I need a very thick and lofty batting
 

Remember my earlier post about the unfinished star quilt of my mother's ? I have the quilting all ripped out and the layers separated. But I have found that there are several areas that will need repaired. And when I spread out the top on the pool table to see how flat it would lay, I found that she also struggled with the piecing, as it doesn't lay flat at all. I don't want to try and fix the piecing errors, but want to resandwich and then quilt it. I was thinking that if I use a very lofty batting or even use a double layer of batting that it will help smooth out the puckers and places that won't lay flat. Can anyone suggest a batting that is very lofty?

Are you quilting on a frame? My sister makes "wonky" quilts and I just started frame quilting a little over a year ago. What I found really helps is quilting closely (in my case, with Glide thread which adds a little sparkle and never shreds or breaks on me).

I did one quilt with Warm and Natural, one with Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon cotton batting (very thin and not needlepunched), and one with Hobbs PolyDown. I find the higher loft of the PolyDown more difficult to quilt on a frame without getting puckers; my favorite of the three so far has been the MM Blue Ribbon batting.

With all of these quilts I did closely spaced loops -- not more than an inch between quilting lines, and usually less. I did have to use soup cans on either side of the machine at times to distribute excess wonkiness.

I was very surprised at how well the quilts turned out, considering how many problems the tops had. I do think that the close quilting was what helped the most. I also think that using a high loft batting will probably create more problems for you rather than less. The highest I would go is the Hobbs PolyDown. I bet that wool batting would work really well; I will probably try that out next.

Incidentally, my sister's quilts are machine pieced.

Wool batting has a wonderful fluffy loft and is a dream to quilt.

the loftiest battings tend to be the polyester ones- and maybe your quilt would be best with a really lofty one- then tied instead of quilted- that would keep its *puffy* properties beautifully making It lofty, soft & cozy.

One note .. the high loft battings can be a major pain to quilt on a regular machine. Its a lot of volume to roll up and get through.

Lone star type quilts are notorious for having fullness. I suspect with the added diamonds in your broken star quilt the problem was amplified (those diamonds, even strip pieced are very tricky to work with). Many end up being close to a B cup in the middle area where all the diamonds come together. Quilting that quilt on a DSM will be a challenge for sure, to quilt out the fullness and not get puckers. If you don't have a rack set up, you may want to consider hand quilting this. Hand quilting will be much more forgiving in working in all that fullness and you could do it big stitch style if you don't want to tackle traditional HQ tiny stitches. Not sure if a high loft batting will help in this case and as Lori S mentioned, they are very difficult to manipulate through a DSM. You not only have the limitation of throat space but also the limits of hopping foot clearance.

If you are going to use a fat batting, usually those are polyester and in the end, you really NEED to tie the quilt. Many quilts in the past and currently are tied. My friend just struggled for weeks with a quilt that she made for her daughter and she will tell you how difficult it was to quilt. Took her weeks longer and the binding was so difficult with the thick batting. Keep that in mind to maybe make your binding wider. Good Luck !

I will be quilting on my 6600, so the bulk is definitely something to keep in mind as this quilt is close to 100 inches square. What kind of pattern do you use when quilting the star? With all the puckered places, I don't really think SITD around each diamond piece is the best way to go. Do you think an all over pattern , like a panto, would work? I would prefer to have it long armed, but with the size it would cost me a fortune, so I will get this thing done one way or another.

I have used 2 battings to make a very lofty filling in quilts like this. My long arm handles them easily and the extra "poof" really helps smooth out the "wonky" in the patchwork.

I think that it's marvelous that you are restoring your Mom's work. I'd use a thick Poly batting and I wouldn't quilt it, but just tie it. It will keep it soft and fluffy and those "errors" will just disappear.

~ Cindy

See if your library can get you a book about quilting in sections, like Divide and Conquer: Quilt it your way by Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan. They have a technique where you cut the batting into sections (I think they do three) so when you quilt in the center you only have the bulk of the top and backing to deal with on the sides. You put your section of batting in only when you are ready to quilt the area.

As for quilting, I did my lone star by hand and did have the aforementioned "cupping" in the very center portion of the star. I quilted a 1/4" away from every seam so every diamond had a smaller diamond quilted within it. Here is a link to pictures I posted of it. http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...lt-t22341.html The quilt did quilt flat for me.

I see no reason why you couldn't do the same only do continuous curves in each diamond instead. I think it is more forgiving than SITD. In the big background areas you can do any FMQ design you are comfortable with.

What if instead of fmq, I tacked the points of each diamond with a tiny star....it would secure the stitching at each intersection and allow the batting to puff up and fill the puckered areas?

That would probably work great. But you will also have to do a few of them in the large open spaces of the quilt. Your batting will tell you how close tacks (or ties) need to be. If you go this route then I would go with a high loft batting like Fatt Batt by mountain mist. You can order on line from Walmart and pick up at your local walmart store. this is the batting I have used on tied quilts and it is very lofty and cuddly.