This is a pet peeve of mine... flat quilts.... some decades ago when quilting came out of the closet and began to be enjoyed by tons of new learners... there came to be an attitude about how the finished quilt should look.... You will often hear from quilters that they want their quilts to look like 'grandma's'.... what they don't realize is that grandma's quilts didn't look flat till they had been washed a couple of dozen times (which meant 20 or 30 years)... their quilts were made for warmth and certainly were not what we see today in brand new quilts. The only batting for our grandmothers was cotton batting and they had to begin with a good 3/4" to end up with a decent layer of warmth. It had to be quilted closely and that flattened it a bit but still allowed for 'fluffiness' to show in between the lines of stitching..showing off the line shadows to display their quilting skill. My favorite batting is one layer of 80/20 with a very thin lay of poly on top of that. the cotton holds the shape of the quilt much better than soft squishy poly... and the 1/4" of poly on top allows your quilting sts to show beautifully and keep the 'fluff'. I take them off the wall and off the beds and fluff them in the dryer twice a year to remove dust and fluff them up. They look brand new after the dryer trip. Also... when you finish your first quilt... after it is bound... lay a clean sheet on the carpet where you can protect your quilt... layer it next and measure to square up and pin to the carpet every 3 or 4 inches... then spray liberally with plain water and leave for w or 3 days....to 'block'... it will look absolutely wonderful after this treatment and is well worth the effort. ***If you do not have a completely protected room to hide this in for a couple of days... then pin another clean king size sheet on top to protect from dog and cat hairs....