I want a light weight king quilt(? )
 

I'm in a "slow" process of making a king size quilt for our bed. I am trying to plan ahead & have decided to quilt as you go the blocks on my domestic machine. I was going to use the Fairfield Toasty Cotton batting for it but I'm beginning to think that it will be to heavy when it is completed. Since we live in Texas & most of the year our weather is hot, I'm thinking I need something lighter for the middle (batting). I'm sure this question has been presented to the board at other times but I don't remember what y'all have said about it. :) So here are a few questions:
1. Would flannel be the way to go?
2. I am not a pre-washer of my fabrics but should I wash the flannel first?
3. Would Jo-Ann's or Walmart be a good place to buy the flannel? I don't want to invest in a lot more $
as I've already spent to much on it already. :shock:
4. If not flannel, what other options do I have for a more "light weight" quilt? I plan to keep it on the bed year round.

I know that many of you have used flannel as batting & would appreciate any & all information you could give me on this. I'm still in the process of making the blocks so I have a long way to go before I start putting them together to quilt but could sure use some help in this matter so I can move forward & purchase what I will be using soon.
Thanks!

I'd go to Target or Walmart and get a flannel sheet for a backing if you want to go light, I can usually get a flannel sheet for a good price and then no piecing! I've also had luck finding sheets at Ross or Tuesday Morning.

I'm not a prewasher but I always wash flannel before I back with it.

If you use flannel, be sure it is cotton flannel. I would definitely pre-wash, since flannel is notorious for shrinking unevenly, and darker colors often bleed. I've read that bamboo batting makes a lightweight quilt, but I haven't tried it. Also remember that the more seams there are in your quilt top, the more fabric there is, and that makes the quilt heavier and warmer.

I agree with Austinite. Costco is also a good place for flannel sheets. Good quality and good price.

My summer quilt has Hobbs poly down in it. While most people claim it doesn't breath because it is a synthetic, I find mine very light weight and not too hot for the summer and this summer has been as hot and humid as Galvestine in the northeast this year (many days in the 90's with 70% plus humidity, ugh!). I do have a window AC unit, couldn't sleep without it but just this quilt as a cover is fine and when I have the ceiling fan on high with the AC I can actually feel the breeze in places. And it is a LC with loads of seam allowances. Another thing that will help keep the quilt not so hot is denser quilting. It keeps the batting from forming the air pockets that hold in heat.

I have a lightweight quilt with warm & natural in the center. This quilt has very few seams and is almost all 1 layer of fabric on the front & the back. I love it in the summer, in my air conditioned bedroom. It's almost like a whole cloth.

Forgot to say that this quilt is a star block & a log cabin block so it has lots & lots of seams which will make it even heavier than normal before I begin to layer it. I think I will do a simple quilting in the log blocks but haven't decided what to do with the stars yet. I may do a star in the center log block....not sure of anything at this time.;)



This is not my block but I found it online just to show what I might do with the quilting:

Hobbs makes a thin polyester batting called Theramore. It's 1/8 inch thick. I am currently using it on a quilt as you go king. So far it's working great. I ordered from Hancocks of Paducah. They only had queen size so I ordered two. But at 16.00 a queen, it wasn't a heavy expense.

Thermore can be split in half too. I love it. Got mine from Connecting Threads.

I have a king on our RV bed and didn't use any batting at all. All the seams make it plenty heavy :)

How did you quilt yours without batting? Do you have a picture that I could see? That was what I originally was going to do...no batting. But I thought I would have to tie the back & front together & I didn't want a tied quilt.