Yoga Mat Experiment

My yoga mat has been a series of experiments, from the design, through the assembly and then onto using it.  I have finished putting it together.  Yay!  I am extremely pleased to have gotten this far, because I really wasn't sure if the plans I had in my head were going to work.  

The backstory:  I have an old pink yoga mat looks disgusting no matter how I've tried to clean it.  I've even thrown it into the washing machine a few times - nothing works.  I also am not fond of sitting on the rubberized mat.  At some point I bought a microfiber towel to use at home.  It has no padding which is not a problem on the rug at home.  However, it lacks the grippiness I need for downward dog.  I mostly solved that problem with couple of pieces of rubbery shelf liner.  Unfortunately it is a shockingly effective thread magnet so it always looks dirty, too.  At least it's easy to toss in the washer.

 

 

There had to be something better.  Hmm... what if created a quilt?  It would be washable, would look cool, would be washable (and come out looking clean).  I could sew in the shelf liner where I needed some more grip.  How hard could that be?

Ha.

Piecing a top and backing was easy (and fun).  I had several orphan blocks that begged to be sewn into something.  There were still a few left when I finished piecing the front of the mat, so I ended up piecing the backing, too.  

I had intended to make my mat a little wider than the standard 24 inches, but the piecing happened to result in a standard sized yoga mat.  I didn't want to tack on borders, so I stuck with that.

Quilting it was a challenge.  I stuck with the use-up-my-leftovers approach.  My sister had given me a queen-sized lightweight fiberfill duvet batting from her old bedspread (which was replaced with Golden Orrery).  It didn't shred after being washed twice, so I decided it would work well for batting. 

Initially I folded it in thirds for my quilt sandwich.  That was so thick I couldn't pin the sides together.  I'd never be able to machine quilt that.  So folded it in half, hoping it would be enough padding for my knees but thin enough to quilt.  I straight-lined stitched around the diamonds to tack the layers.  I had intended to heavily quilt it, which you can see on the side triangles.  But I worried that would make the mat too stiff and uncomfortable, so I switched to loosely quilting the rest.  

I abandoned my normal quilting standards and focused on getting it done.  I ripped out and fixed the worst of the skipped stitches, but it's ugly quilting.  The backing puckered in several spots, but not nearly as bad as I had expected given I made no attempt to ease the fabric near my initial quilting.  Hey, it's a proof of concept; I'm good with that.

I used up stray spools of thread, so the quilting is a mix of cotton, polyester and several different colors.  I'd run out of top or bobbin thread at inopportune spots.  I used up four or five spools of thread and at least that many mismatched bobbins.  Talk about a serious clean-up project!

Once quilted and bound, I cut two pieces of black rubber shelf lining and stitched them onto the quilt (it's the darker black chevrons near the ends of the quilt).  The shelf liner pieces were placed roughly the distance apart as the grey spots on my old yoga mat.  

Will this mat work?  That will be the other half of my experiment!  The mat is a little heavier than I expected.  It should be easy to throw in the wash.  I've never quilted anything this puffy before.  I love the texture (I may have to try this for some wall hangings) and I'm curious if that will add a bit of traction.  There's a lot of bias down the center length of the mat; I notice it tends to stretch in some poses.  I'll give it a good workout next month when I participate in the 30 Days of Yoga challenge.

I'm already making notes for a new one:  A little wider.  A non-pieced backing.  Less batting, although I may want to keep the puffy filling.  My sister has volunteered to take one if I make a second one.  We'll see if I'm inspired (or if I collect too many orphan blocks again).

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