Batting Busting 101

I’m excited to be sharing some of my batting busting ideas with you and excited to be reading ideas from the other talented people participating in this blog hop. 
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Thank you Jen for hosting this blog hop. You can visit Jen’s blog at https://patternsbyjen.blogspot.com/
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MINI QUILTS

Batting scraps come in many shapes and sizes. Some pieces are plenty big enough for the many mini quilt challenges I participate in. I don’t even mind zigzagging a couple of pieces together to get the size I need for a mini quilt.

You might ask what I do with all the minis I make. Well some become class samples for teaching but they also make perfect gifts. They can be used as table centre pieces, wall hangings, placemats, or can even be made into tote bags or pillows. If you make them all the same size they could be put together in quilt-as-you-go fashion to make a quilt. They are great silent auction donations or a wonderful addition to the Christmas hamper.​​

A quick search on the internet for quilt challenges will result in oodles of choices. Many of these challenges are asking you to enter them into a show or contest, but you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. Just do it for your own personal growth. It is the perfect opportunity to try a new technique or product without committing to a large project or to practice your free motion or walking foot quilting. It will help to eat up not only your batting, but your fabric scraps too and you’ll be amazed how it helps your creativity grow.​

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​QUILT-AS-YOU-GO

This quilt-as-you-go method is the mastermind of  Brenda Suderman and I am sharing it with her permission. Brenda designed this quilt, which not only uses fabric scraps, but oodles of those long pieces of batting that are cut away from around our quilts once they are quilted. 

The quilt is made by Brenda and the Strip Piecers, a group of ladies who dedicate a lot of their time to making quilts to be auctioned off for charity.

Glowing Hearth - This queen-sized quilt incorporates both scraps of quilting fabric and scraps of quilt batting. Members of the Strip Piecers cut 3-inch strips of leftover batting and sewed dark and light strips directly onto the batting using a flip-and-sew method. The blocks were constructed with one-inch sashing strips, and the blocks were joined in the same method. 
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To read more about how this quilt was constructed please visit Brenda’s blog at:
 https://scrapsandstrings.blogspot.com/2017/10/strip-pieced-log-cabins.html

PILLOWS FOR THE HOMELESS

There will are always be those pieces of batting that are just too small for anything. I struggled for a long time with throwing these out then I began stuffing the batting along with fabric scraps, worn out socks, and stained clothing into pillow cases and donating them to dog rescues.

One day while reading a post  on Facebook, someone mentioned making pillows for the homeless. I immediately contacted the shelter in the city to see if they would accept this type of donation and I got a resounding yes!

I still stuff pillow cases for dog rescues but I separate the soft batting pieces from the rest and make small pillows for the homeless.  I use denim or other heavy fabrics to make the pillows. I don’t have a standard size but make them approximately 10” x 16” and add a handle so they can be carried easily or attached to a backpack.

I hope these ideas will help you to bust your batting along with your fabric scraps.

​Melissa Marginet
Quilt Maker, Designer, Teacher, Author of Walking Foot Quilting Designs

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