I have used various battings and do hand quilting, so as a result, my quilts usually come out soft and comfy. I notice that the heavily machine quilted quilts seem to be able to almost stand up by themselves and I never could understand why they have to machine quilt themselves into such a frenzy of stitching. That is only my opinion, but hand quilting will never be stiff.Sometimes less is definitely better. Good luck!

I don't hand quilt, have a bad wrist, but I agree with you completely about quilting heavily. Less is definitely better. Read an article by a professional who said "Just because you can doesn't mean you should" when talking about the subject.

I quilted my first one about 2" apart and it's too stiff for me. So from now on I plan to go 3 or even 4 inches apart.

Amen. My favorite batt for this is Hobbs Poly-down. It has about a 3/8" loft, so not much, but really results in a warm, huggy quilt. Love it!

I have always prefer Hobbs 80/20 because there is more puff than W&N. I find that over-quilting may make a quilt stiff. But as Prism99 mentioned, there is a difference between a comforter and a quilt.

This is what I do. I love the soft feel of wool; it drapes beautifully. I only use it for adult quilts that are treated with respect though (baby quilts get cottons). Dream Wool batting can be washed and dried without any problem. My biggest problem is not over quilting since I love quilting much more than piecing!

Pam

I've had a few quilts professionally quilted and they lost their 'quiltiness'
when I hand quilt, they are nice and fluffy, but not all fluff.
Also, they are warmer hand quilted. Gives someplace for the air to stay and warm up.
I' had a professionally quilted quilt slide off the bed from being over quilted too.

This is a pet peeve of mine... flat quilts.... some decades ago when quilting came out of the closet and began to be enjoyed by tons of new learners... there came to be an attitude about how the finished quilt should look.... You will often hear from quilters that they want their quilts to look like 'grandma's'.... what they don't realize is that grandma's quilts didn't look flat till they had been washed a couple of dozen times (which meant 20 or 30 years)... their quilts were made for warmth and certainly were not what we see today in brand new quilts. The only batting for our grandmothers was cotton batting and they had to begin with a good 3/4" to end up with a decent layer of warmth. It had to be quilted closely and that flattened it a bit but still allowed for 'fluffiness' to show in between the lines of stitching..showing off the line shadows to display their quilting skill. My favorite batting is one layer of 80/20 with a very thin lay of poly on top of that. the cotton holds the shape of the quilt much better than soft squishy poly... and the 1/4" of poly on top allows your quilting sts to show beautifully and keep the 'fluff'. I take them off the wall and off the beds and fluff them in the dryer twice a year to remove dust and fluff them up. They look brand new after the dryer trip. Also... when you finish your first quilt... after it is bound... lay a clean sheet on the carpet where you can protect your quilt... layer it next and measure to square up and pin to the carpet every 3 or 4 inches... then spray liberally with plain water and leave for w or 3 days....to 'block'... it will look absolutely wonderful after this treatment and is well worth the effort. ***If you do not have a completely protected room to hide this in for a couple of days... then pin another clean king size sheet on top to protect from dog and cat hairs....

That's right...our grandmothers said.."the size of your fist" apart... they knew a bit about the properties of insulation.

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*** Yep! that is the answer. Hi-loft batting and less quilting.
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*** That is the way I like mine also.
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