Monday, June 25, 2012

Batting One Thousand

I had Shug give me some lessons in baseball batting averages.

A player's batting average is calculated by dividing their number of hits by their number of at-bats. So say I was at bat 8 times & got 2 hits: that would give me a batting average if 0.250, kind of average. But say I got a hit every time I was at bat -- that would be 1 divided 1, or 1.000 -- or batting one thousand. Perfect.

Well, I am not perfect when it comes to how I buy batting. Right now I have 3 tops ready to layer & baste. I have quite a few bags of batting on hand -- but they have all been cut into. I could do some piecing together of my batting scraps, but THERE ARE HARDLY 2 BAGS OF THE SAME KIND OF BATTING!!! Low-loft polyester, medium-loft black polyester, bamboo, cotton & polyester, all cotton. I would have some kind of crazy Franken-batting if I tried to cobble something together with all of them!

I thought about what I have & what I've used & decided that my favorites are the low-loft polyester & the bamboo. The polyester makes a nice, light-weight quilt. I nearly always machine quilt & I used to have problems with tucks on the back. But with a light spritz of spray adhesive & some safety pins (I am a belt & suspenders kind of girl), the tucks are minimal. I was delighted with bamboo batting from the first time I used it -- nice & 'sticky', so no tucks. I also like that it is a more green choice. But it makes a slightly warmer & heavier quilt than we often need here on the Gulf Coast. I think that between these two types of batting, I think I can happily quilt on into the future. If I limit myself to buying just these two I will be able to put together a scrappy batting when I haven't any whole, unused bags.

 piecing batting

basting with pieced batting

Shug tells me that a 1.000 batting average is possible over a short period, like one game, but unheard of over a season, much less a lifetime of baseball. A lifetime average of 0.300 is considered very good. So maybe I'm not doing all that badly.

4 comments:

Manda said...

Fraid I skipped over the baseball stuff makes no sense to me whatsoever lol!
I think your batting plan sounds good though I have a few different types that I can't join together but last few times I have stuck to the same type so hopefully I can join some of that up in the future!

Nifty Quilts said...

Great quilt! I'll look forward to seeing it quilted. Only 3 tops to quilt?! Yikes! I thought I wasn't doing too bad with just under a dozen.

amy and the bad cats said...

i, too, have a lot of batting pieces not big enough for even a baby quilt, but sizeable. and yet i can't ever match two to piece together!!

Rachaeldaisy said...

Franken-batting!! That is so funny!!! I tend to stick to cotton. I have used bamboo and liked it, maybe I should give it another go.. oh no .. then I'll be on my way to franken-batting hee hee, that just cracks me up!!