Hello:
I was wondering if anybody has had any experience working with fairfield (poly-fil) extra-loft batting. Is it easy to needle? Does it wear well? is it good for machine quilting? I would basically like to know your experience with it, as I have never used it before.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Fairfield is a good brand, but any brand of high-loft batting will be more difficult to quilt (by hand or by machine) than a medium or low loft. I could be wrong, but I think extra-loft is even puffier than high-loft.

they say that the loft is between 3/8" and 1/2" for the extra-loft batting. Would that be very difficult? I think that hi-loft is puffier because the fairfield website says that it is meant to be machine quilted or tied, but as I have no experience with it I could be wrong...
does anyone have ideas?

Personally, I think "tied" is the operative word. I hate the stuff; I always use cotton batting. Or wool.

Jan in VA

I have more problems with puckering with the higher loft battings. You may want to pin it twice as much as normal before machine quilting. I am not a hand quilter, so can't answer for that. :D:D:D

I agree that "tied" is the operative word. Seems that all that extra bulk would be a bear to get under the machine.

Fairfield is the only batting that I use and have the best results with.

God bless, Dee

The first pieced quilts I made were flannel and I used that really fluffy Fairfield. I think I even used two layers in one of them!

I had no one around to tell me that it was too difficult for a beginner, so I didn't know any better. I was also quilting on a machine that wasn't very well suited to free-motion quilting, so I was a mess, start to finish! :)

The quilts were slippery and difficult to manage, but not difficult enough that I gave up quilting. And they came out really cute and have been dragged around and laundered a lot for the last 3 or 4 years, so they're holding up.

If I had known, I would have used someone else's suggestion and pinned the bejeebers out of it. :)

Thanks for all of your responses so far!!! I am definitely not going to use the Hi-Loft, but am still thinking of using the extra-loft (3/4" -- 1/2" thick). Rather than pinning would it be good to baste at maybe 4" intervals? Any other tips for working with this thickness? The suppose I could use a thinner batting, but I really don't want a flat-looking quilt. I want it a bit thicker, but still don't want it tied, and I don't want to buy an expensive batting.

Is Hobbs 80/20 that much more expensive? That batting is reasonable for quilting but still gives a nice, soft puffiness.