Batting question?
 

I know batting has been discussed many times on this board but I have a question. I love Hobbs, and Warm and Natural, but I have never used Quilter's Dream Batting? It's such a good price right now and being a cheapskate, I am wondering what you think of it? Can you hand quilt with it? Does it handle like the others? Any information you might share would be most helpful.

I tried QD after being a W&N user for years, and never looked back. It is wonderful, lovely batting, very drape-able and my longarmer says it quilts up beautifully. I don't know personally about hand-quilting, but I have heard from others that it's very nice to hand quilt with, also.

I really like the QD green ( made from recycled plastic bottles). It machine quilts beautifully and I would think be easy to hand quilt

It's all I use. I like that they have 4 different thicknesses, no scrim and can quilt up to 8 inches apart. I've hand quilted using the Request (the thinnest) with no problem. I was able to get tiny, consistent stitches.

I've been looking into it for my first hand quilted baby quilt and tried out a small sample, but ultimately decided on the Hobb's Organic Cotton. Indycat32 is right that there are multiple thicknesses of QD. The thinnest one (request) is often recommended for hand quilting, but it really gives almost no definition at all to your quilting which just really seems a shame to me to put all that work into something & not to be able to see the quilting really well. The 2nd thinnest (select) is what I would use if I were using QD because it provides some definition, but is still thin enough for hand quilting. The select & supreme weights are really too thick to hand quilt unless maybe if you are doing the big stitch quilting.

The nice thing about QD batts is that they don't have a scrim like W&N does. That means you have to quilt no farther apart than every 8" instead of the 10" for W&N, but I've never been successful with quilts holding up with such sparse quilting regardless of the instructions on the batting package so that hasn't made a difference to me.

Peckish got it all right, Quilters Dream is great batting. They have several lofts in the all cotton, and several other kinds of batting as well. Try their wool, too, if you are buying on sale, and try it with handquilting. Dreamy!

Jan in VA

I'm a W&N user and hand quilter. My friend and quilting mentor uses QD all the time. She, as well, is a hand quilter. It does have a lovely drape and 'hand'. When I finish the roll of W&N, I'll be using QD myself.

My favorite batting!

I would like to try QD. Is it Hobb's QD and where can this batting be purchased? I have used W &N alot but I don't like the density it has. Thanks for any advice.

I buy it online here: https://www.battingsupersale.com/default.asp?

It is wonderful! I use the Dream Orient which is all natural fibers. As you can see (and I did as I scrolled down the responses) many of us swear by it! Wonderful drape, easy to machine or hand quilt!

I used to use W & N, then when I moved to Iowa from Florida I didn't have a JoAnne's nearby so had to make use of my local fabric store. They ordered a bolt for me and I thought I was getting W & N but found it to be Quilter's Dream 70/30. I have trouble figuring out which is which as they look so much alike ..............at least to me. I've gone strictly QD now and I usually wait for when I can get a good deal on it. I did purchase a QD 100% cotton batting which I'm going to try out on my next quilt on the frame. It claims only 1-3% shrinkage so we will see on that. I don't wash my fabrics before I use them so maybe I'll get lucky and they'll shrink about the same %. Yes, I know......in my dreams.

Dream battings are ( a Dream!) Wonderful battings, I've used many of them, the cottons, the Poly's, dream wool is a definite favorite. Dream green, dream orient, & bamboo... I love them all. Always excited to find a good sale on dream batting.
( and Jordan, no, Dream battings are not Hobbs batting-- 2 totally different companies)

Quilter's Dream is not a Hobbs product.

My local quilt shop carries it. You can google for where to buy it in your area, or you can also purchase directly from their website.

I have tried Quilter's dream batting and it is excellent. I called the company and there are helpful employees that can answer any ?s you may have. They will send you a free sample booklet that has swatches of all the batting types they offer so you can touch and see the differences in loft,etc.. The customer service employee that answered the phone asked me if I was in a guild to which I replied, Yes. She sent me a large bag of assorted samples to pass out to guild members. I hope you give Quilter's Dream Batting a try. Let us know what you think if you do.

To me, Quilter's Dream is the Cadillac of batting (being the best). The needle by hand or machine just penetrates the batting so smoothly like a hot knife going thru butter. But I use mostly Hobbs 80/20 batting due to the cost and quality for machine quilting.

I purchased a queen-size roll of Quilter's Dream last year at a quilt show but I am still using up part of a roll of W&N before I tap into the QD batting. I can't wait... but I'm afraid if I don't use up the W&N... it will just sit.

I also got a sample folder containing swatches from QD at the quilt show and have kept it as it has other battings which might be useful down the road.

I have a 30 yd. 90" roll of Quilters Dream Select for all my kids quilts and another roll of Hobbs 80/20 for the others. If I could afford to use QD cotton for all my quilts I would.

Thank you Peckish and Ckcowl for answering my question about the batting. I am planning on going to a big quilt show in the Phoenix area and there is always a booth selling batting so I will be on the look out for the Quilters Dream. I am always trying to find new batting that I like.

Onebyone, thank you for the link. Purchased some Dream Orient & signed up for emails.

Love quilter dream blend
 

I prefer that to any warm and natural.

I love it! Give it a try!

This board is always so so helpful. Thank you all so much for sharing your knowledge.