It's true that quilts soften with washings. Cotton batting, especially, gets softer with every washing. I just know that when I used a close stipple and regular thread on a doll quilt, the poor quilt came out stiff as a board and never softened up! This may not be as much of a problem with larger quilts, but ever since I put all that work into the doll quilt I have taken care to use fine thread for quilting and not quilt lines super close together!