PaperPrincess

Sorry, I am also confused by your post. Are you saying we can ignore the manufacturer's minimum quilting information because it's not a requirement for durability, it's just a myth?

rusty quilter

I like to make "utility" quilts that will be washed and worn till they fall apart (Hopefully that will take a couple of decades!) I am not a fan of quilting 1 one 2 inches apart...feels like cardboard to me...and not the warmth I had intended...Personal preference to be sure!

Jingle

I never quilt less than 1-1/2" apart. I usually do FMQ. When I do straight line quilting I make an X across the squares, usually no bigger than 5" finished blocks. My quilts are never stiff, not even QAYG.

Prism99

It was probably Warm and Natural batting, which is needlepunched through scrim (making it very stable) and gives a max quilting distance of 10". I have to wonder if your friend washed the quilt in a top-loading machine with a central agitator and allowed it to agitate. That kind of central agitator is hard on batting, even for short periods of time. Top-loaders that do not have central agitating posts, and front-loaders, are much easier on quilts.

Also, just as a general rule, the 10" quilting distance works way better for large pieces of fabric than for blocks composed of a lot of small, pieced fabrics.

Prism99

Regarding close quilting resulting in a cardboard feeling, I discovered that problem on a doll quilt that I heavily quilted with regular cotton thread. What I have found since then is that dense quilting will not stiffen a quilt as long as the quilting thread is polyester. I have densely machine quilted a large quilt with Glide polyester thread, which has a similar thickness to the cotton thread I used in the doll quilt, and the dense quilting did not stiffen up the quilt at all. It all depends on the thread.

QuiltE

......... and the batting too .............

joe'smom

The batting directions are not a recommendation for how closely a quilt should be quilted, but tell the minimum amount of quilting that must be done to stabilize the batting. That recommendation is not related in any way to the idea of what sort of quilting design would enhance the piecing of the quilt (since the batting manufacturer doesn't know what top the batting is being used with). I think most people understand this distinction.

zozee

[QUOTE=Prism99;7961401]Regarding close quilting resulting in a cardboard feeling, I discovered that problem on a doll quilt that I heavily quilted with regular cotton thread. What I have found since then is that dense quilting will not stiffen a quilt as long as the quilting thread is polyester. I have densely machine quilted a large quilt with Glide polyester thread, which has a similar thickness to the cotton thread I used in the doll quilt, and the dense quilting did not stiffen up the quilt at all. It all depends on the thread.


Good to know. I'm going to try polyester thread on my next quilt. So far I've only used cotton on everything.

Prism99

Yes, definitely the batting affects stiffness too. Warm and Natural batting has the stiffest drape of any battings I have tried; however, I have noticed that with each washing it becomes a little softer. This means I will keep it in mind when making children's quilts that will get washed many times before they fall apart. It is also great for wallhangings which get washed infrequently, as it remains very stable when hanging up.

Some of the softer battings I have tried are Hobbs 80/20 (a great all-around batting for my uses), Hobbs PolyDown (love the loft and softness, but found it more difficult to longarm quilt), and wool (which I think is ideal but haven't used enough yet to be sure). Some of the thinner all-cotton battings are very nice in terms of softness and drape, but do not offer much stitch definition for the quilting (which is sometimes desirable).

Hope this isn't too far off-topic.....

QuiltE

Definitely not off-topic ..... and good info to learn and understand.
However, I do think many of us are somewhat mystified confused as to the topic.



Quilt30 ... perhaps you could clarify?
And too, perhaps we are the ones not understanding your intent.