A month or so ago I purchased Pellon cotton batting on sale at JoAnn's. I had a quilt done this week by my long armer and she said it was the best batting she had ever used. She and I both like W&N but the Pellon is SO soft. She said she had used Pellon off the bolt but this was from a package and was much, much softer. I don't know if this would help with the hand quilting, but thought I'd pass it along.