A Different Kind of Cheater Cloth
One of the things I enjoy most about quilting is taking all kinds of unwanted supplies and turning them into something useful.
You may be familiar with “cheater cloth”, a name for fabric that is printed to look as though small patches of different fabrics had been pieced together.
“Cheater cloth.”
Recently I was given large scraps of pre-quilted fabric, that struck me as a different kind of cheater cloth. One side was a solid-colored fabric of some kind (it felt like a cotton/polyester blend), the other side was a thin nylon netting, and in between was a layer of very thin polyester batting. It was all held together with rows of machine stitching.
Pre-quilted fabrics.
I thought it would be great to use in the little lap quilts we make for the Veterans’ Administration hospital. For one thing, it would be nice to save the costs of batting and backing, and for another, I thought that those pre-sewn lines would save me marking any quilting lines. I thought I would make a couple of tops and baste them to the pre-quilted fabrics, flip them over, quilt from the back, and get amazingly precise (especially for me) diamonds.
I had fun making the tops from squares of various autumn colors, but then I realized that if I didn’t get the tops lined up perfectly with the existing lines on the backs of the fabrics, my quilting lines could easily be aligned in unpleasant ways on the front – off enough so they didn’t look either straight or intentionally wonky. So for the first one, which had the red back, I worked from the top side as usual, and quilted large concentric squares with a walking foot.
With the white-backed one, I could hold it up to the light and see through it, and see that the squares lined up well with the pre-sewn lines. So for that one, I quilted along the lines on the back. And since the batting was already attached to the backing, I didn’t have to worry about it shifting, so I just quilted three rows apart.
Fall lap quilts. The border fabric, dark brown floral, and brown sashing were all donated fabrics.
Once I had the quilts put together and bound, it struck me that I really should have tested how those pre-quilted fabrics would do in the laundry, before I started sewing them! I hand-washed them and the red fabric bled quite a bit. I tumble-dried them and they came out fine. Nothing shrunk unevenly, and the pre-quilted fabrics felt pretty nice after washing and drying.
Looking online, I see that fabrics like this are available for about $10 a yard. Of course they don’t have the same human touch that individually quilted fabrics do, but I think I could use them again on occasion for quick lap quilts.
Cheater cloth is so misnamed. Maybe it should be called pre-enhanced cloth or something else less pejorative. I suspect the quilt police are behind that “cheater.” If it gets the job done and delights the recipient it’s all good. Now, if it were just made with better quality cloth and dyes…Maybe it needs a designer label.
Gosh, thinking of the quilt police makes a whole Dragnet episode run through my head. I am such a Goody Two-shoes that playing around with cheater cloth is about the wildest thing I do!
Since I have no idea where this pre-quilted cloth came from, I should order some that’s available now and do a product test to see if the dyes hold up better.
Ah yes, back to the controversy regarding whether to pre-wash or not 😉
Normally I don’t. I like to keep the sizing in the fabric to make it easier to work with. But since I didn’t know the fabric content of this pre-quilted stuff, it would have made sense to launder a small piece. Fortunately it worked out fine. I am blaming my absent-mindedness on the fact that we are still working on the bathroom and laundry room renovations. Who can think with a washing machine out of place? 🙂
[D] Horses for Courses, as the saying goes. Hand-made everything where the work and skill will be most appreciated, and less hand-made when just getting a pleasing and practical outcome is all that is required. And, besides, it’s not as if these things you’ve made are just thrown together with a machine- you’ve still had to give your time, skill, creativity, good judgement … Cheater assumes deception, and I don’t see any deception, for these manufactured quilted/composite fabrics don’t really convince anyone that they are anything more special than they are!
I have not heard that saying!
Yes, if these were going to be heirloom quilts I would want to work more carefully, but from what our quilt group has been told, they are going to patients that are not really conscious, and they probably will only be used a few times. We are just trying to bring a little color into the wards, for the healthcare workers’ sake as much as the patients’. So in this case, that manufactured fabric is very practical. 🙂
Excellent use for these fabrics, cheater or not!!
Thank you, I just love using up all those unwanted bits! Few things make me happier than seeing the last little thread unwind off the Coats and Clark spool as it melds those 1980s florals to a 1990s two-tone! 🙂
I got lots of machine quilted cloth last year from a friend and I love making little lap quilts from it. I use scraps and sew them on one at a time until the surface is covered. I usually cover the back with cloth too. The pre quilted cloth makes everything hold together as I ‘quilt’.
I did so enjoy the fact that I didn’t have to worry about the fabric bunching up or the batting shifting as I worked. I love your idea to use scraps one at a time. I like to do “stitch and flip” quilts so this fabric would be perfect for that!
As a fellow quilter, I find your posts fascinating!
Thank you so much! There is always so much more to learn and be inspired by, and I love connecting with people through textiles!