jclark Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 About five years ago I made a quilt for a friend--she purchased her own batik fabrics from reputable quilt shops and I pieced and longarm quilted the quilt. We are currently in the same RV park in Arizona and yesterday she showed me what is happening to one of the fabrics in this quilt. My friend uses this quilt on their king size bed, she turns it almost daily so one side or the other doesn't get more wear, it has been washed several times in the five year--probably washed a lot. One of the batik fabrics is literally shredding!! There are long slits in the fabric which then in turn have torn. One particular block is worse than others but I was horrified!! She does have enough of the original fabric to replace all four blocks which contain this particular batik but would we want to use that same fabric only to have it happen again??? Ripping out all the quilting and re-making those four blocks would be a nightmare I don't even want to think about!! Any other ideas folks?? My friend does not in any way blame me--it is most definitely the fabric which is wearing out and shredding! The funny thing is she was also showing me several old, old quilts made by her great-grandmother. My friend is patching some areas of these quilts but the majority of the fabric in these old quilts is intact but yet we have a five year old quilt falling apart! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonnie H Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 This is just my own personal opinion, but I feel batiks are so tightly woven that once you stick a big needle through it, as in quilting with a longarm, it definitely is weakening the fabric. Every single batik backing I have ever quilted has had it's problems, some worse than others. It looks like the needle doesn't slide between the fibers or through them neatly but rather punches through and leaves a bit of a shredded look to the hole in the fabric. Batiks definitely behave differently than regular cottons and I hate to quilt them as backings. They aren't really my favorite utilitarian-type quilt top either!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delld Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 Could you add appiique to these blocks? Is that the quilt pictured? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffq-lar Posted March 19, 2015 Report Share Posted March 19, 2015 That's such a shame! When fabric deteriorates and there doesn't seem to be an obvious root cause, it's usually something that happened in the dyeing process. If it's isolated on one specific fabric, maybe that fabric was treated with a chemical that the other fabrics escaped. When you delve into the dyeing process, different mordants and bleaches are used. If a bleach is applied and then not neutralized, the chlorine will eventually eat away the fabric. Just wondering if that might be the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammi357 Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 dittos for appliqueing over the damaged portions. Unsewing isn't so bad! Sit down and watch a good movie together! After doing alterations for a while, I realized that unsewing is more than half the job, and if it's being altered, it's not going to BE perfect and "brand new" again...right? So having a good repair is definitely OK. I certainly would NOT use the same fabric and possibly having that stress other areas of the quilt, but find something 'blendy' for the repair. Perhaps, once the replacement bits are applique'd on, one could 'fake in' a bit of quilting over that portion by hand or on a regular mach? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aktbone Posted March 20, 2015 Report Share Posted March 20, 2015 I would also say applique something over the fraying pieces. I despise ripping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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