here I go with another question
 

I am making a Lotus quilt for my daughter. She lives in CA and first was going to go with just a top and flannel for the backing. Now she is wanting a real flat batting. I have used Tuscany, Quilters Dream...and Warm and Natural, Warm and White, and Hobbs 80/20....in your opinion is there anything flatter than these. She does not want it fluffy at all.

Holy Moley, it doesn't get much flatter than Warm and Natural 100%Cotton. Maybe try one of the bamboo ones.

tim in san jose

I don't know, but I use the Hobbs 80/20, and it says on the package that the closer together your quilting is, the flatter it will be. I don't do all that fancy quilting, I try for the least amt of quilting if I'm doing it myself.

I totally agree the more quilting the flatter it lays, but by the same token the more quilting is done, the stiffer they get! If she were here where we could collaborate, it would be so much better.

Double sided flannel works great as batting...very flat:)

I get a batt at Joanns, it's a white fleece, not polar fleece
it's under the counter and is really thin. I use this for a lot of quilts I make.
it's feather light and I use it for winter quilts too. just one layer of quilts
we use, so it is warm but we use it in the summer too so it breaths too.

it's about $4.95/yd and 45 " wide. I love the stuff

does she want flat and thick(er) or flat and thin(ner) batting.

Some battng brands come in several thicknesses.

you can pre wash the W&N, then it won't pucker after washing... You could also use Thermore, that's pretty thin.

Quilters Dream Request cotton is one of the lowest loft battings on the market even thinner than W&N. Silk is also very flat but you will pay dearly for it. Some of the bamboo ones are pretty low loft as well. Also you can lay a lot of thread down on silk or wool and it won't get stiff like W&N does. So you can go with very densely quilted to get it flat and still have nice drape if you go with wool or silk.

You could always just put a layer of flannel in as batting but your quilting will have pretty much no definition.

The next thing that is flatter than W&N is just plain flannel. Hobbs 80/20 is a bit more fluffier than W&N. Ask her if she wants ANY batting in the quilt. Maybe even rethink the flannel. There are quilts called I think summer quilts with no batting in them at all.