I think that a cotton batting is the best thing. Warm & Natural even the 80/20 blend works well, I found that although I like Hobbs 80/20 for quilting it doesn't work the best for this. I would wait for a batting sale or use a 50% coupon and get one. we just push pinned ours up. Then when it gets lots of threads on it just use a lint roller. We have had ours up for almost 4 years and it is still workin great.