How Quilting Fabric Gets Its Color: Batiks, Digital Prints, Solids, Yarn-Dyes and More
I just got back from a reconnaissance trip to Bali for my Batiks and Beyond Textile Tour in June 2027, and it was incredible. Of course, I saw a lot of Batik fabrics and watched how they were made, including at Threads of Tradition, where we will be doing a 3-day immersion class in Batik dying. As much as I wanted to stay and enjoy Bali, I had to get home and back to work. I’m currently working on an art quilt that is digitally printed Wholecloth of the artist’s work.
Digitally printed fabric can be very challenging to quilt. As I was working on it, I started thinking about the difference between the batiks I had just watched being created in Bali and the digitally printed fabric sitting on my machine, and the issues that can occur with both. This post is going to talk about the main ways quilting fabric gets its color and some of the pros and cons of each in regard to quilting. The color gets onto, or into, those fabrics in completely different ways, and that can affect everything from cutting and piecing to how the fabric behaves when you quilt it. So, let’s talk about some of the main ways quilting cotton gets its color and the pros and cons of each when it comes to actually making a quilt.
Yarn-Dyed Fabric
With yarn-dyed fabric, the yarn or thread is dyed before the fabric is woven. Different colored warp and weft yarns can be combined to create plaids, stripes, checks, chambray effects, and other designs. Because the color is in the actual yarn/thread, the design is part of the structure of the fabric instead of something printed onto the surface.
Pros of Yarn-Dyed Fabric
One of the things I love about yarn-dyed fabrics is the texture and visual interest they can add to a quilt. Checks, stripes, plaids, and woven effects can give you a completely different look than a traditional print. They are also generally reversible because the colored threads run throughout the fabric. Many yarn-dyed quilting fabrics also have a wonderfully soft hand, which can make the finished quilt feel fantastic.
Cons of Yarn-Dyed Fabric
Those lovely woven lines can also be rather unforgiving. The design is basically a built-in straightedge. If your cutting, piecing, or block isn’t quite straight, the fabric will happily point that out to everyone.
Plaids and stripes can require considerably more accuracy, and extra yardage when cutting and piecing if you want the pattern to line up.
Some yarn-dyed fabrics also have a slightly looser weave than standard quilting cotton. That can make them easier to stretch or distort during cutting and piecing. Extra stretching can translate into fullness later when it is time to quilt.
Solid-Dyed Fabric
Solid-dyed quilting cotton is woven first and then dyed a single color. The entire fabric is immersed in or otherwise saturated with dye, allowing the dye to penetrate the fibers. As a result, the front and back of a solid-dyed quilting cotton usually look nearly identical.
Pros of Solid-Dyed Fabric
Solids are incredibly versatile. They coordinate easily with prints, batiks, and other solids, and they are fantastic if you want your quilting stitches to be part of the design.
With no printed pattern competing for attention, beautiful quilting can really stand out. Solids are also reversible, which gives you plenty of flexibility when cutting and piecing.
Cons of Solid-Dyed Fabric
Unfortunately, the same thing that makes solids wonderful for showing off quilting also means they show off all the quilting. That beautiful smooth background is going to show every slightly crooked line, wonky arc, and little bobble that happens while you’re perfecting your quilting skills.
Solids also introduce another very important piecing problem. There is no obvious right or wrong side. If you are making mirror-image pieces or need “lefts” and “rights,” keep them separated. Otherwise, it is remarkably easy to sew something together backward. Not that I have any experience with that. LOL.
Another consideration is dye lots. The same solid color purchased several months or years apart may not be exactly the same. If you think you might need more fabric, buying a little extra can save you some frustration later. Again, definitely not something I have ever needed to do.
Batik and Resist-Dyed Fabric
Traditional batik fabric is created using a wax-resist dyeing process. Wax is applied to selected areas of the fabric to prevent dye from penetrating those sections. The fabric is dyed, and the process can be repeated multiple times with additional wax and colors to create increasingly complex designs.
Unlike printed fabrics, the dye penetrates into the fabric. This is why traditional batiks generally have strong color on both sides and often have very little difference between the “right” and “wrong” sides. Other types of resist dyeing include: tie dye, Roketsu, and Shibori.
Pros of Batik Fabric
Batiks have beautiful organic designs and incredible depth of color. Because most batiks are reversible, they are also very forgiving when piecing.
The base fabric is frequently tightly woven, which makes it stable and less likely to distort while cutting or piecing. If you are working with small pieces or intricate piecing, that stability can be a big advantage.
Cons of Batik Fabric
That tight weave can become a disadvantage when it is time to quilt. A tightly woven batik, especially when you have batik on both the quilt top and backing, can be difficult for the needle to penetrate. This can lead to needle deflection which contributes to skipped stitches and thread breakage.
When quilting batiks, I recommend slowing down, making sure your quilt sandwich isn’t overly tight, and using an appropriately sized sharp needle. Prewashing can also help remove any excess wax or other residue that may remain from the resist and dyeing process.
Traditionally Printed Quilting Fabric
Printed quilting cotton begins as woven base cloth and then has a design applied to the surface using inks or dyes. Commercial printing methods can include rotary screens, flat screens, rollers, and other techniques. The printed design is normally strongest on the right side, while the wrong side of the fabric looks noticeably lighter. This is probably the type of fabric most quilters picture when they think about quilting cotton.
Pros of Printed Fabric
Variety. There are thousands upon thousands of colors, designs, themes, scales, and styles available.
Printed fabrics can also be incredibly forgiving. A busy print can hide a multitude of quilting sins, from a seam that is slightly off to quilting designs you are still learning.
There is something to be said for practicing a new quilting design on fabric that isn’t going to advertise every wobble from across the room.
Cons of Printed Fabric
Printed fabric has a definite right and wrong side, which is something you need to pay attention to while piecing.
Prints can also be slightly off grain. A stripe or directional motif may look straight, but the actual grain of the fabric may be running in a slightly different direction. This can create some interesting decisions when cutting because sometimes you have to choose between following the grain and following the printed design.
Digitally Printed Fabric
Digitally printed fabric is printed directly onto finished fabric using a digital textile printer, somewhat like an extremely sophisticated inkjet printer. Digital printing makes it possible to reproduce very detailed artwork, photographs, subtle gradients, and an almost unlimited range of colors without creating a separate screen for every color. It has become incredibly popular, particularly for large-scale prints, panels, realistic images, and artist reproductions.
Pros of Digitally Printed Fabric
The level of detail can be amazing. Digital printing allows fabric designers to create effects that would be extremely difficult with traditional printing methods.
You can have photographs, watercolor effects, incredibly subtle color changes, and huge designs without having to worry about the size of a printing screen creating obvious repeats. For art quilts and wholecloth designs, the possibilities are pretty incredible.
Cons of Digitally Printed Fabric
This is where my current quilt comes into the conversation. Some digitally printed fabrics can feel slightly stiffer than traditionally printed quilting cotton. Depending on how heavily the surface is printed, that can also increase needle deflection and contribute to skipped stitches.
My biggest frustration, however, is what I call the little white pokies. Because much of the color is concentrated at or near the surface of the fabric, every needle penetration has the potential to disturb that printed surface. The white or lighter base cloth can become visible around the needle hole. On a heavily saturated dark digital print, those tiny white dots can be surprisingly noticeable.
I have tried just about every trick I know: different needle sizes, different thread size, matching the thread to the top, different batting, different backing, loosening the quilt sandwich, And yes, even my dreaded solution… slowing down.
So far, I have not found a method that completely prevents it. Sometimes understanding the fabric you are working with doesn’t mean you can eliminate every problem. It simply helps you recognize what is happening and make the best choices you can.
One Important Caveat: Printing Method Isn’t the Same as Fabric Quality
There is one really important thing to keep in mind. These descriptions explain how the color or design gets onto or into the fabric. They do not automatically tell you the quality of the fabric itself. A high-quality digitally printed fabric may be much easier to work with than a poor-quality traditionally printed fabric. Two batiks made by different manufacturers may have completely different hands, densities, and finishes. The quality of the base cloth, thread count, finishing process, dyes, inks, and manufacturing methods all affect how a fabric behaves. So don’t automatically assume one category is “better” than another.
The Bottom Line
There really isn’t one perfect type of quilting fabric. Each one has advantages and disadvantages. Yarn-dyed fabrics add beautiful texture but can make every crooked line obvious. Solids showcase your quilting beautifully, but they also showcase your mistakes beautifully. Batiks are stable and wonderful to piece but can be tough to quilt through. Traditional prints offer enormous variety and can be wonderfully forgiving. Digital prints give us incredible imagery and color but can present some unique challenges once the needle starts punching through that surface.
The important part is understanding what you are working with. If you know how the fabric was made, you have a much better idea of how it might behave when you cut it, piece it, and eventually put it under the needle. And when something strange starts happening, you can spend a little less time wondering what you’re doing wrong and a little more time figuring out what the fabric is doing. Because sometimes it really is the fabric.
If seeing how batik is actually made sounds like your idea of a great vacation, I’d love for you to join me in Bali next summer.
My Batiks and Beyond Textile Tour runs June 10-20, 2027, and one of the highlights will be a three-day immersion in batik dyeing. We’ll get to experience the process ourselves along with exploring more of Bali’s textile traditions, makers, scenery, and culture. After my reconnaissance trip, I’m even more excited about what we have planned.
If you’ve ever wanted to see where some of these techniques come from instead of just buying the finished fabric at the quilt shop, this is going to be a pretty amazing way to do it.
Learn more about the Batiks and Beyond Bali Textile Tour and join me June 10-20, 2027.
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Bethanne Nemesh has a great blog about quilting digitally printed fabric. Web site: whitearborquilting.com. Blog dated August 15, 2023.
Bethanne and I have lamented quilting digital fabric on many occasions. LOL
Kris – this is an excellent review of all of the fabrics and I truly appreciate your view on all of this. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with the fabrics you have outlined. I hope you all have a wonderful trip to Bali!
Thanks you so much. I’m glad you liked it. I think Bali is going to be awesome.