I've used a lot of different battings for hand quilting. My favorite cotton batting is Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon, my favorite polyester is Hobbs Polydown. I also like and use Mountain Mist Quilt Lite (a very thin poly batt), and Quilters Dream cotton in the lowest weight. While many hand quilters really like Quilters Dream, I felt it was really flat.
For my next quilt, I'm using wool - I've read lots of good things about it.
Janet