I was told that if your backing is very light, you should put the "cleaner" side to the back.

smooth side goes down

Only battings that are needlepunched through scrim have a right side and a wrong side. This is mostly Warm and Natural batting. There is no huge problem with reversing this batting except that placing the wrong side up increases the chance of bearding, especially with machine quilting. If your machine needle is punching through the scrim in the same direction that the manufacturer's needles were punching through the scrim, there is less chance that your needle will punch a little batting through the needle holes.

Thanks Knitette for giving such a simple, easy way to remember this. I usually use polyester batting, although I have used W&N on occasion.

I belong to a Longarm Club. One useful tip I learned was to poke a sewing needle a few times into the batting. If the needle meets a slight resistance, then this side of the batting goes on top of the backing. If the needle goes in smoothly, then this is the "right" side up against the wrong side of the fabric. If there is no resistance, it really does not matter.

Those quilts have to be found quickly so that the batting can be replaced. Otherwise you will be on the run from the quilt police for the rest of your life!

LOL! Thanks for the laugh, beadywoman!! I'll start collecting all the quilt gifts I've made and get them changed over right away! ;)

Too funny! If it didn't beard when you quilted it, then you are safe from the quilt police. I quilted one on my long arm with W&N and didn't know about the scrim side up. That quilt bearded all over the back and you can't get the strands out because they are interlocked with the thread. I'm too lazy to take out all the stitching so I just keep it as a reminder to make sure the Eyes/scrim side is up before I start machine stitching.

Oh my WORD!! I had no idea that there was a wrong and right side to batting!!! This is a king size quilt and it's already sandwiched!! If this is the issue; I could just cry!!