Batting & Backing

When making a quilt for a baby or toddler, recycle the extra fabric and batting for making matching small blocks or balls.  Pull the batting apart before stuffing into the blocks or balls.

Recycle your old mattress pads by cutting off the sides and elastic and use the mattress pad top for batting in quilts. It works great.

I do a lot of quilts for children and I've found that the traditional batting is to bulky and heavy for them and I use fleece.  It's alot easier to quilt, it's lighter, hangs better, and it's warmer.  I now use it in everything I do it works great for larger quilts because it isn't as bulky and you don't have to quilt it as much.  I works great for wall hangings and laying out your blocks also.

When making any quilt there is always leftover fabric, especially after applique when there are lots of different colours and prints. Just sew these leftovers together, time consuming but fun, and use as your backing fabric. You could even embroider your quilt details on a piece. i seldom use the same fabric on two different quilts so an excellent way to stop that stash taking over. Also it avoids that "what should i use on the back" question and doesn't cost me anything.

(I'm not sure if the category is correct for this tip)

When I am laying out my quilt blocks to begin sewing the blocks together I lay the blocks in a similar size thin felt blanket or cloth.  When I am finished for the day, I will then roll up the blocks in the blanket therefore not having to disturb the finished pattern.  When ready to continue sewing my blocks together I just unroll the felt, revealing the blocks in their original order.

I lay my quilt batting with the backing underneath my mattress until I'm ready to quilt.  It flattens out the folds and holds the batting and backing together.

I recycle my batting by making small quilts for my great nieces Barbie dolls, and to go into Barbie's house.  I also use my batting for stuffing small pillows, pin cushions, etc.  I have a gift bag hanging on the side of the chair beside me at the dining room table and anytime I have a piece of fabric or batting or thread that is too small to do anything with I place it in the gift bag.  these tinier pieces are then used for pillow and pin cushion stuffing also.  Sometimes I take it out side and scatter it for the birds to use in their nests.  There is a nest outside my dining room window right now, with Elvis in it. 

If you have lots of left over batting scraps, check with your local schools to see if they can use them for projects. Teachers are always looking for supplies since many of them have to pay for them out of their own pocket.

Instead of buying the expensive basting spray go to the hardware section of any store and buy spray adhesive it cost less and you can make it temporary by spraying only one side or make it permenant by spraying both sides then you can do less pinning I do this all the time and it doesnt hurt the fabric it works great

God Bless

Pamela 

When I have finished quilting my projects, I like to save the extra backing and batting  that I trim off before I put the binding on.  This is great to use to practice your machine quilting on.  If the piece is big enough you can make pot holders or coasters when you are done practicing on them. A way to also see how some of your specialty threads look without having to experiment on your quilt.