The glitter-covered quilt backing fabric I used sheds a lot of glitter. So, I’m putting it aside and vowing to never use glitter-adorned fabric in a quilt again.

This is one of those quilting failures that holds an unforgettable lesson. My daughter and I made a super-quick 10” charm pack patchwork quilt out of Violet Craft’s Palm Canyon fabric. We were pressed for time, so we just stitched the 10” squares together instead of making a more intricate design. But, the fabric is so fun and soft that after getting the top together, I really liked it. The simple design puts the fabrics on display.

Because of the pandemic, I ordered batting and fabric for the binding and backing online. I chose a pink material for the backing. From the picture on the website it looked like the pink fabric would match the pinks in the Palm Canyon collection and maybe sorta there was glitter on it, but there wasn’t much of a description and besides, why not glitter?

Why not glitter? I’ll tell you! While the fabric isn’t 100% covered in glitter, the glitter sheds everywhere. In the washing machine. In the dryer. Anything the quilt back touches gets covered in minuscule specs of metallic shine! It gives truth to a lot of those glitter memes you see pop up on the internet.

Sigh, so I told my daughter that while the quilt was great and I’m happy we got it done, it’s going to be an “outside quilt,” which is a thing I made up just for this quilt. We’ll use it for picnics and playing outside and while shedding glitter in the wild is probably not good for nature, it’s at least better than my family inhaling it. And, maybe it will shed all of the glitter it will ever shed and we can use it inside the house as originally intended. 

The good news is, I have a glitter-adorned fabric that I acquired for binding a different quilt that is about halfway done, but now I know better! I will not be using that fabric! Truth be told, I am attracted to shiny objects, including glitter, so this has been a heartbreaking lesson, but an aggravating one, too. It was so frustrating that my attraction to sparkles has waned. Never again will I ruin a quilt with glitter fabric!

So how about you? Are you pro- or anti-glitter? (Do you know any secret tricks for getting glitter off of fabric?)