Patchwork Batting

 It's Friday, and that means I will be machine quilting. I have four small tops standing by. As I sorted through the available batting, I found some big pieces and some not so big pieces leftover from other projects. Batting scraps are great for table runners and mug mats. 

This little black, white and orange piece is only about 39" square. Certainly I have a piece of batting big enough. Not. What to do? Piece some together.

I'm sure you've seen other people piece batting, but I'm going to show you again anyway. I'm stalling.

Lay out your batting scraps on the quilt top, making sure they overlap a little and extend a few inches beyond the edges.

 

Before you piece them together, you need straight edges, so trim them up.

 

I set my machine to a wide, long zig zag. Butt the edges together, do not overlap, and stitch. The zig will catch one piece and the zag will catch the other. You shouldn't see any space between your pieces when the stitching is done. (I pulled them apart for the picture so you could see the two pieces.)

I must have stretched one piece a little, even though I tried not too. Those baggy bits (below) will get quilted flat. It's OK. I make every effort to use just one type of batting, but I did need to use one piece of a different brand for this one. It will be a wall hanging, so no one will ever know.

That's all there is to it. Quilt as desired!

I joined another quilt guild recently so I made a new nametag with the guild logo. I made such a huge mess in that one hour! And my nametag is lopsided and enormous! I wore it last night and felt like a quilted clown. Oh, well. 

P.S. I'll tell you all about that orange quilt when it it done.