I was at a quilt show back in April and Hobbs had a booth. They had a sample of each type of batting - quilted up and washed. I couldn't tell the difference - they all looked the same because they were small samples LOL!!

I always intend to measure a quilt before and after washing to see the shrinkage, but always forget...sigh!! I do do a lot of handquilting, so i'm sure that minimizes the shrinkage.

btw - i'm a quilters dream cotton person...

I never preshrink my batting and don't have any problem with the look of the quilt after washing. Seems to me to be a waste of time and effort.

I used the fusible batting once ind that is the quilt that came out the best. I am trying to find fusible cotton batting so I can use it again. The first one was poly and it held up excellent through the entire process. Since poly does not shrink and I did not pre wash my fabric, my quilt came out of the drier nicely crinkled. I did not pre was the fabric because I like the crinkle effect.