I have a friend with a question

It will stretch something fierce unless a stabilizer is added, so piecing blocks would be a nightmare. Debra in VA See my quilts at

One of our girls married into a family where "Granny" made quilts from polyester. They are fabulous. Totally pieced and quilted by machine. These are utility quilts, and will last forever. We have slept under a variety of them when we have visited and have no complaints!

No, they are not like our new, quiltshop quality cotton quilts, but they do have their place.

"Granny" continued to make quilts for all members of the family until she could see no longer.

I think DD's house must have about 20 of them. From baby size, throw size up to queen size. Logcabins, Ohio Stars, Monkey Wrench, and many more of the classic blocks .

These will never be prize winners at a quilt show these days. But they have definately been stitched with love and serve to keep the family and their guests warm. Our 8 year old DGD proudly says, "Granny made this one for my birthday".

So, yes, you can use polyester for quilts. I would suggest not mixing it with cotton in the same quilt top, but do tell her to go ahead and use it.

Marilyn in "very cold" Alberta, Canada

Depends on how stretchy the polyester is. Deb has a point with that.

However, back when we were even broker than we are now I did some polester quilts with polyester batting. They were a horror on washing day because I hung my laundry. They were _warm_ though, and that was the important thing. They were also cheap to make what with having a half ton of polyester clothes given me by relatives and big pieces of polyester being cheap at the thrift shop at the time. I tied to use the double knits for backing and stick to the singles for the front. At the time thrift shops were full of "disco skins", so if I wanted something in a given color it wasn't too difficult to find.

Pressing will probably give more problems than stretch IMHO. If you did any garment sewing in the 70's, or have done much with fleece, you probably know how to cope with sewing the fabric. However there is so much variation across such a small temperature spectrum as to what various polys can handle without melting, that pressing can be a trial.

NightMist

I have past your comments on to Debbie and she says thank you very much. She has also sewed with polyester for many years as she makes clothes.

GrammyKathy

You can use whatever you want, there are no quilt police. Just don't expect poly to be easy to work with! Knits are stretchy, and poly won't hold a crease like cotton. And if you try mixing it with cottons, they won't wear the same way, and the quilt will start looking very odd within a couple of years. It's definitely not my personal preference -who wants to sleep under nasty hot plastic? (Although there are synthetic fibers designed to breathe, I suspect double knits are not among them!) If you must use it, piece big squares and make a tied comforter instead of a quilt. And make sure you use bonded batting, poly likes to beard. Roberta in D

"grammykathy" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

Yes -- but you probably want to go with big squares rather than smaller shapes because most of them do stretch somewhat, though the doubleknits are fairly stable. 25-30 years ago DH's uncle gave me a half dozen pair of old poly knit pants to use for sewing. I cut them into large squares

-- as big as I could make from a pants leg, so probably about 9". I made

2 lap quilts for my kids, which they called their TV blankets. I used a an old mattress pad for batting,backed them with flannel, and tied them with yarn. I've replaced the backing and batting once in my son's and twice in my daughter's. I think they are still using them, at least in the car. Those tops will never wear out. My mom also made a lot of quilts with poly double knits, all tied, most of them lap quilts. She used a lot of 4-5" squares and often arranged them in a Trip Around the World pattern. I think most of her grandkids got one.

Julia in MN