I've been getting in shirts for my t-shirt quilt so I've been thinking about the other materials I'll need. And today I've been hitting the batting. But its actually been a couple years since I've completed a quilt so I realized I forgot a some of what I know about batting since I haven't worked with it for a while.

I found out most of what I forgot through Internet sites and YouTube videos, but I'm having trouble finding a couple things. I remember that you should have your batting be bigger than your quilt top and backing, espessily if you're sending out your quilt to a long arm quilter. But I can't remember how much bigger your batting should be. Or even if you really need extra batting all around or if you do should your backing be the same size as your batting.

And I'm thinking about cotton batting, but a lot of sources say it shrinks a little and I'm a little worried what the shrinkage would do on a t-shirt quilt that has a few hard to find shirts. Could the batting be shrunk before being put into the quilt (spend a little time int eh dryer maybe?)?

Also thinking of getting black batting as all the t-shirts are black and the quilt will have grey sashing and borders, but the only black battings I've been able to find (so far) are polyester. Are there any sites that offer black batting in cotton or maybe even a cotton blend?