Bearding
 

I will be doing a quilt with a dark front and a light back. I'd rather not use dark batting, but I don't want any bearding on the front.

Does bearding happen on the front, from the needle pulling UP the batting or on the back from the needle pushing Down the batting or both? I am using a batik on the front and a cotton on the back, if that makes a difference.

Do you get bearding on your dark quilts? Am I worrying for no reason?

Watson

I know from years past that poly does bearding but I haven't noticed that on cotton. Hobbs makes an 80/20 black so that would be the one I would try if I needed to. I used white Quilters Dream Request on a dark flannel and wool with no problems. I understand that if you use the smoother side of batting on top you won't have bearding but no experience personally. Do you have a piece of your regular batting and some of your dark fabric to make a sample?

I don't think you'll see bearding when using good quality cotton fabric. I've never noticed bearding on any of my quilts, and I've used both poly and cotton batts.

same here. I have never had an issue with bearding on either cotton or poly batting. I would not use a dark batting if you have a light backing as it will likely show through. Can you make a small sample square of your fabrics and batting sandwich and test quilt it to see if you have a bearding issue or not? Then you can proceed.

I had bearding on the front through black with Quilter's Dream wool, so I would suggest you avoid that particular batting.

Isn't it a matter of which direction you have the scrim facing, as to whether there is potential for bearding?

Bearding usually happens on the quilt top (front). I have only experienced it with bamboo batting and therefore no longer use it. Good luck with your quilt!

I had bearding (only on the top) on a dark quilt with good quality fabric using FMQ ... I should have used black batting.

And yet my "go to" batting is Quilter's Dream Orient which has bamboo. Never had any problems.

This matters only for battings with scrim. Only a few battings are needlepunched through scrim, and I think all of those are cotton battings such as Warm and Natural. Polyester battings do not have a scrim, and I think most or all 80/20 battings do not have scrim. Many cotton battings also do not have scrim, such as Quilter's Dream cotton (which is needlepunched, but not through scrim). Traditional all-cotton battings such as Mountain Mist also do not have scrim.