply a method that works well for me!

 What do you have that you're USING UP or MAKING DO with?

Life is Good!