I have a 10 year old sampler quilt that the Amish handquilted for me. They insisted on using their own batting. It has bearded to the extent that I have to use a sweater fuzz buster on it to get rid of the pilling. Not nice. Maybe those batts are better now. I would hope so.

I too have never had any problems with bearding with the poly battings. I love it for the softness and the loft. My mom only used the poly battings and I don't remember her have the problem either. She only did hand quilting.

If the quilt is going to be long arm quilted, sometimes the poly batting can cause shredding of the thread.

If you do not use a better quality poly batting it will beard and also pulls apart with your finger while you are getting the quilt together. I have also found if you do not use a good sharp machine needle all batting will beard.

I have been using Hobbs 80/20 just because it's made & grown in Texas but with my latest quilt I am having a hard time with the quilt up to 3 1/2" apart, for this reason I need to look for something that wont beard with quilting farther apart. Would the Hobbs Polydown work better or is the distance the same as the 80/20?

Thank you all for all your excellent advice as usual, my next quilt will be going to our Middle daughter who now lives in Bulgaria, very cold winters there. I want to switch to using Polyester batting after reading all reviews but will the Poly batting be warm enough for them or should I try a cotton or wool batting? It is also important to be as to how far apart the quilting can be on the cotton or poly vs. the 80/20 I was using?

I use just about anything I can get at a reasonable price. I have never had any bearding and my quilts get used/washed to death.

I believe that polyester batting is actually warmer than cotton -- it is different, and does not quilt closely (heavily) like cotton, but it is soft and conforms to the body. I make all my lap quilts with low loft polyester.

Do you think the bearding could be related to the treads-per-inch of the backing? I don't know, just wondering.

This particular quilt beards through the top. The cottons used were all good quality, even the backing. It was a quilt to commemorate my husband's Navy career and it's disheartening to have it beard. We use it daily and just figure we'll use another blanket under it when the batt is gone.