sewbeadit

Do you like or mind using thick and thin, or different thicknesses of fabric in your quilts? I don't like to but seems like I have to most of the time. I don't like mixing, I like it all the same, unless that is a design idea I have to use different. It seems as though when I buy fabric and put in my stash I wind up with so many different weights of fabrics. I think that using thick with thin in the long run, the thin will wear out much faster than the thick, (speaking of cottons) and I like working with the same thicknesses.

I know there is no quilt police and all, but just the difference bothers me. I wish the manufacturers or online sellers could use something to denote the fact the fabric is thin or thick. I do a lot of ordering on line. I hope all this makes sense. It doesn't seem to be a certain manufacturer or brand name, just differences.

Candace

I don't use thin fabrics, period.

dublb

I've used both. I know that we're not supposed to but it seems that color is more important to me. When I find just the color I want I use it even if it is thin.

Cherylsea

I do know what you mean and white or white on white seems to be the worst of the "thin" but if it will work I will use it. If it is really cheap feeling or looking I don't buy it.

joyce888

If it's thin I don't buy it. With the prices of fabric today I'm not going to waste my money on thin fabric. I also hate fabric that ravels. I've bought many of Nancy Halvorsen fabrics that are wonderful weight but ravel so bad even though I spray starch them heavily.

deemail

I choose fabric for color and texture...don't care about content (wash it, it will be washable), or thickness or anything except looking the way i want it to look. see the link for cotton rings and melons and upholstery fabric fussy cut centers... There is No Wrong Way to Quilt.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...k-t166396.html

dunster

Like the others who responded, I don't buy thin fabrics. When I buy online I make sure it's a fabric line that I trust. If I somehow get a fabric that I consider thin, then I just don't use it.

TanyaL

I think it must depend on what type of quilt you are making. You can put anything in an art quilt. Applique quilts frequently have thin fabric as a foundation so that you can see your pattern through them as you fuse onto the blocks. There are Victorian style quilts with velvets, satins,and even laces etc as the predominate fabrics. Some quilts use denim. I think that if you have hard and fast rules then you are probably making the same type quilts over and over again. Maybe you would like the challenge of a different type of quilt made with different types of fabrics. Certainly when you are making a wall hanging you can use textured fabric that you wouldn't use in a bed quilt, even carpet if it had the texture for what you were trying to achieve.Think of a landscape with some carpet added to a dirt road and some raw wool added to the snow on a mountain top along with sequins for snow glitter. Anything goes in a quilt.

Tartan

I made a quilt when my son was little out of shirt factory remnants. They all looked the same but the cotton? wore out faster than ones that felt like they were maybe part polyester. I try not to use fabrics that look or feel flimsy but these all had what I thought were the same weight and content. Just do the best you can, use the best you can afford and when a well loved quilt wears out....you get a chance to make another quilt!

DogHouseMom

To all of you who responded that you don't use "thin" fabrics, I have to ask if you use batiks? While I wouldn't define them as thin as in "scanty" - they ARE thinner than a lot of other cottons - for example a Hoffman Asian. The difference is notable yet they are both good quality cottons - neither being "scanty".

I have used Batiks with heavier cottons (like Asians), and I won't do it any more. My main reason is that I like working in small pieces, and when you work with small pieces that teeny tiny bit of difference in the seam allowance will matter! If you use the same seam allowance (when sewing) to sew a Batik to a Batik, a Batik to an Asian, and an Asian to a Asian - you will have three different "finished" seam allowances after you press the seams. When you are working with a finished 1/4" piece ... you have trouble with a capital T. I for one do NOT want to adjust my needle position for each combination of "weight" that I use.

Just tonight I finished putting a border on a WIP. The border uses 6 different fabrics randomly in a "mosiac" of 5 1/4" squares. The next time I attempt a border like this, I'm going to make sure that all my fabrics are the same "weight" or "thickness" as some were not the same - again - these are all name brand quality cottons from LQS.

So even though you are buying good quality cottons, there are still differences.

Even within one manufacturer, I can find different weights in their fabrics.