Best Batting to Highlight Quilting
 

So if you are choosing batting to highlight the quilting which batting would you use. Also what thread would you use. In the quilt I'm working on (I'm just in the piecing process right now) I am already thinking that I want to do feathers for my large open squares and I want to emphasize them.

Note I cannot use wool because of allergies but anything else is a go.

Well bummer about the wool, because that was going to be my reply. I know of several excellent, award-winning quilters and a lot of the time (when they want the quilting to show up) they use 2 batts, usually wool on top of W&N.

Maybe you could experiment. Sandwich a few combinations with some muslin, quilt your desired pattern, and see which batting you like best?

I would do what Peckish says, buy some samples and see how you like them. Harriet Hargraves sells batting squares, and her shop is in Colorado.

You didn't say if this was hand or machine quilting. If it's hand quilting, I can recommend Hobbs Polydown - it has a bit more loft than other battings.

As for thread, that really depends on how you're quilting, too.

Janet

I am going to be machine quilting.

Hobbs 80/20 is good for machine quilting. Wool is my first choice for everyday quilts for showing all the stitches. I like silk batting and stock up when I find a good sale. Using silk thread with silk batting, even the mistakes look good.

Connecting Threads has a good sale going on Now for Hobbs batting. i just picked up some to have on hand for the next project

When I want good quilting definition, I double bat... one layer warm and natural and then a layer of poly on the top of the warm and natural. It also makes for a much warmer quilt.

Wool would have been my first choice too, but since you can't use wool, Polydown is my second choice. What will also emphasize your feathers is to do a tight fill around them. That makes them 'pop' more. Quilt the feather in a heavier thread that maybe contrasts with your fabric. Then do the fill in a thinner matching thread.

The quilt below has none of these suggestions, except for the tight fill ;-). This customer prefers cotton batting, but if I'd used wool or Polydown the feathers would have 'puffed up' a bit more.

How do you do a tight fill?

Beautiful, Andi. I didn't know if a polyester batting would be machine quiltable. I've always used cotton.

I like to use a finer thread when I machine quilt, so that there isn't as much thread build up when I back track.

Janet