July « 2019 « skalabara quilts

In today’s blog post, I would like to share with you my experience with wool wadding/batting Quilters Dream Wool. Maybe this is not the right time to write about wool. Here in Spain we have full summer with high temperatures; over the weekend we had nearly 40°C.

levitating liberty jewel box silver eggshell quilt 21 - skalabara quilts

I have used wool wadding for the first time in my two levitating jewel box quilts with Liberty London fabrics – see blog posts here and here.

What I found out is that wool wadding doesn’t crease or fold. A big plus in my eyes. When I took the king-size wadding out of the packaging and I rolled it open, it was flat in a moment with no visible folds. I could cut the wool wadding exactly to the size needed having no problems. The wadding didn’t move on the quilt backing, and this made cutting it with scissors very easy.

wool wadding 1 - skalabara quilts

Also pin basting the quilt sandwich was quick. Even-though the wool wadding has a higher loft than cotton; the pins went through the three layers smoothly. Once more, the wool wadding was stable, flat and did not move.

Because of the higher loft of the wool wadding I could easily mark my quilting lines with a Hera marker and a long ruler. The marked lines were perfectly visible.

wool wadding 2 - skalabara quilts

My experience with quilting wool wadding is positive. At the beginning, I was afraid of the high loft. Will my sewing machine manage it? But because the wool wadding is so soft, I had no problems so ever with quilting. I have used the standard Bernina walking foot, Aurifil Cotton Mako 40/2 thread and 90/12 jeans sewing needles.

On the contrary : the wadding did not move between the layers, no shifting or creasing. Over all I am satisfied with the result and I know, I shall use wool wadding for my future quilting projects.

levitating liberty jewel box eggshell quilt 10 - skalabara quilts

I have washed the quilts with the wool wadding several times in the washing machine (using a special program for wool with low temperature and a detergent for delicate fibres). No creases, no folds, the quilts dried quickly.

levitating liberty jewel box silver eggshell quilt 25 - skalabara quilts

My opinion about wool wadding :

warm and breathable, perfectly warm in the winter, cool in the summer
soft drape, resists folds and creases
lighter compared with cotton
sustainable and renewal natural fibre, environment friendly
machine washable
suitable for both hand and machine quilting

Do you have any experience (good or bad) with wool wadding, please let me know!

Happy quilting!

barbora flower small skalabara quilts

Something for in between projects : a double sided quilted cushion cover. I made the hexie side a few weeks ago – see this post. When I was sorting out my sewing room, I found an extra log cabin block for a quilt I made earlier – Magenta and Golden Flowers. All I needed was to add strips to the original log cabin un till I had a finished cushion cover size of 20″ x 20″.

cushion cover log cabin with kaffe fassett fabrics 1 - skalabara quilts

I have used for both cushion cover sides bright Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

CU kaffe fassett log cabin detail 5 - skalabara quilts

The log cabin strips are 1″ wide when finished; i.e. cutting is 1,5″. The center square is 2″ finished; i.e. cutting 2,5″.

cushion cover log cabin with kaffe fassett fabrics 3 - skalabara quilts

Quilted in straight lines with the walking foot along all seams. I have used a diagonal stitch so that I could quilt this cushion cover in one go, without cutting off and burying any threads.

cushion cover log cabin with kaffe fassett fabrics 6 - skalabara quilts