At guild the other night one of the ladies said she doesn't use warm and natural (my fave) at all because over time it will make oily spots on your quilt. Have y'all ever heard that before? Most of the others there acted like it was news to them...a few of the more "knowledgable" ones acted like "Oh yeah..everybody knows that." I spoke up and said I'd never heard it before. I could see a wool batting maybe, because natural wool is very oily. But cotton? Well, I guess there is cottonseed oil...

Most manufacturers of batting recommend that you open the batting and lay it out flat to relax for at least 12 hours before you are going to use it. Since I always forget :shock: to open mine the day before, I throw it in the dryer and toss it around for about 15 minutes. I have never thrown towels in with it--but I just might in the future--sounds like a good idea to me. I do not prewash my fabrics and I do not prewash my batting. I had never heard of prewashing batting until a few days ago in another thread!! Live and learn!

for butterfly, who asked: "does that even out the thin places and get rid of the fold lines as well? does the batt stick to itself? i'm trying to picture what happens to it. does it fluff? do the towels get full of lint? "

i have never been willing to pay the price for the warm& products, so cannot answer about that specific batting. i could be wrong, but i don't think the dryer dance with damp towels will redistribute the lumpy bits. the whole point is just to remove the wrinkles - the worst of which create lumps that go away with the wrinkles.

based on your description, and on the number of people here who think the warm&whatever batting products are great, it sounds to me as though you got a cut from a defective role. it also sounds as though the customer service rep you talked to should be flippin' burgers somewhere instead. the only correct response to your call would have been "what's your address so we can send you a replacement"!

Thanks for your input everyone! I feel like I'm on better footing to make an informed decision at the fabric store later today.
Zoo

here's a good link. Has anyone tried Fairfield's cotton/bamboo batting yet?
http://quilting.suite101.com/article..._quilt_batting

Wow, great link! Thanks!

i'm hearing different things from everybody re: batting. what is the most commonly used batt and how do quilters prepare it? enquiring minds want to know. from what i've seen , the poly appears too fluffy, i cannot trust the warm & natural, and the wool is way expensive. i haven't tried the bamboo. i think the fairfield alss has thin spots and if it does, will fluffing remove them? most important, will the batts stick to themselves?

help! help!

i followed your link and i may try it for washability. baby quilts always need washing and this says machine washable and dryable. they sell it at joann's. i would use my 50% coupon. the price seems in line for the biggest size. i'll check out the crib size.

I'd never pay full retail for it either. Have you looked into pricing when it's on sale? I've had the 40 yd roll delivered to my doorstep for $170, including shipping.

You can *soak* a cotton batting and you can spin it dry in a washing machine without damaging it. The reason they say not to wash is because any agitation at all will turn the batting into an unuseable mess. If you dry the batting in a dryer, the batting will shrink and you will not get the nice shrinking in the quilt that many people like with cotton. It is that kind of shrinking after quilting that makes old-time quilts crinkly and soft. If you pre-shrink the batting in the dryer, the quilt will be much flatter and without dimension even after washing.

Roxanne (sorry, famous quilter from Hawaii, can't remember her last name at the moment) swore by Fairfield cotton batting for her hand quilting. However, she said it was very important to soak the batting to remove the sizing in it that made it wonderful for machine quilters to use. She would soak it, spin it out, and I *think* let it air dry in order to make it very easy to hand quilt. It is not at all necessary to do this with that batting if you are going to machine quilt it.

Not all cotton battings have sizing in them. Each brand has its own way of manufacturing cotton batting. From what I know, if you are hand quilting, you need to be careful to stay away from cotton battings that are needle-punched with scrim. The needle-punching through scrim make them very stable and excellent for machine quilting, but it is more difficult to push a needle through the needle-punched scrim. Some hand quilters don't mind this effort, but I found it made a huge difference in how pleasurable hand quilting was. The Fairfield batt I mentioned above is not needle-punched with scrim, but rather manufactured with sizing to add stability for machine quilting. Removing the sizing makes the batting very easy to hand needle.

I haven't used every cotton batting on the market. The old-fashioned Blue Ribbon all-cotton batting I hand-needled I found, afterwards, contained bits and pieces of seed and boll, and also oils that made the needle stick. More modern manufacture eliminates these problems for hand quilters. I have heard that Quilter's Dream is a good modern all-cotton batting for hand quilters, but haven't actually used it myself.

I should add that all-cotton batting without needle-punching/scrim needs the closest quilting to stand the test of time -- up to 1 inch apart. The 80/20 batts (80% cotton) can be quilted a bit further apart -- maybe 2 to 3 inches. One reason the needle-punched/scrim cotton battings are so popular is that they can be quilted much further apart -- 6 inches or so. They are still all cotton, still can be shrunk inside the quilt to create the old-timey crinkly effect, but they don't need the close quilting. The problem I have found with them is that the needlepunching and scrim change the drape of the batting dramatically, making them more stiff. Many people don't mind this, but I like a softer drape and am willing to quilt more closely in order to use the type of batting that will provide this.

Mary