Prism99

It means that quilting lines should be a maximum of 6" apart. A 6" square would not be fine because the diagonal measurement from corner to corner would be greater than 6". Likewise the 2" by 8" would not be good enough. The manufacturer calculates the max distance that will allow the batting to maintain integrity through multiple machine washings and normal wear and tear. Exceeding a recommendation does not necessarily mean there will be immediate problems; rather the issues will start showing up over time. The stresses on the batting may show up with the batting pulling away from the quilting lines, bunching up, etc.

GarageDragon

Please forgive the ignorance of a newbie, but I don't understand? I understood the 'stitching up to' was maximum distance from a stitch, and so a 6" square would be fine in this instance. If it's not that, then wouldn't it also not be compatible with straight line or wavy line quilting (or tying)? Or am I totally misunderstanding?

ckcowl

That does mean there needs to be stitching every 6" in all directions for stability. If you leave 8" of unquilted space the batting ( can) pull apart, glob up, leave bare areas and bunched up areas inside that space. It is important to pay attention to quilting recommendations, especially for any quilt that is going to be used/ laundered. More quilting is OK/good, too little - not good. If you've ever come across an ( old quilt) with areas that seem to have no batting at all & other areas where there are balls of batting- that is an example of not enough quilting to hold the batting stable. Some battings need to be quilted every 2" ( quite densely). Generally battings with scrim are fairly stable and allow large areas to be left without quilting (8" - 10" ) battings without scrim need more more (2"-4" often)

ManiacQuilter2

That is why I STILL pin baste.

Prism99

Well, technically a 6" square does not meet the specs because you have almost 8.5" of space between quilting lines if you measure corner-to-corner. When the batting specifies a max quilting distance of 6", it means that there should not be more than 6" of batting in any direction that is unquilted.

You are correct that lines (whether straight or wavy) that do not cross each other do not meet the batting specifications. Often modern quilts will have straight lines just 1/2" or 1" apart, but they never cross. It's true that in this case the batting is not totally stabilized. The issue here is that there are no quilting stitches stabilizing the long lengths of batting. When aesthetics take precedence like this, it's good to be aware that the quilt should get some special handling when being washed and dried because, over time, it's possible for the batting to come apart, distort, or ball up between quilting lines.

Quilters often take more liberties with wall hangings, which will not be washed as often as quilts and will also not be subject to the stresses of being sat upon, dragged around the house by a toddler, etc.

PaperPrincess

Good question!! If you measure a 6" square corner to corner, you would have a distance of about 8.5" open. As another poster mentioned, you might not have problems right away, but with use and multiple washings, issues could develop. A 4" square measures around 6" diagonally, so that would be a better choice. If you tied it, you would certainly want the ties no farther than 4", I would probably go closer. The channel quilting is another question. You often see narrow (2" or less) borders or sashing with just SITD, no quilting in the border itself. This is kind of a toss up. Officially, there should be some stitching across, however, I've done this and the quilts seem to be doing just fine. As far as channel quilting an entire quilt, I wouldn't do it unless the quilting lines were 1" or less apart. Interested in other opinions!

Tink's Mom

I'm so glad that they got back to you so quickly. And that they will be replacing the batting. I was afraid that with no scrim the spray basting wouldn't work, but it is good to know that we need to skip that step. Bring on the pins...