Hand Quilting - Which Batting?
 

What is the best batting to use for hand quilting? In the past I used the polyester fiber fill but I don't know if that is really the right one to be using.

I hand quilt using Warm and Natural or Warm and White batting.

I hand quilt everything, and the poly is easy to handle. I have even doubled it with no problem.

I'm using Quilters Dream Wool and love it. Gives a lot of definition and it's easy to quilt. At first I thought it was too fluffy but after you start quilting, it looks perfect.

I use Warm & Natural to hand quilt. Some folks feel it's difficult to needle but I don't have issues with it. I bought a roll ages ago so still have lots to go through!

That said, a friend uses Quilter's Dream cotton. I does seem to have a much softer drape than the W&N. I do want to try it but since I have so much W&N on hand, don't feel I can splurge on something different until I use up the other.

Polys are usually quite easy to HQ with. Wool is an absolute dream to hand quilt with. Cotton batting does tend to put drag on the needle. Some people like that. I am not crazy about HQ with W&N but it is nice for machine quilting. I would like to know if the handquilters who use W&N have ever tried anything else? Usually once you try something else you will notice the difference in how much easier it is to needle, like Quilters Dream cotton or wool. 80/20 blends are ok but also can be difficult to get nice even small stitches. Quilters dream poly handles and feels just like an 80/20 blend to me.

I used a 100% cotton bat once to hand quilt. It was a lot harder to needle than poly. So, now I use a blend.

I haven't tried anything but W&N yet but I definitely plan to. I like the drape of the Quilter's Dream cotton - have not felt their wool, though. If I ever complete a top that is destined to be an heirloom (don't think I'm quite that good though) I would love to try silk. That has got to be the yummiest feeling batting I've ever had the please of touching.

I started off quilting w/ Warm and Natural - I do prefer 100% cotton over Hobbs cotton/poly. Then I made a quilt w/ a double weave flannel backing and the W&N would be too heavy, and that was my first experience w/ Quilters Dream Request Cotton. The Request is a thin batting and perfect for what i was quilting.

I felt like my needle was going thru butter!!! Left W&N behind and I have never looked back. My current project, I'm using wool battting and Oooo La La!!!

next project will have Quilters Dream Select batting - a thickness similar to W&N. The quilt store didn't have the wool batting, because i was going to use it again.

NJ Quilter, I have used silk (90% silk/10%cotton) in a few of my quilts and it is lovely to work with. It does have a real nice drape and needles like going through warm butter.