Product review: Heat Press Batting Together

I have recommended to sweet hubby that we should rename the month of May. I think it should now be called “If it weren’t for the last minute nothing would get done” month. He says it should be called “Desperation.” His idea has the virtue of being short and concise: March, April, Desperation, June, July… I don’t think Desperation is exactly how I feel, though. More of “why on earth did I wait so long? I need to get all these things done by May 26!”

Yes, my life revolves around deadlines, and if I want to enter anything in the International Quilt Festival in Houston, then I have to face an end of May deadline. On May 20 I realized I didn’t have a finished quilt to enter, and I thought I should at least give a shot at quilting something to enter this year. On Saturday I chose a small quilt top and got to work. This quilt was small enough that I could use some leftover pieces of batting. That gave me the perfect opportunity to try a product called HEAT Press Batting Together. It is a lightweight, 1-1/2″ wide, knit fabric strip that has a fusible coating on one side.

This product is easy enough to use. I took my two pieces of batting, overlapped them about an inch, and then cut up the middle so my two edges would meet perfectly. Then I placed the strip of HEAT Press Batting Together over the top of the “seam” and pressed using a wool setting. It fused instantly. I was happy that it even held together my fluffy wool batting.

I proceeded to layer my quilt and safety-pin baste the quilt together. I brought it to George so I could start quilting when I noticed a big, ugly tuck on the backing. Arg! Out came all of the safety pins and I went back to the floor. This time I taped my backing to the floor and started again. Perfect. No tucks this time.

I was happy to notice that I had no problem pinning through the tape that held my two pieces of batting together. I also had no trouble quilting through it, and I could not see any indication that I had pieced together the batting. Yes, I will definitely use HEAT Press Batting Together again. I have lots of scraps that I’ve never been able to throw away, and now I have an easy way to make use of them.