Revisited

When I first started quilting, I used to load the top onto a bar on the long arm. Now I just float the quilt tops and measure each end as I advance the quilt. Bernie is hard to do that with because of the way the frame is set up and configured. 

I loaded this next quilt onto Bernie with the top also loaded onto a bar...

Next up on Bernie with the quilt top loaded onto the bar

This quilt won't be worked on for a while because I have other tops with nearer deadlines. But it's loaded and I can chip away at it until I can get those others done. 

Here's some of the quilting going into Rita's 365 quilt...

The center medallion

Let's talk about packaged batting. Manufacturing, in general, tries to pack as much as they can in as little bit of packaging as they can. It's a cost thing. They don't care how the batting (or whatever) ends up in the package, just so long as it gets in there. 

The last two or three packaged battings I've received have had situations such as this...

A mild situation

A not so mild situation

Here's my question: What am I supposed to do about this? I load tonight for tomorrow, so the batting "relaxes" for the next 12+ hours. It has the weight of the top smoothing it down and the drape/gravity working to get those wrinkles out. But, these are both the day after. Now what? 

I have to work at each advance by hand smoothing, pinning, separately basting and sometimes spritzing to work through this. It takes (a lot) of extra time and becomes frustrating to me when sometimes the wrinkles just won't submit. I have read [somewhere] that putting the batting into the dryer with a damp towel will ease out the wrinkles. So, I guess we can add laundry attendant to my title. I think I need to work on finding a better solution for the problem.