For the record, I have never heard of “bearding” from a cotton, bamboo, or wool. Just from polyester batting. I could be wrong, but if you stick to natural battings, I don’t think it matters unless you are showing the quilt and you don’t want seams to show through. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

So glad to hear that W & N does not beard on dark fabrics. I was talked into using black batting for one of my quilts and I did not like the feel of the quilt when the quilting was finished. I was just going along with the recommendation of the experts where I take some of my special quilts for long arm quilting. Next time.... I'll just stick to my original plan and use the W & N. Thanks for sharing your experiences with "bearding".

There have been plenty of reports of wool bearding as well as 80/20 and cotton that is not needle punched to a scrim.

https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...s-t294180.html

https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...m-t222212.html

https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...g-t288073.html
https://www.quiltingboard.com/search...g-t288026.html

Then we we have also had reports of excess lint transfer which is different than bearding but can still be rather nightmarish if you are working with white/light batting on a black/dark quilt

https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...t-t276692.html




Additionally there have been reported problems of getting "pokies" with W&N if it is loaded the incorrect way but it happens predominantly with longarms due to the much larger needle size. But it does occasionally happen with DSM

https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...g-t244588.html

https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...e-t265360.html

I have used black batting from Dream cotton. Fine!

I like using black background fabric to show off bright colors in my quilts. Haven't thought of using black batting, but may try on the next dark quilt. I have noticed that using white batting instead of natural colored batting makes a big difference when I use white background fabric in my quilts.

i use a lot of black in my quilts, both in piecing front and for backing. i wanted the black bat because i felt that the white sorta, not show thru, exactly, but maybe took away from the experience of deep deep black that i wanted. i started using Hobbs 80/20 in the early 90's. where ever i've lived it's been difficult to find black batt. so, from the beginning i've ordered directly from Hobbs. last time i bought, a lqs near where i live now ordered it for me, from hobbs. she said she'd been getting requests for black batt and since she trusted my experience with it she ordered several rolls. i wasn't her only very happy customer. :)

I have quilted many bright tops with black backs for hospital incubator covers. The natural colored batting with skrim ( 80/20) never beards, even with a large needle. But l prefer the black, because if the backing even touches the white batting while being mounted, there is lint. Now l know there is also lint transfer when using black...but it doesn't show. Since the covers are washed before use, it doesn't really matter. But if it's a gift, it might be an issue. However, that said, l would not use black if the top had white or ivory parts.