Quilting Batting Preference for Hand Quilting
 

Is there a preference in which brand of quilting batting to use if you plan to hand quilt the top? Is Warm and Natural hard to hand quilt using a #10 quilting needle? How about Hobbs batting?

Still practicing my hand quilting before starting on my grandmother's flower garden.

Thanks to all responses.

I prefer Quilters Dream of poly. It is what I started out with and is very easy to handquilt with. I have tried Warm and Natural and find it little difficult to catch the bottom layer. Hobbs' 80/20 would be my second choice. My quilting ability is beginning. I have made several quilts and handquilted all of them. My stitches are consistent but still need to be smaller. LOL. I don't know about the needle size--eyes require a bigger hole.

Some handquilters like Warm and Natural, some don't. I use Mountain Mist lite (a thin polyester batting), Mountain Mist Blue ribbon (cotton) and Hobbs Polydown (polyester). My current quilt uses wool batting, which is also nice.

I get the smallest stitches with the Lite, and it's probably the easiest to quilt. The Hobbs and the wool batting have more poof to it, which I like a lot - it makes it easier to see the quilting design.

You can get batting swatches to try. Harriet Hargrave's quilt shop in Colorado sells 15 inch squares of batting for a few dollars each.

Janet

I use Warm & Natural with #11 or #12 Roxanne needles. Don't have issues with catching the back at all. I've never used any other batting so really can't compare anything to it. My friend uses Quilter's Dream 100% cotton batting. I will say that it does seem to have a softer 'drape' to it. After I run out of my bolt of W&N I'll probably try that.

I'm a fairly new hand quilter. I'd like to try to Mountain Mist Lite. Do you know where I can get it?

I bought mine at JoAnn's a few years ago. I haven't been back in a few years, so I don't know if they still stock it. Hobb's Theremore is similar to it, and I think the Quilters Dream poly is too.

Janet

I'm trying Quilter's Dream Cotton for the first time and LOVE it! Needle just glides through it and the drape is soft and cuddly. Using #10 appliqué needles to quilt as I haven't mastered the shorter #11 quilting needles yet.

I am a big fan of all the Quilter's Dream batts. I machine and hand quilt and love the way they drape and that the needle glides through the batting. I also have noticed that the surface of their batt is so even. Before I retired my job was a quality assurance tech in a spun yarn mill. Most of my testing was done on the fiber before it was twisted hence the batting quality issue.

I use Warm and natural, don't have a comparison because i have never used anything else. I do love it never had an issue. I don't find it difficult to hand quilt and I use #10 needle. I have hand quilted many quilts in the ditch and designs. My batting was a batting choice because they don't shrink and it's cotton so it matched the type of material and it feels good, I'm not a fan of anything scratchy.

My preference:
#1 wool
#2 Quilters Dream cotton
#3 Hobbs Organic cotton

Jan in VA