Daily rambles about quilting, gardening, reading, cooking and just plain old being.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Ranting and Raving

Since I'm working on the Charm quilt I have really been tearing into my stash and one of the things that I unearthed in my 5 inch square box were several packages of 5 inch pre-cuts. I'm not using brand names here as not to malign the company, but you can guess, I'm sure.

If you read my post about sport versus traditional I talked about being lured in by the new "stuff". This is one of the things that lured me in, how awesome to get 40-42 different fabrics, many of which we didn't actually get on the bolt. You get them ALL this way and I loved that, but there are some problems.

First, I'm a pre-washer ALWAYS and these little babies seem to have a shrinking problem. In this pic you can see that it shrank in one direction an 1/8th of an inch, thus it is no longer square! Secondly, many of them shrink and end up as trapazoidal-type shapes meaning that they were cut on the bias to begin with....YIKES!

I see all kinds of issues from using these....the first quilt that I made with these I didn't pre-wash (I was trying to new, sporty way of quilting), that quilt has been washed numerous times and it has shrunk and because my seams were a scant 1/4 inch some of the seams are pulling apart because of the shrinkage! So, there is problem number 1, shrinkage after the quilt is made and quilted. Problem number two: squares cut on the bias act differently than those cut with the grain. For a new quilter, this could mean a wonky quilt because of stretch...seasoned quilters will work with them better, but they will still have issues after the piecing is done IF the quilt is ever washed.

I never speak ill of the products we are selling when there are customers around, but this is my space and I feel the need to vent about this. Whether you pre-wash or not you are going to have problems with these pre-cuts. In fact, you will likely have problems with kits cut by shops too, because there is little attention paid to exact grain of fabric. Kits are cut straight from the bolt and many, if not most, bolts are rolled unevenly, so straight cuts are slightly bias cut.

I'm a little embarrassed that I fell into the trap. I'm old-school and I know it. I need to buy my yardage, wash it, straighten it, and then cut it myself. This is the right way for me and I won't waste my money on pre-cuts again.

I hope that I haven't offended anyone who is a sport quilter. You have to do what is right for you, what feeds your soul, what makes you your best and being frustrated and angry over my fabrics does not feed my soul or make me my best self.

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