Quilting Fabric
I was contacted by a woman who wants me to quilt a few bolts of fabric for her. She makes items like Christmas stockings, tree skirts, table runners and place mats out of quilted fabric. She sells them at craft fairs. What's really neat is that she brings an embroidery machine with her and personalizes the items on the spot.
The choices of already quilted fabric are very limited in the stores. She needs a whole bunch of different Christmas fabrics to make these items and wants to choose all of the prints herself. I have quilted fabric yardage on my long arm machine before and already have the thin batting I use for this in stock so this will go smoothly.
When quilting a bolt of fabric, the set up takes a while. The fabric needs to be unfolded, attached and rolled. If the crease in the fabric is deep, it needs to be ironed first for the best result. Some people line these kinds of items and don't want any kind of backing at all on the quilted fabric. Others want a light backing or even a layer of tulle to keep the batting from getting snagged while working with the fabric. I will quilt these fabrics with colored thread to match the background.
Once I even quilted a bunch of different pieces for a woman who had had a series of surgeries on her arm. She needed to wear a sling for a long, long time and was making them in different colors and prints!!! Some to match her clothes and some for the seasons and holidays.
I'm glad I am able to do this. It is nice to be able to help sewers have more choices of fabrics to use on their special projects.
Happy Quilting,
Laurel