In the comments on the last post there were questions raised on whether I pre-washed the chocolate and blue indigos. Yes. Of course!! They are stiff as a board before washing, I don't think anyone would want to piece with them that way, and then there is the bleeding factor.
I washed them more than once, maybe three times or so to be sure they were extra soft. I dried them in the dryer on high heat, wanting to shrink them as much as possible.
What it all boils down to is THREAD COUNT and the thickness of the thread. The thread that makes up this fabric is fairly course, and there are not as many threads per inch. It ends up with a feeling much like feed sack. So small even hand quilting stitches are harder to achieve when the fabric is thicker than regular quilting cotton. That is all I was saying.
I still love the history of the fabric, and the designs they are printed with...I'll just use what other pieces I have in things that will be machine quilted, not hand quilted. Unless you've quilted both very soft "regular" quilting cottons and this indigo together, you might not think there would be much difference, but there is.
We watched "Angels & Demons" tonight with Tom Hanks...and I quilted through the whole thing. We'd seen it in the theater, and this time we rented it from netflix to be able to see the "extra" bits. I love Dan Brown's books! What a great story teller...
On closer inspection those indigos are beautiful, Bonnie. Did you say they came from Africa? I have some antique blue indigos that a friend sent me from England years ago, I've never used them but I think I'll dig them out and rethink something to do with them.
ReplyDeleteGail :)
I even hate hand quilting through Kona Cotton because of the thick threads. I feel your pain...
ReplyDeleteThanks for that, I guess I just wondered if you knew about pre washing....but like you say they are stiff as boards you have to pre wash.In my washing instructions it says to wash 6-8 times with denim jeans for an antique look.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, is it accurate to call the chocolate-brown fabric "indigo"? Perhaps saying that it's shweshwe (whether blue, brown, or red) would be preferable. OOOH -- look at the yummy new colorways!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.shweshwe.net/index.asp
I don't really care what anyone wants to call them! I know "indigo" is blue..but for me it's the TYPE of fabric. The patterns are the same, the only difference is the color of the ground....I've been calling them chocolate indigos for 10 years now...it's not likely to change! *LOL*
ReplyDeleteBonnie