Monday, August 22, 2016

Warm Company Batting Comparison with my Dot Party Quilts


I had a set of three baby quilts to make on my list of quilt gifts to make & give this summer. And then I got my hands on a set of three different Warm Company battings: Warm & Natural, Warm & White, and Warm 100. So I figured I'd do an experiment with the quilts to compare the performance of the battings.


Getting ready to sew my Dot Party quilt blocks.



I love how fast it is to whip up one of these.

Now I've got 3 Dot Party quilt tops: Navy, Aqua & Green.  

Here are the 3 quilt tops with the 3 different battings that I tested out, a different one for each quilt to compare the results. 


Here's a close up of the 3 battings I used for my Dot Party quilt batting comparison.  

All 3 of my baby size Dot Party quilts basted & ready for quilting.   

All 3 finished Dot Party quilts after quilting + binding, before washing. I kept the quilting simple with diagonal lines across the quilt in the middle of each block.   
I love binding. If you look close you may notice that I bound these by machine. 95% of the time I bind by hand. So why did I bind these by machine? I've found that baby quilts are generally washed more than most quilts & occasionally binding stitches will come out. The last thing I want to do is give a gift that needs to be repaired often. 

Now it's time to wash them & see how each of the battings perform.  

 

The quilts are washed. Here is the info on how the size of each one changed over the course of quilting & washing. 

Green = Warm & White batting 
Quilt top - 38.5" x 38.5" 
After quilting - 38.25" x 38.25" 
After washing - 36.5" x 35.75" 

Aqua = Warm & Natural 
Quilt top - 38.5" x 38.5" 
After quilting - 38.25" x 38.25" 
After washing - 36.5" x 36.25" 

Navy = Warm 100 
Quilt top - 38.5" x 38.5" 
After quilting - 38.25" x 38.25" 
After washing - 36.5" x 36"

The quilt with Warm & Natural shrunk the least. The quilt with Warm 100 was in the middle. The quilt with Warm & White shrunk the most. All quilts were washed together in cold water using Soak Wash. Then they were put in the dryer on medium heat because I like the crinkled effect from the higher heat setting in the dryer with this quilt pattern.

The quilts all feel pretty similar at this point. If I hadn't marked down which batting was in which one, I might not be able to tell them apart. It's possible that more detailed quilting would have different results. The Warm 100 was much smoother out of the package & was one of the softest battings I've ever felt. I like that the Warm100 has a 100% cotton scrim. It means that my projects can be 100% cotton. 

 I use 100% cotton fabrics. 
 I use 100% cotton threads.
 I can now use 100% cotton batting.



I hope you enjoyed this batting comparison! Search #JaybirdQuiltsProTip on Instagram and Facebook to see a few more of my favorite sewing tips.



© Blog post written by Julie Herman
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,I love all three too! Love all cotton for the old-fashioned crinkle!
THANKS for sharing your test!
msstitcher1214@gmail.com

Lori in NC said...

Thanks so much for writing up the blog post. It will be so easy to find for future reference!

Lee said...

Thank you for the review!!

Kay said...

Thank you for this really informative post. x

Gene Black said...

I am very curious as to where you got the Warm 100. I haven't seen it and can't find it for sale online either.

Debbie said...

Thank you for this! I have yet to try the Warm 100 ... Thanks for the reminder.

Kathy@KayakQuilting said...

Very, very interesting! I have been thinking about other battings (warm and natural is my standard). I too would love to be able to say 100% cotton!

mascanlon said...

I will have to try Warm products. I am usually a Quilter Dream girl.😂

lifeisacarnival said...

Did you prewash all the fabric?

AussieK9Mom said...

I love warm and white for most of my quilts. I did not realize that it shrinks quite that much tho. My fallback is warm and natural. I have tried other batts with no scrim and they tend to bunch up on less dense quilting after a few washes. I loooooooove your designs. I am teaching the seaside runner as a class so I would love the gazebo pack. I can be reached at aussieluv@icloud.com.

Cathy Smith said...

I LOVE Warm and Natural batting. I use it in almost all of my projects, big and small. If I do a big quilt, I save what I cut off the quilt after quilting to use in small projects. I haven't tried the "White" option; I use the "Natural" color the most. It's so helpful to see via your experiment the differences among the three types in the final projects. I love the Gazebo kit; that would be fun to make. Thanks for the giveaway and good luck to all.

Unknown said...

I use Warm and Natural or Warm and White exclusively. I love the Gazebo and the Seaside packs.

Linda said...

Hi thanks for the great batting comparison! Your dotty pattern is so cute, do you have a tuitorial for it or pattern for sale? Warm and natural I have used in the past but am interested in using the white option!

susan said...

i love that you did this. i was so disappointed recently when i found out warm and natural has poly in it. i swear i checked way back when i started using it and it said 100% cotton. is the 100 the "plush" one? i will give it a go in my next quilt. i hope they dont just make this a temporary thing. i to only use 100 cotton fabric, batting and thread. thanks!

Unknown said...

Julie, which one would you recommend for someone who usually hand quilts, I have never done a lot of machine quilting yet, and have always used warm and natural since I found it instead of the bulky polyester stuff I used for the first few quilts when I started out.