Quilters Dream 80/20 Batting

QUILTERS DREAM 80/20 BATTING

 

Quilters Dream 80/20 is our newest Dream Batting, which debuted at Spring Quilt Market 2016.  It is made with 80% high grade long staple USA cotton fiber blended with 20% fine denier poly microfiber for a soft, silky batting that drapes beautifully and breathes well.  The long staple cotton fiber reduces shrinkage and adds stability so that the stitches can be up to 8” apart.  The poly microfibers add a loft and resistance to creases/wrinkles.  

There are no scrims, glues, or other binders to resist the needle, so this fine batting can be hand or machine quilted with ease.  It is available in natural, white, and our exclusive “Dream Pink!”

 

Dream Pink is an 80/20 Dream Batting made with pink poly microfibers to support breast cancer.  Quilters Dream Batting donates 10% of the wholesale sale of Dream Pink to late stage metastatic breast cancer research.  Our pink poly microfibers are extruded pink so the color will not run or bleed, and the pink fibers lends a fabulous blush pink coloring to batting.

Advantages:

• Minimal shrinkage (1-3%) for the slightly puckered look
• Available in white, natural, and “Dream Pink” to support late stage breast cancer research
• Can be stitched up to 8" apart! 
• Soft and silky, with an excellent drape that hugs and flows
• Excellent for both hand and machine quilting. (Not recommended for tied quilts)
• Wicks moisture away from the body to keep you cool in the summer
• Breathable – there are no scims or other barriers that would inhibit airflow
• Fine denier poly fibers bend when in contact with fabric, so they resist bearding

 

All of our battings are proudly made in the USA. 

Each batting is hand cut and hand inspected to insure superb quality is consistency.  Quilters Dream is not sold in big box discount stores and always encourage our customers to support their locally owned quilt shop or quilting business!  There are a lot of advantages to using Quilters Dream Batting and with the wide variety of lofts, fibers, colors& sizes available, we hope that you find the choices to be to your advantage when choosing the perfect type of batting for your quilted treasure!

Also try:

Dream Cotton, 100% cotton batting with no scrim glues or binders

Dream Poly, 100% poly microfibers that mimic cotton in feel and breathability

Dream Angel, made 100% from flame retardant fibers

Dream Blend, 70% cotton and 30% poly with a light scrim stabilizer

Dream Green, made 100% from recycled bottles

Dream Orient, a luxurious blend of cotton, bamboo, botanic Tencel, and silk

Dream Puff, a warm and cozy polyester with 1/3-1/2” of loft

Dream Wool, a thermally bonded cuddly wool batting with 1/3-1/2” of loft

Dream Fusion, a one sided fusible batting excellent for small quilts and crafts

Sew Popular 2015-2016 TIME TO VOTE!

"SEW POPULAR"

The "Sew Popular" category is one of the most exciting parts of our Challenge!  Out of all the beautiful quilts we received, twelve quilts were chosen to be entered in the Sew Popular category.  Pictures of the quilts have been posted on the Hopes & Dreams website, so it is time for you to cast your vote!  

Just follow this link, and vote on your favorite quilt by Friday, September 30, and our talented winners will be announced on October 3.

Congratulations to the finalists in the 2015-2016 Sew Popular category:

Pat McDonald of Pittsburgh, PA "Crossroads Quilt"

Gloria Guyer of Tillamook, OR "French Ribbon Embroidery"

Carolyn Richter & Kay Iverson of Greely, CO "Celtic Maze"

Dianne Gilbert of Ft. Collins, CO "Celtic Maze"

Mary Ellen Zeitz of South Windsor, CT "Akllietare"

Jackie O'Brien of Whitesboro, NY "One Block Wonder"

Terry Albers or Green Bay, WI

Janice Lonsinger of Altoona, PA "Gumballs with Stack & Whack"

Johanna Moore of Westminster, CO "Scrappy Circles"

Karen Williamson of Pensacola, FL "Oasis in the Desert"

Diane Severence of Windsor, CO "Floating Stars for Christmas"

Barbara Hutton of Carolina Shores, NC "Feathered Star Sampler"

Because of the generosity of the many wonderful sponsors of the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge, we are able to award three winners this year!  First place will receive $1250 in awesome prizes, second place will receive $750  in prizes, and third place will win prizes valued at $500!

Good luck to all our finalists!  

Check our Hopes & Dreams Facebook page on October 3 to find out who won!

2015-2016 Challenge Wrap Up

We would like to thank everyone who participated in the 2015-2016 Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge.Through continuous support and spontaneous giving, this program has been an incredible success thanks to generous quilters & sponsors like you.   

In our seven years, Hopes & Dreams Inc. has been fortunate to receive over 9,000 quilts. Most have been distributed to patients with ALS. Not only are they filled with gratitude from the letters you send with the quilts but more importantly these patients are left with a glimmer of hope that action is being taken towards finding a cure for this awful disease.

 The Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge donates 100% of all proceeds from quilts being auctioned, sold or generous gifts towards ALS research! In our seven years, more than $141,000 has been raised for research towards finding a cure!

We have received many thank you notes already from patients and their families who truly appreciate the generosity of the quilting community. 

Thank you for the lovely quilt that you donated to my husband. That was truly a wonderful surprise!! My husband is only 45 years old and was diagnosed with ALS in 2014. It has been a very rough road for our family of four. Our boys are 10 & 14 years old. It has been difficult for all of us to accept how this devastating disease is impacting our lives. Your kindness & thoughtful gesture really brightened our day. Thank you for all that you do!! You are making a positive difference in the world of ALS.

****************

Hi, I am an ALS patient and I recently received a beautiful quilt made by Lucille Holsey as part of the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS. The quilt is so beautiful and I am just so touched that Ms. Hosely would go to the time and trouble to make it for someone that she's never even met...The quilt warms my heart and my body! Thank you so much for your incredible kindness!!

****************

I want to THANK you for the quilt.  I went to the doctors at Baylor ALS Clinic and they gave me one of your quilts.  I am so happy to receive it and it is so warm. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it.  God Bless ALL of you.

***************

I was quite surprised to find this gift of a lap quilt at the support group meeting here in Wichita, KS. In April of 2015, I was diagnosed with ALS. My particular version is Bulbar ALS which primaraly affects my speech and swallowing at this time. We are trying not to let this impact our life, but we don't know what the future holds.  Thanks for creating the organization to raise funds for ALS research.

**************

We would like to congratulate each category winner. We received some awesome prizes from our sponsors this year and we were able to stuff boxes with tons of goodies for these winners. 

***********************************************************************************

**********************************************************************************

***********************************************************************************

***********************************************************************************

***********************************************************************************

***********************************************************************************

Please be sure to check out the Hopes and Dreams website and vote for your favorite quilt in the Sew Popular category!

Once again, thank you! Your support of Hopes & Dreams is truly immeasurable in providing Hope to our Dream of a Cure for ALS!

Sincerely,

Kathy Thompson & the team at Quilters Dream Batting

***********************************************************************************

To see how you can get involved, please visit :

http://hopesanddreams.quiltersdreambatting.com/

and don't forget to like our Facebook page! 

Only 11 days left to mail your quilts!

That's right. Only 11 more days to get your donated quilts sent in! 

Remember, quilts MUST be POSTMARKED no later than  JULY 31st, 2016 in order to be eligible for the 2015-2016 challenge. 

Though it's still early and we have more boxes to open, we can tell you that we have beat last year in quilts received! That's an excellent accomplishment from you and for us. We have been able to ship so many quilts to PALS (patients with ALS) and the feedback we get from them is amazing. Not to mention the success we've had from the sale of quilts which 100% of proceeds goes directly towards ALS research.  

We have some great prizes too. Click HERE to see what our generous sponsors have donated. 

Visit our website for more info and download your entry form. 

Keep up the good work and thank you for being a part of something so special to us and those living with ALS!

Happy Quilting.

Featured #battmen: Steve Albright/ A Relaxed Quilter

Hello Quilters!

Unlike many of you ladies who learned sewing skills while growing up, I was raised as a typical healthy boy.  l played all sports, had a happy and normal childhood, went away to college, procured a good job, married my wife (Karen) of 42 years whom I had known since 4th grade, and moved across the country several times for professional advancement.  I retired from a successful career in a very high-profile, stressful position in 2011.  How did I get away from the office and relax?  I taught myself to quilt!

As with many other families, we possessed a couple of old family quilts.  In the early 1980’s, my employment required more and more travel.  When you travel for business, there is often a lot of “down” time.  I started visiting local antique shops with no real collection in mind.  At the same time, Karen took her first of many quilting classes, and the children and I would drive her to a weekend class and spend the day doing other “kid” things.  On one of my trips to Washington D.C., I spotted an unfinished (unbound) antique quilt hanging on a wall at a shop in Georgetown.  I called and she explained that binding the quilt would be simple.  I bought it (an 1870’s 8-pointed star), and 35 years later we have over 400 antique quilts and tops, around 1,500 old blocks, a collection of vintage fabric that is used for restoration, over 350 quilt books, and a home designed around the collection.  Most were purchased at antiques shops and estate auctions but, sadly, we do not have the provenance on very many of them.  Is it now a hobby or an obsession????  Who knows!

My favorite thing to do is to complete one of the old tops (I prefer the 1860-1880 era) by doing historically-accurate hand quilting.  I appreciate the artwork, skill, and time needed to do machine-quilting, but I cringe when I see a truly vintage quilt with machine quilting.  To me, that is like restoring a log cabin with aluminum siding!  We have visited literally hundreds of quilt shops around the United States, and I am always searching for reproduction fabrics appropriate to the era as backs for our antique quilt tops.

To finish the quilt “sandwich,” I now ALWAYS use Quilter’s Dream Batting, Request Loft.  I have hand-quilted over 125 quilts, most of which are vintage tops.  In my earlier quilting years, I tried different batting materials (never polyester with vintage tops), and I have settled on this one as the easiest to needle and the most authentic for completing the vintage tops.  In my retirement, I now complete 6-8 quilts per year, so our inventory of vintage tops is slowly dwindling!

Lone Star Medallion

Though I have sold a few quilts, taught hand quilting, and have attended the American Quilters’ Society classes in Paducah, KY, to become a certified appraiser, I have never wanted to turn my hobby into a business.  I have been asked to hand-quilt for others, restore a damaged old quilt, sell vintage quilts or fabrics, design quilts, and other requests, but my hobby is selfishly for my enjoyment!  But I do enjoy sharing our quilts and have done so many times by giving trunk shows, offering them to be displayed in local quilt shows, lending quilts in museums, allowing shops and individuals to copy or reproduce quilts, tops, or blocks.  I would like to document the extensive collection through a book, but I’m too busy quilting!

We have enjoyed making many friends through our quilting hobby and have had lots of people visit us in our home, which doubles as a quilt museum!  Hearing that someone has a lot of quilts is one thing, but seeing this many in one place is a real treat for another quilter!  There are always projects underway, but I limit myself to working on three quilts at a time.  Since it takes 75-150 hours to complete the hand-quilting for a vintage top (depending on the complexity of the quilting pattern selected), I work on three at a time so that I don’t get “bored” with just one.  Hand quilting is a repetitive process, and that can happen!  I quilt in a 16” hoop so that the hobby is a portable one.  I have quilted mostly at home, but my quilting locations have included shows and demonstrations, airplanes and airports, hotels and b&b’s, beach and mountain houses, friends’ houses, quilt shops, and even the occasional outside location.

Carpenters Wheel

Quilters Dream Request Loft batting makes it easier for me to quilt the way that I want to quilt.  I also have my favorite thimble, quilting thread, needles, and hoop, but that’s another story for another time.

Pieceful thoughts,
Steve Albright