Hello fellow quilters,

I inherited some batting that is about 48" wide (best guess) and I swear it is almost as thick as a mattress pad. It is made from polyester.

Have any of you seen or used this type?
If so, what type of quilt?
Did you butt it together to make it bigger?
How does it handle? It sure doesn't feel very plyable.
How much/what kind of quilting did you apply?

Hope I am not stuck with this gynormous pad. :lol:

I have used very thick batting for fluffy tied quilts. They are still some of my kid's favorites.

Thanks Mary,

do they losen up with time? (I mean the draping of the quilt - not the ties)

sounds to me like the batting that you buy to make chair pads or something along that line. I saw it in Joanns the other day.

there are poly batts that are up to an inch thick- most of the high loft batts are used for tied quilts- too lofty for quilting

A high loft poly batting will never 'drape' like a thin cotton batting would. But it makes wonderful fluffy quilts.

You can join batting pieces together. I join them by hand with a large zigzag stitch. There is an iron-on tape to join batting, but I would not use it on poly - it might melt.

Tying is the best for high loft batting, but I have done SITD by machine and it did work.

I'll try that on some panel quilts.

Thanks for the feedback.

I had a bedspread professionally made by Calico Corners a couple yrs. ago. It was so thick that it took months for the corners to drape. I swear they used the wrong batting, as I would not pick anything so thick. The birthing method for the edges made it worse. I was just glad it was a spare bedroom.

Maybe I need to find someone to "share" this treasure with, huh?

I've never made a biscuit quilt but maybe someone else would know if that thick batting can be used to make them?

I used some even thicker than an inch on my longarm. Make sure to make the quilt a little larger than you want it because more is taken up with the quilting than usual. I did very large meandering. It worked out fine and the recipiants love them. It did take a while and a couple of washings to loosen up though. (mine was 128" wide)

I have some High Loft 1" thick batting I will be using on quilts, whenever I decide to use it. My experience is, it is never as thick as they say it is. I do a large meander, or whatever its called. I only use polyester quilt batting, warm without weight. It washes and dries very well.

Your batting may be upholstery batting and will stay rigid forever! Don't ask how I know!

My thought also. Upholstery batting doesn't soften up or drape over time.

double post, sorry

Are you absolutely certain it is quilt batting and not upholstery batting? The last layer before the fabric goes on is usually a layer of really thick polyester batting. It's rather stiff but works to plump out the upholstery fabric covering, which is fitted under tension. It also does not compress very much when you pinch it, it tries very hard to stay the same thickness.

Thanks for this. I bought some thicker batting a while ago, not realising immediately that it was so much thicker than what I'd had previously. It's been sitting there ever since waiting for me to get around to freecycling it, but maybe I'll try using it for some of my less precious ufos - large meander I can do!

I was wondering about this, too. It's what they use between the rubber foam and the upholstery lining or fabric. It's very stiff and meant to stay that way.

Now I'm not so sure. What should I do with it? It's too much to toss.

It would be nice in quilted totes because it's got all the loft, plus it makes the bag stand up. Good for wall-hangings or chair cushions for the kitchen table. Or baby changing mats?

Have you ever wanted to try upholstering something? If you're the sort of person who likes to put puzzles together, upholstering is not really difficult and the results are so worth it. You could start out with a small project, like a foot stool from a thrift store, just to see if you like it.

If that doesn't appeal, how about any project that calls for the ultra-stiff sort of interfacing?

I wonder how it would work for a wall hanging that you wanted to stay flat?

If you're into dressy clothing, you could probably use more padded clothes hangers. Or you could make gifts of padded clothes hangers.

For that matter, if you are into making your own clothes, upholstery batting is the perfect thing to use to pad out a standard dressmaker's dummy to duplicate your own figure exactly. Seamstresses often try to do the padding with soft batting, which is just an exercise in frustration because it's the firmness of upholstery batting that they need (right tool for the right job and all that).

Yes it is for upholstery. It can also be used for stuffing trapunto My dad was an upholsterer and I too inherited some. Makes nice cushion sitters for lawn furniture.

Julia

Maybe you can carefully "peel" a layer off ?

That's a thought. I didn't post the original question, but I've got some very thick batting too - may go and see if that would work. If it did I'd have twice as much and it would be usable. Win win!