Sustainable Batting Alternatives

Feb 2, 2018 | Sustainable Quilting

Sustainable Batting Alternatives

You might consider where your fabric comes from, but you probably don’t think as much about the sustainability of your batting. Cotton is a common batting material, but there are plenty of more sustainable options.

By Shelly Sommer

BAMBOO

Bamboo requires much less water and pesticide than cotton, making it a more sustainable batting choice. It has buttery soft drape and doesn’t crease like cotton. This my personal favorite.

NATURAL FIBER BLENDS

Quilter’s Dream Orient is a blend of bamboo, cotton, peace silk, and Tencel. Shrinkage 3%. Feels a lot like cotton to work with, though it seems to crease a little less.

WOOL

Great drape, strong, relatively heavy, and warm warm warm.

RECYCLED POLYESTER

Quilter’s Dream Green Dream is made from recycled plastic bottles. It has a pale green color that might show through quilts that use thin white fabric, but is otherwise a great option if you want a lightweight, washable batting with very little shrinkage (<1%).

Sustainable Alternatives to Quilting Cotton

Jan 15, 2018 | Sustainable Quilting

Sustainable Alternatives to Quilting Cotton

By Shelly Sommer

In October, The Boulder Modern Quilt Guild, along with the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community at University of Colorado Boulder, will present a modern quilt show, An Exploration in Sustainable Modern Quilting. In the next few weeks we will be posting some blog posts with information about sustainable quilting including sources for sustainable fabrics, how to clean recycled or reused fabrics, and more. Shelly has provided us with some great alternatives to quilting cotton.

When you start quilting, using cotton is the obvious choice. When you walk into a quilt shop you’re presented with colorful bolts of quilting cotton. There are so many options, it’s readily available, and it’s easy to work with. But there are environmental issues with cotton:

Growing cotton takes a lot of water and pesticide – in fact, it uses more pesticides than any other crop.
Fabric manufacture and dyeing is a major polluter of land and rivers. The textile industry is considered the second most-polluting industry after oil and gas production.
The textile industry is notorious for exploitative labor practices.

Buying new fabric that is easier on the planet and people isn’t easy but it’s definitely doable. Here are some options to consider:

LINEN

Made from the flax plant, linen requires much less water than cotton and hardly any fertilizer or pesticides.

Linen is usually sold as solids and the color choices are limited. But it’s natural khaki shade is available without any additional dyeing.

Linen has a loose weave that makes it less stable than quilting cotton so you will probably need to use starch. Linen isn’t ideal for precise piecing, but works well for piecing curves.

HEMP

Like linen, hemp is made from a plant that requires little water, fertilizer, or pesticide and is easy on farmland.

Hemp can be woven into a sturdy, smooth fabric that looks similar to linen, or into knits like jersey.

Because hemp is made from the Cannabis sativa plant, it was banned from commercial production until recently. Colorado, among many other states, is starting to license agricultural production, which may lead to more domestically- produced hemp fabric becoming more available.

MODAL, LYOCELL, TENCEL

These fibers are all made from cellulose and are the most ecofriendly types of rayon. Raw materials are sustainably managed beech or eucalyptus trees or bamboo, and manufacturing uses closed-loop systems that recapture chemicals instead of dumping them into rivers.

Fabrics made from these fibers are soft and lightweight and are used more for clothing than quilting. However, they can be fun to experiment with and can add bits of softness to the structure of a quilt block. Fancy Tiger usually has an interesting selection of these fabrics in various weights.

RECYCLED POLYESTER

Polyester is a petroleum product that never biodegrades and requires much more energy (though much less water) to manufacture than almost any other fabric. So usually it wouldn’t be considered a sustainable fiber. Recently, however, recycled polyester fabrics have become available that reuse polyester fibers that might otherwise wind up in the environment. Most of these are knit fabrics. Worth experimenting with!

NATURAL FIBER BLENDS

Cotton can be blended with silk, bamboo, linen, or hemp to make fabrics that have less of an environmental footprint than straight cotton. They often combine the best qualities of both fabrics: for instance, silk-cotton blends have the soft hand of silk but the strength and washability of cotton. Look for chambrays, solids, and prints.

Some cottons are better than others: try these as alternatives.

AMERICAN COTTON

Solids from American Made Brand (a division of Clothworks) are made from cotton that is grown, spun, woven, and dyed in the United States. It has a smaller carbon footprint, since the fabric hasn’t been shipped around the world twice by the time it gets to you; and labor conditions aren’t a concern.

Their color palette is limited, and their colors aren’t as consistent from batch to batch as Kona.

JAPANESE COTTON

Factories in Japan are monitored much more carefully than competitors elsewhere in Asia. They also regulate the use of chemicals like formaldehyde (unlike the U.S.). This makes Japan a clear winner in labor practices and the environmental footprint of the manufacturing process.

COTTON MADE FROM ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE FACTORIES

Hoffman Fabrics owns their factory in Bali, and it uses a water filtration system that removes dyes and other chemicals from the manufacturing process from the water before it leaves the factory. This makes Hoffman lines made there (Indah batiks, Me + You) easier on the surrounding environment and communities.

ORGANIC COTTON

Organic cotton skips the heavy pesticides that make cotton hard on land and water, but it can take more water to grow than regular cotton.

Lines like Amy Butler “Organic Soul” and Cloud9 use both organic cotton and low impact dyes. In addition, Cloud9 has a commitment to the ethical treatment of workers in its manufacturing facilities.

Our Sustainable Quilting Pinterest board has inspiration and ideas for the show. If you come across any great quilts, send them our way! And please, let us know if you have any questions you’d like us to answer about the quilt show or sustainable quilting in general.

An Exploration in Sustainable Modern Quilting: Call for Submissions

Dec 29, 2017 | Sustainable Quilting

An Exploration in Sustainable Modern Quilting: Call for Submissions

In 2018, The Boulder Modern Quilt Guild, along with the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community at University of Colorado Boulder, is excited to announce a modern quilt show, An Exploration in Sustainable Modern Quilting. The show will hang at the Albert A. Bartlett Science Communication Center, 4001 Discovery Drive, Boulder, CO, in the fall.

Quilts submitted by members of the Colorado Front Range quilting community will be showcased based on originality, design, technique, craftsmanship, and visual impact of sustainability. Each submission is required to fit within at least one of the categories; repurposed or rescued fabrics, renewable or sustainable new fabrics, scraps, waste, or otherwise trashed fabric, repaired/restored or reworked ‘old’ quilts into new quilts, and unusual materials.

An example of a sustainable quilt made by Boulder MQG member Katie Arrington using repurposed shirts.

Quilters who live along the Colorado Front Range are invited to submit up to (3) quilts to be juried by our BMQG panel, Anne Deister, Shelly Sommer, Laura Loewen, and guest Front Range community juror, Stephanie Ruyle of Spontaneous Threads.

This is a wonderful opportunity to challenge both quilters and the community to view what a modern quilt is and how it can be constructed using sustainable, environmentally friendly materials and practices.

To submit a quilt, please review the call for submissions.