cotton batting
 

I was at JoAnn's and found a wonderful clearance price on king sized cotton batting. Figured, if nothing else, it would work for charity quilts. Tell me your opinion of using a cotton batting. I usually use polyester batts because I like the puffy look. I know cotton won't be puffy but I'm inquiring about how it will function in a quilt.

Cotton works well in a quilt UNLESS you're hand quilting then it's MISERABLE to quilt.

I generally use warm & natural but have dabbled with Hobbs 80/20. In my opinion the cotton batting gives you a "flatter" quilt. Which I personally like. I think to get a puffier quilt you have to use a poly.

I love cotton batting. I don't think you will be sorry you got it

I have never used poly. I don't like the 'puffy' look and it is harder to machine quilt on my domestic sewing machine.

Please look over your packaging very carefully. Not all cotton batting is the same. It depends on if it has scrim or not or if it has been needle punched or has any sort of glaze or stabilizer on it.

For example Warm and Natural cotton batting, which does have a scrim and is needle punched can be quilted up to 10" apart, but Mountain Mist Blue ribbon cotton batting must be quilted closely at every 2" and their regular cotton must be quilted at no less than 1/2" intervals! Most poly's can be quilted up to 4 to 6" apart so depending on what you picked up you may have to quilt much more closely than you have in the past.

I prefer a flat look so I use Hobbs 80/20. fusible and non fusible both. and I've used Thinsulate by Thermore too. a thin poly batting, plus a few others. all work fine.

I buy batting depending on the look I want. If I want a crinkly look when done, I buy Hobbs 80/20 blend. If I want a smooth look, I buy Hobbs Polydown. The one variable I always have to consider is the quilting distance....as a previous poster stated, it will vary from batting to batting....I do all my own quilting by machine on my 6600 and neither cotton or poly make a difference in difficulty for me. Opinions on batting will be as different as "what machine is best to use", so take it all in and choose what is best for your particular situation.

Only if it's a scrimmed batting. Quilter's Dream battings quilt like butter.

Thank you asking this question. I learned alot about the various types of batting and their different uses!