I use warm and natural cotton batting and it seems difficult to get my stitches as small as I would like. I don't care for polyester batting. What is a good batting that will help with smaller stitches? Would an 80/20 work better than all cotton?

Most hand quilters use poly because its easier to stitch. I personally dont hand stitch.

What polys have you tried? Have you tried quilters dream brand? I think you might change your mind with a higher end poly. Poly is easier to needle and get tiny stitches than cotton. Wool is also wonderful for this. I have used 80-20 and it is nice too but still a bit difficult to needle if you load multiple stitches on your needle. Not so bad if you only take 1 or 2 stitches at a time. There is also some of the more traditional cotton bats that require very close quilting (every 2" maximum) like mountain mist blue ribbon 100% cotton batting. It is a fragile bat though so you need to be careful when sandwiching. W&N was originally made for the crafting market and quilters caught on to it quick. But it is most suitable and really intended for machine quilting.

Quilter's Dream select weight cotton batting is super thin and very soft.

Quilters Dream Request weight is a cotton batting that hand quilters really like. It gives a fairly flat look, though. If you want "puff", then Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 is a good choice.

I don't care for the puff of polyester. I like the crinkle look I get with cotton. More of the yester year look.

Thermore is what I learned on and love. It's thin and soooo nice to work with :)

I like Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon Cotton batting. It needs a quilting line every two inches. I've also used the lightest weight of Quilters Dream cotton, but I felt it didn't have enough loft to really show the quilting design. However, it was easy to quilt through.

My next quilt will use wool batting - I've heard good things about it.

Janet

I used Tuscany 100% cotton once (low loft) and it was easy to hand quilt. The look of the quilt was very traditional.

I agree with this, although wool needles very nicely. Have to think of allergies, moths, etc. but does work well.