Have you noticed?
 

I usually quilt with pantos but today I was practicing (fancy) FMQ feathers, background fills, etc. and I noticed how much stiffer the quilt feels. I love beautiful quilting but i think I prefer softer quilts to snuggle under. Does the batting you use make a difference with heavier quilting?

I also like the larger quilting....the quilts just snuggle better. I like to do scrappy quilts and use mine every day and wash often.

I have always been led to believe that its the amount of quilting which stiffens up the quilt nothing to do with the batting

When doing heavier quilting, it helps a *lot* to use a finer weight thread.

Batting makes a difference too. For heavier quilting, a traditional batting such as Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon 100% cotton (which requires quilting lines no further than 2" apart) will end up softer than something like Warm and Natural (which can have quilting lines as far apart as 10"). Some of the thin poly batting will stay softer too.

I once did stipple quilting on a doll quilt. That's how I learned that regular 3-ply cotton thread can make a quilt almost stiff as a board (even with MM Blue Ribbon batting). The biggest thread I would use for heavy quilting on a regular size quilt would be Aurifil 50wt 2-ply or a 60-wt polyester thread (such as Superior's Bottom Line or Fil-Tec Glide). If your machine can handle it, you could go all the way up to 100wt silk thread for quilting -- which is very, very fine. Connecting Threads has a 70wt poly (if your machine can handle it).

Thanks so much for that information. I had always been worried by how much stiffer a quilt becomes with heavy quilting.

I always use poly batting. I don't like heavy quilting, it is pretty but don't want it for my quilts. I do a large type meander and I like it.

I love heavy quilting but I save it for wall hangings. Anything that needs to be cuddly gets a large meander!