Needle punched batting
 

What is needle punched batting? Is the Warm & Natural batting considered a needle punched batting? I've heard of people quilting directly on fabrics placed on top of needle punched batting, without attaching a backing fabric. Is this possible?

yes, warm & natural is a needle punched batting- needle punched batting is a batting that has the 'batting fibers' punched through a scrim * a net like stabilizer* creating a more stable batting that allows quilting stitches to be further apart (warm & natural allows up to 10" between quilting lines- instead of the 2"- 4" that is normal)
as for quilting without backing- yes, you can do it- how ever- it is more difficult- the batting does not move as smoothly as cotton fabric- also, at some point you need to add a backing- to protect the batting fibers-which will wear away with use/friction and you would not be able to launder/clean the item without backing enclosing the batting.

Have you ever seen an old quilt have had places where the batting has bunch up?? That is what happens when back in the 30s, there wasn't any scrim in the batting. Scrim is like a stabilizer as ckcowl stated. If you do limited quilting or tying a quilt, the batting will not ball up into corners when washed. Cheap batting will still do this so beware what you purchase. Hope this helps.

Batting can be needlepunched without scrim. The Quilter's Dream brand cotton battings are done that way. This is why they are easier to hand quilt; no scrim to go through. Warm and Natural is needlepunched through scrim, which makes it extremely stable (quilting lines can be as far apart as 10"); however, the scrim makes it considerably harder to hand quilt.

I suppose a wallhanging or art project could be quilted without batting. However, any quilt that is going to get washed a lot (or by machine) will also need a backing.

I am quilting one right now without a backing as I am going to put to quilts together so I can have a reversible quilt.

I'm curious about your plan to put two quilts together. Are you quilting through batting on both pieced units, then attaching them (? how). Won't that make an extremely heavy piece? If that's not what you are planning, would you be willing to share your plan? I'm really curious. All the best Joyce in DE

I quilt and embellish all my art quilts before backing them. I can hand stitch and bead without worrying about the knots, I don't have to worry about pleats on the backing, and it gives me much more freedom to quilt and create exactly as I desire. I have never found it to be any more 'draggy' than a quilt with the backing already on, but, so far, they have all been smaller than full size bed quilts.

When done, I fuse the backing to the batting (non-scrim side or it will pucker). Depending on finished size I add a bit of additional quilting for security and then bind as usual. My quilts are not intended to be washed by machine for several reasons, but most take hand washing just fine. I use Warm & Natural and Warm & White.