To me, the quantity of quilting - closeness of stitches - just makes the quilt stiff. As several others have also said, there is a need for summer weight quilts and winter weight quilts wherever you live in the US, and it's probably true outside the US. I've lived in the north and the south. Once you get used to the warmer temperatures when living in the south, you need more warmth during the colder temperatures there. I'm living in Northern Virginia now, have lived much further north and much further south, and haven't worn a winter coat in 25 years, but I do need warmer quilts or an extra blanket under a lighter quilt.

Doesn't matter how cold out it gets or how many blankets/quilts I have on, I usually have one sock covered foot hanging out from under all the coverings. ANd I live down by the Gulf.

I never heard of this either but could it be that in the south raw cotton was used frequently as batting... so maybe quilts had to be quilted more heavily so it wouldn't shift?

I had never heard of this before either. In the "olden days" (telling my age now) quilts were hand quilted more closely together to keep the batting; cotton, wool, or whatever, from shifting when the quilt was used and washed. I do think that the closer quilting, especially machine quilting does make a quilt more stiff. Whether you think it does or not, feel one very closely quilted and one that isn't and you can feel the difference. The thread painting is an art and is beautiful, I am not putting it down, but it is not something for a well used quilt if you want softness. When I grew up my grandmother had a number of wool comforters (quilts made from wool scraps with wool batting and tied not quilted) and they were warm. I can remember having two maybe three on a bed as she had no heat in her upstairs bedrooms and believe me it got cold in 'them thar bedrooms' so you needed a lot of covering. I can remember as a little girl hardly being able to turn over under them for the weight, but they did keep one warm. For summer quilts the batting might be and old lightweight sheet blanket between the top and the backing. Nothing was ever thrown away, and of course the result today is that I am a pack rat which drives hubby up the wall. "Best keep that, we might need it some day' and the way this country is going we just might need anything we can put our hands on in the future. Fortunately only one of my two kids has my pack rat tendencies and the grandkids don't have it at all, their philosophy is "pitch it, if I need it again I'll go by a new one'. That's okay I guess if one has the financial means, but when I grew up we didn't have those financial means, it was a struggle just to live from day to day! So not sure which way is best, but pitching and going to buy new, sure fills up our landfills more quickly too. My two cents for the day. Happy quilting everyone whether it be close together or further apart.

I always thought the batting was the determining factor. High or low loft.

If you want a "summer quilt" use a sheet blanket or a piece of flannel for batting. If you want a "winter quilt" use a polyester batting or a Fatt Batt. If you want to use it year around, use Warm and Natural or something similar. You decide what to use, not someone else with a peculiar idea who thinks you need to do what they think is right. There are NO rules!

I have neuropathy but I don't have diabtes, just wondering what you mean about adding extra quilts?

Actually I just heard something like this recently. It was said that the quilts seem to be warmer if the quilting is farther apart as in meanandering and not as warm if the quilting is close as in stippling. I think that the type of quilting is up to you of course but may this is something to keep in mind for summer or southern quilts.

why does anyone have to make this a question about "rules" maybe this was just posted as a comment made to be discussed. Actually you just made "rules" about which batting to use.

Also I made a "summer " quilt with flannel as the backing and found that it was just as warm as with Hobb 80/20 and also just about as heavy. Also it cost more to use since it is not as wide and you need to use more yardage.

I never heard of such a thing.