Carrie's Gorgeous Rainbow Quilt + My NEW Favorite Batting

Good morning, my lovelies!  Keeping secrets is so hard...  I have been in agony for weeks, waiting until I could share this spectacular rainbow quilt made by my client Carrie (and quilted by Yours Truly).  

Carrie's 75 x 75 Rainbow Quilt with Raindrops on Water E2e

Carrie, who describes herself as a "relatively new quilter," is a new client who found me on Instagram and took that leap of faith to ship her quilt top off to a stranger in another state.  This is her first time making a quilt with solid color fabrics and her first time hiring a longarm quilter.  She made this quilt as a wedding gift and I hear it was a big hit.  💕

Loving the Dimension and Weight of the Deluxe Loft Cotton Batting!

I am always excited when I see solid and tonal printed fabrics in a client's quilt top because I know that whichever quilting design we choose, it is going to show up dramatically on solid fabrics whereas the quilting often gets "swallowed up" by busy prints.  The quilting design on this one, by the way, is Raindrops on Water.  Because there is some backtracking in this design and because we wanted to see quilting texture more than quilting stitches, I chose 50 wt So Fine in color Blizzard for the thread (this post contains affiliate links).  But what I'm REALLY excited about is the batting we used -- do you see that magnificent, delicious, and decadent dimensional texture?  Are you guessing wool?  Because if you are, you are wrong!  This is Quilter's Dream Cotton batting, DELUXE loft.  

Backing up -- Quilter's Dream makes their 100% cotton quilt batting in four different thicknesses, or "lofts."  Their Request loft is the thinnest, and it's a good choice for hand quilters who want a thin cotton batting that is easy to needle by hand, or for those making quilted garments who don't want too much bulk.  The next option is the Select loft, which is considered "midloft" and is the most common loft used by long arm quilters.  I use that one all the time, stocking it by the roll as well as by the 60" bolt for baby and throw quilts.  This new Deluxe loft that I used for Carrie's quilt has 50% more cotton per square yard than the mid loft Select that I usually use, and OH MY GOSH what a difference that makes.  Not only does the Deluxe loft show off the quilting spectacularly, but it also makes for a weightier quilt that just feels so much more luxurious than a quilt with the regular cotton batting.  Like a cotton blanket from a high end linen store.  Dream Cotton Deluxe isn't going to be the perfect batting for every project, of course, but I love it enough that I ordered a big roll of it and I'm planning to use it for one of my own upcoming quilts.  

Carrie's Quilt Top Prior to Quilting

Finally, Quilter's Dream also makes a Dream Cotton Supreme loft batting that is twice the thickness of their Select mid loft batting.  I have a couple of Queen and King packages of that in stock as well, and although theoretically the Supreme loft batting would yield identical results to using two layers of the Select batting, it's actually less expensive to use a single layer of Supreme loft -- and the single, thicker batting eliminates the possibility of double batting layers shifting or creasing inside the quilt sandwich during the quilting process.  I tried to find a link for y'all who aren't local to me, but I can't find anyone selling it online to link to!  If you're interested in trying either the Deluxe or the Supreme loft battings and you can't find them locally, I'd be happy to hook you up.  Just shoot me an email and let me know which loft and what size you need.  Because cotton is a dense, heavy fiber, I am not recommending the thicker lofts for hand quilting or for giant bed quilts that need to be wrangled in the tight throat space of a domestic sewing machine.  If your project is Twin, Throw, or Baby sized (or if you have a midarm or a longarm on a frame) you should be fine.  And of course, you know I am here to quilt those monster King quilts for you with whatever batting your heart desires!  😉

What else can I tell you today?  I'm tempted to share another quilt, but it's nearly 11 PM already as I'm typing this and Samwise Snuggle-Up-Agus is giving me that look that means "MOM!  IT'S BED TIME!  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TURN OFF THAT COMPUTER!"

My Name is Samwise and I'm Putting an End to This Blog Post

Okay, okay, okay...  I'll be linking up this post with my favorite linky parties, listed on the left sidebar of my blog, but I won't be doing that until tomorrow morning because I've been ordered off to bed!

👀PSST!!  I'd Love to Quilt for YOU!

By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you!  I am currently scheduling quilts for completion in early December, so please let me know ASAP if you are working on quilts with holiday deadlines.  Click here to learn how easy it is to book a quilt with me!