Batting in the Garden
I’ve lived in northern Ca for 17 years and somehow not made it to Quilting in the Garden at Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, but this year I got to go! This is a unique annual 2-day event held in the beautiful Alden Lane Nursery where hundreds of quilts are pinned to lines hung from enormous and beautiful heritage oaks. The show featured artists at C&T Publishing with special honor to Jennifer Sampou.
And this year Pokey Bolton curated and juried a 48-quilt exhibit honoring the life and contributions of Yvonne Porcella. “Live Your BRIGHTEST Light” honored Yvonne’s life of creativity, inspiration and service. Yvonne founded Studio Art Quilt Associates and influenced the art and quilting world in countless ways. The exhibit was touching and emotional. Each artist wrote a statement about how Yvonne influenced them and they ranged from humorous to poignant.
Pokey has photographed each quilt and I am hoping that there will be a posting of that later. I will update my post with the link if/when it becomes available. I may do a separate post with photos. I am unsure what I will do as I write this because it is just days from my son’s wedding! I have a few random shots of the show:
Adorable Amanda Murphy quilts…
Love how the dappled sun hit the quilts…
When the breeze caught the quilts it was beautiful…
It is a nursery after all and they had some magnificent plants (Grevillia)!
And while I was there I made an exciting discovery-a new wool batting! I’ve seen this advertised and I’ve seen it packaged in quilt stores, but I’d not been able to see it and feel it in person. There was a Floriani booth selling Quilter’s Select Wool and I was intrigued. I have purchased my wool batting from Hancock’s for years and when they closed, I lost my source for wool batting. I am not a fan of Hobb’s as I feel that it is too uneven and also at times too thick.
The Quilters Select Wool Batting is very even and also fairly thin, just a wee bit fatter than my Omnigrid ruler (see above). And oh is it soft and drapey!
Alex Anderson has partnered with Floriani to produce this batting and as Alex said, “it is top notch” batting. I purchased a 5 yd x 96″ roll to play with. My observations follow:
Of course wool is a natural product. Sheep are not white and their wool has a yellow cast. To show its color I paired it here (on the left) with some snow white poly batting(on the right), both encased in a white sateen practice sandwich. You definitely can see the difference. Also, I noticed it had a stronger wool smell than the Hancock’s batting I am used to. That is of no consequence to me as I know that will go away after the first wash.
As does all wool batting, there are occasional flecks of black fiber.
I layered up some sateen and added a few feathers and fills to see how it quilted and how much loft it gave. It gives about the same loft as the Hancock’s batting did which is great.
I don’t know if you can see from my photo but there is some nice loft going on there. I am pretty impressed with it so far and I can’t wait to use it in a real project!
On another subject….here’s what fall looks like in my garden. There are no swaths of gorgeous maples in technicolor. But my grasses and succulents are oh so showy!
My Stipa Giganteas are insane this time of year! As the days shorten and the angle of the sun changes, they seem to glow from within at times.
That was a one-gallon Miscanthus not too long ago! Now it is 7′ across.
And my Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa Macra) has such an elegant drape in the fall.
And Echiveria goes bananas in the fall-so beautiful! This is fall in my yard. Hope yours is beautiful in its own way!
Linky party at Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday here!
So happy to see your post today about Alden Lane. I had to miss this year due to husband’s total knee replacement. It is my favorite show every fall. Can’t wait to see more of the Yvonne Porcella tribute.
One way or another I’ll have more of the Yvonbw tribute to show.
I am about to quilt a quilt I made for our son. I’m using 50/50 alpaca/cotton. Warmer than wool, no odor, cold water washable , hypoallergenic and incredibly soft. I bought it on line.
With the 50% cotton content do you know if it will hold the fold?
I, too, bought wool batting at Handcock’s…..but I found the quality inferior. I am not a good quilter, but this batting almost ruined two quilts. I had to make appliques to put over the folds, creases and sewn in puckers on the backs. I was given a piece of Quilter’s Dream when I was teaching at MidAtlantic and it is the absolute best. Give it a try. It is way more expensive than the Hancock’s wool batt with a good coupon, but in this case, well worth the splurge!
I don’t know if it varies from store to store but what I bought was very even and drapey. I’ve heard good about Quilters dream wool but I can never find it off the roll. Thanks for the tip Sandy!
Loved seeing those quilts hanging between the trees. As I live in England, I can’t help wondering if you always have dry weather for that event at this time of the year! Although we are having a warm and dry spell this year it can’t be relied upon for every year.
In that area of the country the weather is reliably mild and rain free. Glad you enjoyed the post Nora!
Love your garden! Thanks for the review of the batting.
You’re welcome Linda- it’s our version of fall.
I’ve been using Quilter’s Dream Select batting, a mid loft poly after years of Hobbs 80/20. I’ve yet to try the wool. It really helped to see your close ups of how it quilts. I want the texture and don’t want separation/shift to occur during the final wash for blocking. What brought you to wool?
I use wool for many reasons: it dues not hold the fold so when I arrive at a guild and unfurl my quilts they hang without fold marks. Also wool is very lightweight so I can pack lots of quilts into my 50-pound luggage. I like the loft of wool also, I don’t know of any other fiber that give that loft. Wool does not require any more blocking than any other fiber in my experience. And wool has a lovely drape. Also will compact more than any other fiber so it’s easier to stuff a large quilt in the small harp of my machine. And wool is lighter weight than most batting which makes it easier on my body to quilt my quilts.
Hi, Jenny!
Wow, all of your wonderful info about wool batting makes me want to switch from cotton, for sure.
It was great to talk with you at PIQF.
All the Best to you in traveling the world as a popular quilting teacher!!!
Therese May
It was great to meet you Therese! I loved exploring your exhibit and seeing your newer work hanging with your groundbreaking earlier work. Thank you for the kind wishes-I’m not traveling the world….yet!
Okay, we just bought Quilters Select soft wool batting (in Cameron Park, no less!). It seems quite a bit thinner than the one we were using (Hobbs Tuscany Wool). We’re getting ready to MistyFuse it and then start quilting on Friday. We’ll keep you posted!
Oh cool! Report your findings please.