I have just started a new quilt, with a black chintz background.  Although I haven’t put a single strip of patchwork into it yet, already I am considering the eventual quilting.  Last time I used black as a background to a quilt, the wool batting eventually bearded out onto the front.   This fabric is a very different weave and density, so it may not be a problem.  I know, I know, you can get black or very dark charcoal grey batting, and if I were in Aus or USA that would not be a problem – I’d buy locally or send for some overnight.  But I am not in either of those places at the moment!!!  The batting available here tends to be uneven, not very good quality, and IF  there were time to send for some from the US (Quilt National entries close september 14th)  I’d have to pay 50% import duties, on top of the rush courier fee.   I’m not THAT  desperate – there’s always another way, and I’m a bit of a goddess of Another Way, which tends to go with being a goddess of the Last Minute, incidentally.

So, this quilting sample I did earlier this morning (quite a bit earlier – 6-30am, actually) covered three possiblilities – wool fabric, poly batting and wool batting,  side by side in the one piece, and clearly labelled for easy comparison.  At this stage, I liked the appearance of both poly and wool batting.  The fabric gave a much lower loft of course, naturally, and might look OK very closely quilted, but on a piece that I plan to end up 2m wide….er, no! But could be great for backing very small pieces, and at that time I will try quilting two layers of it, too, as I’m sure it will be good.  I have this length of wool, lovely wool, that’s been sitting around for years – gotta do something with it – what was I thinking when I bought it?  I’m not even the fine herringbone tweed type!

To simulate what might happen with a lot of handling of a  finished work, my next move was to put this into the dryer and tumble it around for a while with a couple of towels to see what happens.   I am thrilled to report

• absolutely no sign of bearding anywhere – fantastic!
• but the chintz has lost most of its sheen.  But, no worries, as I doubt that would happen even in a lengthy exhibition schedule for the work.  Towels are fairly ‘abrasive’

So that’s my quilting sorted.  For this piece, rather than have wandering lines that cross back and forth, twining and writhing all over each other, I am aiming for organic vaguely parallel lines as per the lower section of the sample piece.