North vs South
 

I was recently told that for quilts to be used in the south, you should do heavy quilting, because it will be cooler. In the North, you want to leave more areas unquilted because it's the fluffy parts of the quilt that trap the warmth and make it cozier.
Any one else ever hear this? What do you think of the idea?

Take a look at the old quilts on displays. I've never heard of this .... and don't think it is so true. I think the quilting depends on the quilter and the pattern. Maybe a history buff can add more to this discussion.

I don't know that I agree. There are many factors that go into how heavy a quilt is. What kind of batting/backing is used, how dense/loose the quilting is, and even what kind of pattern the top is. I made a quilt with 9196 pieces and you can bet that puppy is heavy. The amount of quilting is just one part of it. I don't like a lot of dense quilting in bed quilts because it renders them stiff.

You should do quilts how you want to do them. Not what other people tell you to do.

Actually, I have never heard this. I figure that since I use Warm and Natrual, that it will be what it says. :-) If I get cold I can always use two or more quilts. I have loads of them.

If you buy a quilt based on that little tip you better not ever move or you are in trouble. LOL

I've never heard this either. Living in the deep south, it does get cold here in the winter. Granted, not as cold as the northern part of the country, or for as long, but, we need heat and quilts!!!

Sounds like personal preference to me. Doesn't central heat take care of such.

LOL..Holice love you answer...I am sitting here wrapped in a quilt with my morning coffee...it feels like 20 degrees. Time for the heat to be turned on my fingers are freezing. I need a quilted finger blanket. ; )

Yes and no. I live in Mn. I need cool quilts in the summer and warm quilts in the winter. High loft and poly is definitely warmer in the winter. But, how many do you need? Every family member has, at least one high loft, tied quilt and one low loft summer quilt. Cotton simpy is not that warm if you have drafts, keep the heat down at night or are sick or have health issues that make you feel cold. Poly works by holding in your own warmth. Thats one of the reasons afgans made from poly yarns are so warm. I am now making a round of lap quilts for family members who have health problems because two reported that the warm and natural quilts are not warm enough.

I totally loved joannes soft and crafty hi loft when it first came out. However, by the second year, they cheapened their product and removed much of the loft. Still aggravates me. Anyway, if you want warm, stick with a poly or mostly poly and don't do really heavy quilting. If you want average, use whatever you want. I use a lot of quilters dream and warm and natural and quilt it the way I want, but I use lofty batting(sometimes 2 layers) and wool to tie for very warm quilts.

Edited to add: adding additional quilts if you are cold doesn't work for a lot of people. Either they can't stand the extra weight or they have a physical problem like neuropathy from diabetes. I used to love having two or three quilts on at night and then I got older and find it cloying.

I live in Central Arkansas and it's not uncommon to have ice storms and days of 30 degree weather. Not much snow but it gets cold. For warmer quilts, I use two layers of Hobbs wool batting.

Have not heard of this idea, sounds fishy to me. I think the quilt will be warm or cool depending on the batting that you use, and fabric not how much it is quilted.

Never heard that before. I use high loft poly batting, warmth without the weight. With forced air heating they are plenty warm. We even use them in the summer, when we get chilly at night.

If every other variable of the quilt is equal, the physics to this statement does seem to work. A less densely quilted quilt is going to retain more warmth than one that is heavily quilted. This may be tenths of a degree difference, or may be significantly different, I don't know. Probably not worth caring about- quilt what you like.

But it is going to be very rare that you find every other part of the quilt equal. Choose your batting based on whether you want a very warm or less warm quilt. Silk, cotton, poly, wool- they all have different characteristics.

It is the batting that determines this, not the amount of quilting. Peggi, you surprise me by perpetuating this myth, you are so knowledgable in so many aspects of quilting. You could quilt every square inch of a quilt with wool, polyester or silk batting and it will still have lovely drape and not be stiff.


To the op comment, while I have never heard this, it does seem to have a certain amount of scientific logic to it. It is the air pockets in the batting (or filling) that form the insulation which in turn, traps in body heat and traps out cold which makes the covering warmer. This is the reason why a feather down comforter or down jacket is so toasty warm, it has loads and loads of air pockets and they are minimally quilted or baffled. So it stands to reason that a lofty batting, such as wool or polyester combined with minimal quilting will indeed result in a much warmer quilt.

But as Peggi also pointed out, the batting has a lot to do with it as well. I know of many southern quilts that have just a piece of flannel as batting, others done in cotton (low loft, breathes, less air pockets) But the cotton could also stem from the historical significance of the south being cotton growing country so it was the most economical batting as well.

I'd take poly out of this statement. I haven't used wool or silk, but my Winter Wonderland quilt is heavily quilted and it comes close to being able to stand on its own. It is extremely stiff. This style of quilting would not be appropriate on a bed quilt.

I've found the really fluffy batting with minimal quilting works very well for both summer air conditioning and winter cold in my part of Texas. If I need more warmth for really cold (below freezing) then I may add a fleece throw under the quilt and may use flannel sheets, depending on whether or not we've left the heating on overnight.

Quilted or threadpainted? Judging by your posts you are an art quilter. I do know art quilters tend to do a lot of threadpainting. In my mind the difference between the two is threadpainting is more closely related to freehand machine embroidery where you go back and forth over the same spot with layers of thread, building up color and texure. Quilting still leaves some space between each line of stitching.

I have done some very heavy quilting on poly and it just simply flattens out but is still quite flexible depending on how much seaming and piecing are in the top. (this, of course, excludes fusible applique which builds up layers of fabric with an adhesive, which also tends to be stiff, even with products like Mistifuse)

Threadpainting is another whole category. It much more resembles embroidery and it will make a piece of fabric stiff even if no batting exists.

Edited to add, OK I just went and looked at some of your pictures, definitely quilting not threadpainting. So now I want to ask which type of poly did you use. Quilters Dream Poly tends to quilt up like cotton. Hobbs polydown tends to just flatten out like I described. So I guess I should amend my statement to say Hobbs Polydown poly. As QD poly is unlike any other poly out there. It is more like a cotton blend batting and I could definitely see that one stiffening up like cotton with heavy quilting.

I don't know- it wasn't Hobbs. Just something I bought at Walmart. I've always wanted to try wool and silk, but I'm cheap.

I didn't realize it was a myth, my statement is based solely on my experience. And when I say "densely quilted", I mean quilts that are quilted for shows, with stitching every eighth inch or closer. Micro-quilting, I guess you could say. I do agree that certain batts are better than others for softness, I've stopped using W&N because I find it's stiffer. Because of the scrim, maybe?

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.

In the South, temps are generally warmer but we still get some freezing temps. We also have central heat, as does the North. If a person wanted to make a cooler/warmer quilt (for whatever reason), it'd make a lot more sense to just change the batting. My guess is the person just wanted to pass along 'some' advice and that's what popped into her head, bless her heart! ;)

haha, I can relate! I went down and turned on the furnace yesterday morning. I was freezing! no heat, just cool air coming out of the register. sigh two months ago I found the pipe behind the rinse tub had been leaking. nephew fixed it. the belt on the dryer broke. been going to the laundrymat. now this . . . and the almanac says it's gonna be a frigid winter. great. I think I will start a quilt for me. never kept any. even if it's not out of Christmas fabric-something tells me I'm gonna need it. oh, you could make stuffed animals out of your fabric also. I make a dozen or so at one time and donate em to the police. They keep em in the cruisers to gift to a traumatized child. not much but they say at the very least it gives the child some focus. show pics if you can of what you get done. we all need inspiration!

I have never heard of that and I have lived in the South all my life. I do know that in the Charleston area, there was sometimes no batting in a quilt--just a top and a backing because of the warmth and humidity. I agree with others on the forum; if you need more warmth, just throw on another quilt.

North or South years ago they quilted to keep the batting from migrating. I've never heard of the issue you are talking about.
One of the warmest battings is "Thinsulate", yes, the same stuff they put in clothing for cold weather. You can purchase it in various sizes in a bag, just like other battings.

Ditto on that!!!!!!!!!

If I lived in the Nawth, I would think some Johnnie Reb was pulling my leg, but since I live in the Sowoth, I think some Yankee is yanking your chain! Seriously, some people like fat quilts and others like them skinny. I've got some of both and the fat ones are warmer than the skinny ones but I remember the winter in West Texas when the temp never got above zero for eight days. We had several inches of snow on the ground and school was called off for a whole week. That kind of weather is unusual for W Texas--no snow plows and no chains on the tires--and we really appreciated every quilt we cold get on the beds, fat or skinny. froggyintexas

Most of my quilts either go to Australia, California or South Africa..... all have hot weather, and cold weather.

Since I am either sending them with someone on the plane, or I have to mail them. I have used flannel sheets. So far no one has complained, and trust me, if they didn't like it, I'd hear about it.

I live in the north and for anyone Canadian I use either recycled fleece or a 80/20 mix. So far no complaints on those either.

I make quilts with what I can afford, or have on hand, and if they don't like it.... well, to bad!