I also work with a small group that makes charity quilts. We always use polyester batting. If they get washed it is so much faster drying, I believe and if a person must go to a laundromat, that counts.

Used a polyester batting for the first time in a recently finished quilt. Had a lot of problems sandwiching it. At the time I wasn't sure whether it was operator malfunction or the poly. Interesting to read that others note the same thing. I will use it again but I will be a lot more careful about sandwiching.

How well does the poly batting hold up if it's tied instead of quilted?

I'm a member of Itchin to Stitch Quilters on FB from Florida. For our charity quilts for children, we use Poly or 100% cotton batting. When we reach 30 -40 quilts, we will deliver them to a law enforcement branch[ATTACH=CONFIG]453060[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]453061[/ATTACH]

I like the puffiness of the polyester and the kids do to. It makes the quilt softer.

I like the 80/20 batting.

It depends a *lot* on how closely you tie. If the batting says to quilt 4" apart or closer, you probably should tie it every 2" to have it wear well through multiple machine washings and drying. Polyester batting will not hold together as well as a cotton batting that is needlepunched through scrim, such as Warm and Natural). With Warm and Natural you could tie 5 or 6" apart with no problem because the scrim will help hold the batting in place. Without scrim, both cotton and polyester battings benefit from ties that are fairly close together.

I once tied a polyester quilt with ties pretty far apart (maybe 6"?). Eventually the polyester between the ties turned into lumps from many trips through the washer and dryer.

I have and I like it just fine. I buy the big roll at Joanns and like it because it doesn't have all the folds in it.

It's a good idea to buy polyester batting that has been bonded (either thermal or resin bonding). These are the better quality battings. Bonding makes the batting much less likely to beard.

Here is a good article on battings:
http://www.connectingthreads.com/tut...ting__D88.html

What a great charity! Those are darling quilts and I love the little pockets for the stuffed toys. :-)

Had anyone had experience with silk/bamboo blend batting?

I say yes, I only use cotton or poly. as I have an allergy to wool. People don't seem to think of that when
giving quilts. They are a lot of people in this group with me, I never buy quilts or blankets - you never know what is in them. Hope this doesn't sound bad.

I probably would never use wool--I itch just thinking about it.

I always use poly batting. That's what we have here. it is affordable for me--I pay about $1/meter for 150 cm wide batting.--about $50 for a 50 meter (a little more than 50 yards) roll. It means I can afford to make lots of charity quilts.

It also means that If I get "good" at quilting this poly, then when I get to work with cotton batting, it should be a real breeze, right? I just made two king size polyester batted quilts this year--so you all are telling me that doing the same king size only using cotton batting would be easier FMQ? Fantastic.

I did notice that when someone sent me a baby sized quilt all sandwiched, with cotton batting, but not quilted, it took only minutes to quilt--and it seemed much easier than I was used to, since I normally use poly batting. I thought it had to do with the fact that it was a baby size instead of the normal bed sized ones I tend to do. Maybe it was because the batting was all cotton (and quite thin)--it did sew up like a dream.