I have always used Hobbs 80/20, Hobbs Polydown or higher loft batting and have never had too much trouble seeing the quilting even when the thread matched perfectly. Recently, however, I did a customer wall hanging and she brought W&N batting, wanted matching thread and the fabric was fairly busy. She wanted custom quilting and I tried every lighting configuration I could think of and still couldn't see what I was doing. I was really disappointed with the final job because you really couldn't see most of the quilting, but she was quite happy with it. She entered it in our local fair last month and won a 2nd place ribbon. I, personally, prefer at least the loft of Hobbs 80/20 and/or a slightly different colored thread, because I like to see the quilting.