To make a good quilt the most necessary item is the quality quilting fabric. Most quilt users want to know about quilt fabric and raw materials.
There is all variety of quilter whose requirements are different. However, most commonly quilters prefer to use 100% cotton. The reason behind this is that it easy to quilt, sew and press natural fibers. They are not much complicated and one can easily use various designs with it.
The next thing that quilters look for is the thread count in the fabric. This is because if one is using lower thread count, it wears and frays easily if compared with higher quality fabric. The best thread count will be between 68 and 78. Fabrics with these counts are durable and thicker and they rarely wear out or tears and they are shrink- resistant as well.
One of the most important things to consider in a fabric is the fabric’s grain. Fabrics are weaved in two directions either crosswise or lengthwise. You will find that the high quality quilting fabrics are straight along all directions. This creates amazing right angles. Make sure that while choosing you see to it that the print that is on the grain should be properly aligned with the grain. If you skip this thing you will see that while cutting you will match the prints but not the grain. This can result in weak and distorted pattern.
There are various requirements for quilt fabric so it is necessary to do little testing before buying. This will let you buy a good quality quilting fabric and also material that is worth paying.
There are few manufactures who mix chemicals to the fabric to boost the low quality materials. To test this smell the fabric, if it has strong smell, you need to double check as this smell can be result of sizing or bleaching. This is done by several manufactures as it will initially strengthen and thicken the material. However after the first wash these chemicals will go down and the result will be a low quality product. These are very bad chemicals for the fabrics so it’s better that you avoid these.
Next see if the fabric leaves colored prints on your hand when you try to feel it. This means that the fabric is not color fast and hence will not be a suitable fabric. The most high quality fabrics always seal the colors. Sometimes attractive patterns are available, but they might not be colorfast and hence will lose color in the first wash so better avoid them.
When you plan to make a masterpiece quilt that has to be attractive and complex, it will not be right time for skimping. Always remember that when you choose a fabric you pay for what you choose. You might see that many stores have same print with different pricing. This is due to the quality of the fabric. Same print can be available in high quality and same inn low quality fabric. So always give some time in choosing the right fabric of good quality. And when you have decided on a particular fabric that will suit your desired quilt requirement you can select from various colors, patterns and prints. Following these steps of choosing quality quilting fabric makes you go for right kind of material that will last forever.
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