Fusible Wadding Review, Friday Finish and Quilters Show and Tell

Snow at last!

Fusible Batting Review

I recently bought a Queensize pack of Hobbs Heirloom® 80/20 Fusible Cotton Blend Batting but after reading about various bad experiences other bloggers had had with fusible wadding, I asked Sarah about it and she sent me a very helpful email describing her experience of it coming unstuck whilst quilting a large quilt. I decided to try it out on my red and white quilt which is 73" x 73" square.

This is a review of the fusible batting. I don't have pictures for every stage and assume readers are familiar with the general process of quilting on a domestic sewing machine.

The Process:

Firstly, I placed all three layers of my quilt sandwich together on a large table covered with a table protector and ironed first the top of the sandwich, then turned it over and ironed the bottom. Although the batting had initially looked quite wrinkly everything ironed together very smoothly and easily. The sandwich did fuse through to the table protector but it was easily lifted and did not feel sticky.

Once the three layers were fused together I discovered my backing fabric showed through to the front of the quilt when held up to the light. I was able to peel it off very easily and replace it with some light solid cotton fabric which fused on well.

Fore-warned was fore-armed! After fusing I pinned all three layers together as shown (the squares are 4 1/2").

I quilted this in straight lines 1 1/2" apart. Using a Janome Sewist which has a six inch throat, I began in the middle and quilted lines top to bottom and bottom to top alternately. I marked my lines with a water soluble marker and I noticed this caused some movement of the layers. Rolling the quilt also caused some unsticking along crease lines but the sandwich felt quite stiff and the roll kept together well. During the sewing, I found it was much easier to keep the area under the presser foot flat than with pins alone.

These photos show the finished result before washing. I was very pleased with how flat and even it turned out although it's hard to show well with white on white. Although the fabric (especially the backing) has got quite creased from all the man handling through the machine, there are no wrinkles or puckers under the stitching lines and no signs of the fabric dragging.

My conclusion is that this is easy to fuse together/re-position/take apart so long as it is kept flat. For cushions and mini quilts I would feel happy about using this wadding alone. But for anything that requires folding, creasing or generally pulling about before it is securely quilted together, I would recommend pinning as well. Although having to use pins might seem to defeat the object of using a fusible batting, I found the fusing made the sandwich much more manageable to baste a fairly large quilt single handed.

Friday Finish

Here it is fresh out of the drier and this quilt is my Friday Finish.

Quilters Show and Tell

Other news, today I've entered the:

The theme this week is Challenge Quilts and I've entered my Old Man and the Sea, which you might remember.

Of course I'd love for anyone to vote for me but I'd recommend you visit anyway because there is also a give-away open to everyone visiting the site during the weekend voting. [Click here to go to the voting/giveaway page.] When you visit you simply leave a comment answering this week’s question and you'll be entered in the give-away. Voting will start shortly after 8:00 a.m. (EST) today and last until Monday, January 21st at 8:00 a.m. (EST).

Happy Friday and Happy Sewing!

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

I'm linking up with: