Jeanette Frantz

I cannot speak from actual knowledge -- just that I have a very old quilt from as much as 100+ years ago -- I really don't know how old it is. The batting in the quilt is cotton, but bears no resemblance to the battings of today. Also, the quilt is not densely quilted, and the batting is very thick. The shrinkage for the quilt batting must be a tremendous amount (back in those days) because it's easily 4-6" of quilt top and flannel-type backing extending beyond the batting. The batting is easily 2" thick (I cringe when I think about quilting something that thick). I haven't separated the top and backing to look at the batting to see what it is, except it is cotton. But, now this quilt came from my husband's family, who lived in Northwest Oklahoma -- and it really does get bitterly cold there. Below zero cold is common there in the winter. Another thing, this quilt is a small quilt -- would barely cover the top of a full size bed, but it weighs a ton! I do remember using those very rough, thin Army Blankets as batting for quilts when we were kids -- Today, I don't think I'd want to do that, if I had a choice!