What is the difference between cotton batting with scrim and just plain cotton batting?
Is scrim something to avoid?
Thanks!

A scrim -- a thin sheet of synthetic material that lends stability to the batt. Such batts are said to be "needlepunched" to make hand needling easier. (definition from www.quiltersbee.com)

Thank you! I'm new to quilting and had never heard that term.

I'm not new to quilting and never heard of it before. See, always learning.

I personally think scrim is to be avoided for hand quilting because it makes the needle harder to punch through. It is great, however, for machine quilting.

There is a cotton batting that is needlepunched (creates a lot of stability and evenness) but not through a scrim. It is the Quilter's Dream line, I think.

Warm'n'Natural is an example of a cotton batting that is needlepunched through scrim.

I think only cotton battings are ever needle-punched.

Thanks for the information. I'm going to be machine quilting this one - not quite brave enough yet to try hand quilting
:roll:
I did notice that the batting with the scrim was less expensive (slightly) than the one without....

Thanks for the info. I learned something today.

I've heard that the scrim side goes to the back (or bottom). Is that true? Does it really matter? I try to remember to put the scrim on the bottom when machine quilting.

That makes sense to me. The scrim would make it less likely that the needle would punch some batting through to the back. I don't know for sure, though; hope someone else posts about this!