Using Warm & Natural the wrong side up...
 

I'm making a baby quilt with a lot of pastels in the top, along with solid sashing that's very light colored. The instructions from the W&N site says the side with the black dots should go against the quilt top but I'm hesitant because of the possibility of show-through. I don't even know if I've ever paid attention to which is the right and wrong side but have you used it with the smooth side toward the quilt top? I'm going to machine quilt it with straight line quilting.

This is the only batting I have on hand, and I don't want to buy new batting. So I need to use this, one way or the other.

My W&N has black dots? I'll have to look at my batting.

I have a roll of W&N white - it's from about 20+ years ago - but it does not have black dots.

I also have a roll of W&N "natural" - also from about 20+ years ago - which does contain brown flecks of the cotton plant. When I washed it before using it, it turned the water very yellow.

Both rolls have a scrim side made of polyester - that is almost like a light weight pellon - that the cotton fibers are needled into - and that is somewhat smoother than the "pure cotton" side.

https://warmcompany.com/frequently-asked-questions

The company does suggest having the scrim (smoother side) face the backing - but that the batting does not have really have a "right" or "wrong" side.

I use W&N all the time I have not seen any black dots on what I have purchased, but that does not help you. Do you have enough bat that you could cut them off? Also since your fabric is so light I think you may want to wash it first. It will shrink a bit but you will also be washing out some of the yellowing that may dull your quilt in time.

Using W&N with the "bumpy side up" (the side that may have the little dark bits of the cotton plant aka "black dots") is more important when quilting on a LA than on a domestic. The larger needle size can cause pokies of batting to appear on the surface of the quilt when loaded the wrong way. The smaller size of a domestic sewing machine needle does not normally cause this problem.

I've made lots of quilts with W/N and never paid attention to which side was put down, didn't seem to make a difference. All done on my dsm. Of course I never entered one in a "show".

I agree with Bear and Feline. You probably want to avoid the dreaded "pokies".

Could you put a layer of white muslin between the batting and the top?

Thank you all. The black dots are the little bits of plants. They are all over the entire thing so there's no cutting them off, although I could maybe pick some off. I will do that if they're especially big but I prefer not to. lol. Since I'm not using a longarm I'll just stick with my plan of putting the dots toward the backing. I don't want to buy muslin to put in between but I may put it in a pillowcase and wash/dry it first. Good idea.

Also, I have a lot of warm & natural that I bought on sale but after it's gone I think I'll stick with warm & white.

I've used it a lot, too and didn't know there was a right side and wrong side. I just learned which side was supposed to be up this week.

(I'm thinking about quilting a top in sections again. The last time, I left the scrim side up and when I tried to join the sections with iron on tape, the scrim stuck to the iron. So, this week, I checked out how to tell which side is the scrim side. I've never had a problem with bearding when quilting on my domestic sewing machine.)

bkay

The rough side of batting should always go against the quilt top. The smooth side goes against the backing so your needle doesn't push cotton through to the back. If you are using a dull needle, though, that will happen even if your batting is correctly positioned.

I washed and dried the batting. I didn't even use a pillowcase. I put it on the handwash cycle using hot water and bleach (!!!) and then in the dryer for a loooong time because it kept rolling up. I was washing 2 pieces about 58 by the width of the batting (90 I think). It came out just fine. I still put the smooth side up for the lighter colored quilt but will do it smooth side down for the other quilt I made, which isn't so light colored.

I always use W&N and have never had a problem with the batting showing through light fabric.

I have moved to warm&white because of the plant material that is included in W&N.

your plan sounds fine to me. I've never washed the W&N before quilting. Glad to know it works. I have also switched to just using W&W.

I use warm and natural batting a lot and have never had these black spots you are referring to. Is it possible that yours is defective? I hope everything works out for you.

Update: I did the quilting using a Janome purple tip needle and there was no bearding.

Update again. Even though I pre washed and dried the fabrics and batting the quilt still got that puckery look after washing. Maybe because of the thread? There isn't a lot of quilting on it but I have another I'm working on with a lot more quilting so we'll see. I don't mind the puckery look but was kind of hoping that since almost everything was prewashed it would stay more smooth this time. I can't really prewash thread and all of my fabric is washed.

I have often wondered if cotton thread shrinks?