Question: Flannel vs. Batting
 

I had bought a piece of flannel to use as the stuffing of a quilt that I will call my summer quilt. I wanted it to be lighter weight heat-wise and pound-wise. Now I am questioning this. Mainly will the flannel make the quilt heavier than 80/20 batting or 100% cotton batting? I am getting ready to sandwich the quilt and the flannel seems a bit heavy. I made the quilt into queen size but I want it to be light weight.

Flannel will give you a Flat quilt. Flannel is warm.
There are many cotton batts, with varying lofts a thin cotton batting will at least give a little body to the quilt- which flannel will not

for a light weight quilt, I think you would just use the flannel as a backing and have no batting. I don't know.

I made my mom a quilt for her twin size bed for spring/summer, put flannel instead of batting, cotton backing, and weight-wise it is heavy. In fact, it's the quilt in my avatar. She wanted it large enough to be like a bedspread and go all the way to the floor on both sides. I've never slept under it, so don't know about the heat-wise part of it, she is 85 and very thin, so she is cold natured, she loves it. Anyway, judging by other quilts that size that I've made with 80/20 batting are much lighter weight-wise, and I would think heat-wise too.

Ok, I am beginning to think I need to go buy some 80/20 and use that. I will be hand quilting so I want my stitches to show up. I just made it bigger than I orig. thought and I don't use my other big quilt in the summer because it is so heavy to lift and pull up when making the bed and I don't need it for warmth. Such a dilemma. I will think of something else to do with this hunk of flannel I have. Thanks everyone for the info.

I live in hot FL. I used 80-20 batt until I discovered Quilters Dream- "REQUEST" low loft cotton batting. Now its the only batt I will use in my quilts! When they are washed they get all 'wrinkled' and soft and so cozy, yet they are light enough for this weather. It quilts beautifully, too.

Okay so I have recently done a quilt with both fleece/flannel and used warm and natural. I did hand quilting, you can see the stiches and it still feels light to me. I will say it was hard to put the pattern on but once I did thing were fine.

I don't have experience using flannel as a batting, but silk batting is excellent for summer quilts. It is very thin and lightweight, cool in the summer (warm in the winter), and hypoallergenic. It is not much more expensive than a good cotton batt. I use silk all of the time now. As a bonus it is also machine washable / hang to dry.

I would use a good quality of very thin poly batting.