brushandthimble

I one and only time I bought fairfield it had a nasty odor so I did not use it.

weezie

I use both W&N and Hobbs 80/20. No probs at all. For a lightweight quilt, where I also want a light amount of quilting, I use high loft, fire retardant polyester. My quilting is just a hobby ... it really has no point to it except that I like to do it and it keeps me off the streets and out of the taverns. Nobody is standing in line to have one of my home made quilts. Therefore, as much as I would like some 100% wool batting or some other super good stuff, I can't justify the cost.

Shelley

The Quilter's Dream cotton comes in (I believe) three lofts or thicknesses. For my studio, I carry the middle loft. It works up beautifully, and I can tug on it and have had no problems with tearing.

The Quilter's Dream 70/30 blend is wonderful to quilt with. It feels like a cotton, with a little less shrink than the cotton.

The Quilter's Dream Poly also comes in several lofts. The batt looks like cotton, but is a little rougher to the touch - until you get it into your quilt. It stays supple, not stiff, and doesn't separate like some poly battings do.

My customers can send me their battings, or I can use mine if they don't want to pay to ship it both ways. Sometimes just the cost of the postage to ship it to me is enough difference to allow them to get a high quality batting at the same cost. The only batting I have found that I won't use is Mountain Mist polyester. The thickness isn't consistent, it pulls apart at the slightest tug, and it sticks to my hands.

sueisallaboutquilts

I use Hobbs 80/20 and love it. When I first started quilting I used polyester but I hand-quilt and much prefer cotton batting. But that's b/c I like the look better ( I love antique quilts)
Also poly batting tends to pill through the quilt and I don't like that at all! I used to use Fairfield.
Live and learn- my first hand-quilted quilt was a very old quilt top and I used polyester batting. Never again :D

sueisallaboutquilts

I just realized my answers had nothing to do with the topic!
I need to go make some more coffee :D:D:D:D

Prism99

I'm wondering if the Fairfield 80/20 is the brand that is supposed to be soaked first for hand quilting.

I took a class once from the woman who developed the Roxanne's line of quilting supplies (sorry, can't remember her name at the moment; her dd has carried on the line with Hawaiian quilting). Fairfield was her favorite batting, second only to silk, but she did say that it needed to be soaked first for hand quilting because of the bonding resin on the batt. She said it was a great batting for hand and machine quilting (regular domestic machine), but I can see why it wouldn't work for longarm quilting.

Maybe longarms need cotton batting to be needlepunched for stability.

Borntohandquilt

Yes, this can be possible. I soaked a little piece of the batting to see how it will change, but it almost went to pieces! Maybe I did something wrong....

Prism99

It shouldn't go to pieces when soaked, and I think it was the Fairfield 100% cotton batting that worked this way. Maybe the 80/20 can't handle being soaked.

I guess my conclusion is that it would be a lot safer to use Hobbs 80/20! No need to soak, and no problems. It may be more expensive, but with all the work that goes into making a quilt I'd rather be safe than sorry!