Stretch Quilts

[Ramona1954]

Greetings,

 

Does anyone have any experience trying to long-arm a quilt made from stretch fabrics?  Any suggestions for backing fabrics?  Can a regular poly batting be used?  How do you load and advance the quilt top without stretching out of shape?  Or does it matter if the top is stretched?  Any information and helpful hints will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

[ffq-lar]

Try to use a backer that doesn't stretch. That's what is loaded to the leaders. Cotton or cotton/poly blend fabrics are recommended. Wash the fabric and machine dry before you use it to shrink it as much as you can--the stretch fabric and poly batting won't shrink at all so you want the backer to be pre-shrunk.

Regular poly batting can be used.

Float the top (which means don't attach it to the rollers). That way it can be positioned with each advance to keep it straight and un-stretched. If you stretch the top you'll end up with bunched batting and backer when it snaps back into shape.

Good luck!    

[witha'K'quilting]

Minky is a stretch fabric that is used for backings. If using it, make certain that you load it by pinning the selvage to the leaders and leaving it fairly loose so as not to stretch it so that it bounces back after quilting.

[DawnCavanaugh]

Ramona,

 

Back "in the day" I received several double-knit quilts from women who were either recycling their old polyester pantsuits or their husband's leisure suits. Remember them?

 

 

 Here are some tips for dealing with that type of scenario:

 

1. Check the height of your foot; you may need to slightly raise it to clear the seams without distorting the fabric.

2. Stay away from a pantograph. You need to be on the front controlling the stretchy fabric and the potential distortion that the foot can cause.

3. Poly batting will be OK, but everything will be very slippery and hard to control if your fabric is also polyester. And the thicker the batting is, the more risk you have for distortion.

4. If you want to avoid the slippery feel, a cotton or blend batting may work better. However, in the case of the leisure suit quilts the fabric was already very heavy. Adding a heavy cotton batting would make them hard to sleep under without feeling like you were laying under a brick.

5. Set your stitch length a little longer. If you make a mistake, picking out stitches in stretchy fabric is very difficult.

6. Linda's right about floating the top if possible. It will prevent over stretching on the fabric.

 

Good luck!

[GrandmaLKB]

Run away very fast !