#quilting help

[mutantenfisch]

Asking all the people who know their way around quilting, especially @tj-crochets and @creations-by-chaosfay because to me you're the ultimate pros - i am pondering to have my very first quilt be a pillowcase for a 40 cm x 40 cm pillow (~16 x 16 inches). Would this actually need batting or would it be enough to simply add backing and sew the back as a double layer of fabric/another small quilt to make it reversible?

[the-six-fingered-villain]

Looking for Moby Dick / Quilting help

this is a very long shot but... I need to design & execute upon a baby blanket with a “Moby Dick” theme. I have not read the book and despite sitting through several hours of a read-a-thon for it, know very little beyond-> dude chases whale. Goes poorly.

I enjoy coming up with my own quilt patterns but am drawing a blank atm on how to do this... I’m willing to do some, but not excessive appliqué. Would prefer to piece it but... what? how? It’s a baby quilt, so thankfully aiming small.

A rough idea is below the cut but I’m very open to suggestion...

Seems like key elements would be row boat + whale + ocean. 

I have no problem with (in fact enjoy?) non-rectangular quilts so... was thinking something round? Ocean in the middle as a circle? Whale being chased around permitter by boats? 

But how to make an “ocean” look good? I’m a mediocre piecer, very imprecise and I don’t have time/equipment to make the quilting overly elaborate.... 

How might one piece a boat? A whaling boat in particular?

I figure the whale would be appliqué....

Should it be a top-down view maybe? 

The parent of the child is rabid for Moby Dick so a more subtle/specific idea would be welcome.... 

[tj-crochets]

Quilters! I need some help. I know you can wash batting, and I know it’s mostly optional but recommended for some kinds, but like everything I am seeing about how to wash it isn’t washing it, it’s just soaking it and then laying it flat to dry. Can I wash it before I use it? I really liked making a quilt and would like to make more, but if I can’t wash the batting (with soap) before it’s in quilt form I will have to put it in fabric jail (quarantine the batting by itself for a while, I’ve been using two weeks to be super cautious) and I want to make more quilts before then. So, can I pre-wash batting, and how do I do that? I have a front-loading washer and dryer if that affects the answer (no agitator stick thing in the middle of the washing machine). I also use completely unscented, no bleach or anything laundry soap for asthma reasons.

[sosquaresowhat]

I need help from some fiber artists / quilters / sewists...

My wife has a hand embroidered satin (maybe its silk or more likely its some kind of blend but it feels satiny) blanket from when she lived in Japan as a kid.

It's a satin + batting + satin blanket with a binding made of the same satin material

This blanket is old, and we'll worn, and we'll loved, and has tears in both the seams themselves and holes in the fabric itself. As well as spots where the batting has worn away / is missing.

I know how to hand sew but I have never sewn anything more delicate than a cotton quilt. I have also never mended a hole that is not on a seam.

How do I

1) repair the holes in the batting? (I was thinking some kind of needle felting to attach patches but... idk if that's how that works)

2) repair the holes in the satin that aren't at the seams in a way that reinforces the fabric without noticeably changing the texture of the blanket? (I was thinking about lining the inside of the hole with a cotton amd heat interfacing or something and then sewing the layers together and close the hole but then... this blanket has to be able to go in the washer and dryer and I don't know what that would do to the interfacing)

And bonus

3) if I need to source new fabric for the holes, how can I tell what the fabric is?