Batting bliss

Oh the joy of going to the post office to collect a parcel. I seem to be making a collection of batting. The last time I was at my fabric store I spotted Silk batting. It looked amazing but it was only for a queen size top and I like getting king size batting as this allows for whatever you want to make.

The silk batting feels amazing and I am sure it will stitch the same as the wool batting that I have tried before. The only problem that I have found with wool batting is that the quilting thread has a higher tensile strength than it, so all of the pressure when you pull up the quilt is placed on the thread. On occasion you can actually hear the threads breaking. Sleeping under wool though is worth it as it really does keep you warm.

I did a fun exercise to see the different weights of the three battings that I have. The heaviest was the cotton which weighed 1.260 kg, the wool was next at 880 grams and then the silk which was 830 grams.

I am still mulling over what I will be doing for my next large quilt.

I do think I will be using the silk batting and it will probably be an appliquéd quilt. I think the two would go together. 

Hope everyone has an amazing day!

Q7 Irish chain

Q7 is an Irish chain quilt. I got every colour in a range of fabrics and created my Irish chain. The quilt took such a long time to make as there was a 2 month pause in the middle when we painted the house and then again when I made Manie his birthday quilt. I hand stitched each pice and then hand quilted the whole quilt.I used a wool batting and it has really made the qult soft and warm.  I love the brightness of this quilt.

The dates were as follows:     Design start date     - 1st of April 2011
                               Piecing start date    - 1st July 2011
                               Top completed date    - 4th March 2012
                               Quilting completed    - 25th May 2012Stats                          colours               - 14
                               blocks                - 1500
                               approximate time      - 9 months with spending at least 3 hours a day stitching so that would be approximately 830 hours hand stitching. 
Here is the design:

Here is the actual quilt