Hand quilting cotton batting
 

An earlier post got me thinking about how difficult it is to hand quilt cotton bat compaired to poly bat. Then I got to thinking, perhaps the scrim in the cotton bat makes needling difficult. Does anyone have an opion about the difficulty of hand quilting a cotton bat that has scrim in it compared to cotton bat with no scrim?

Cotton batting like Hobbs 80/20 or, the 100% cotton is not difficult to hand quilt, there are many wonderful cotton battings that do not have scrim. Warm & natural made with scrim was created for machine quilting. Battings with scrim allow a larger distance between quilting lines and hold up to the rough handling they go through with machine quilting. Mountain Mist, Fairfield and Hobbs are 3 of the companies that offer cotton batting for hand quilters

In her book That Perfect Stitch, Roxanne McElroy says that one problem with hand quilting a cotton batt is that some manufacturers have not eliminated cotton seed sloughs from their product, making it difficult to quilt.

Wool and silk are often regarded as the go-to battings of choice for hand quilting.

Did it once and never again. I love the thinnest poly batts for hand quilting. it's like a dream. I use cotton for small projects and for the hot pads and such

The very first quilt I hand quilted had Mountain Mist 100% cotton batting (I do not think it was the Blue Ribbon version of this; Blue Ribbon is a higher quality). There was no scrim in that batting, but it was still difficult to hand quilt.

How cotton batting is manufactured can make a big difference in how easy it is to hand quilt. You definitely want to avoid a batting with scrim if hand quilting, as it will make it more difficult to puncture the batting. If you want cotton batting in a low loft, then Quilter's Dream cotton (which is needlepunched, but not through scrim) is relatively easy to needle. If you want a higher loft in cotton batting, then I would go with Hobbs 80/20. One thing I like about cotton batting is that it gets softer with every washing, so that 10 or 20 years down the line the quilt will be very, very, very soft to the touch.

I agree that wool and silk are the easiest to hand quilt.

I have found that cotton batting is harder to hand quilt; I much prefer polyester. I didn't know about the scrim issue, had just used Warm and Natural.

I don't like poly batting because my needle does slide through it. :) i like a bit of resistance so that i can maneuver my needle. My personal favorite is Quilters Dream Request - it's a thin cotton batting and has minimal shrinkage. My current project is being done for someone else and she bought Cream Rose (?) (bought at Joann's, pink packaging..) It's not bad, it has puffiness that some people like. I don't know what will happen when it is washed - i hope it doesn't shrink alot.

I would check out Quilter's Dream cotton batting. From a lot of hand quilter's, I always heard that is was just so smooth as butter to hand quilt thru.

The only cotton bat I've used so far is Warm and Natural. I learned to hand quilt on Warm and Natural! You can imagine how easy it seemed when I switched to wool. I'm looking forward to trying both Hobbs heirloom cotton and the Quilter's Dream Request and Select, but it will be awhile, because hand quilting is quite a slow process for me, and I've just started a quilt with a wool bat.