A friend who is a long arm quilter loves Warm and Natural batting because she says it's very stable and behaves well when it is being quilted. My conclusion regarding her statement is that it must be a pretty stiff, firm, inflexible batting if she's in love with long arming it. I avoid it for that reason. I don't know about the shrinkage factor of Warm and Natural, but there are some cotton battings you can pre-shrink, like Hobbs 100 percent cotton. Just follow the directions on the package.

I can assure you that my quilts made with warm and natural are plenty soft and squishy. Exactly the same as the one I made with Hobbs batting.

In the "olden days", the typical batting in this country was 100% cotton without scrim and without bonding. Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon 100% cotton batting is this type of traditional batting. It is quite flat (especially compared to the fluffy comforters we are used to these days!). Because of the way it is made, it needs to be quilted no more than 2" apart. Many of the old, soft, vintage quilts you see on display were hand quilted with this kind of batting. Because it has no scrim or bonding agents, it is impossible to "pre-shrink" this batting before quilting; it would fall apart when wet!

One thing about 100% cotton batting is that it becomes softer and softer with each washing. This applies to Warm and Natural as well as MM Blue Ribbon. However, Warm and Natural is made in a completely different way. It is needlepunched through scrim. This gives it tremendous stability and allows quilting lines to be up to 10" apart. When I have compared quilts I have longarmed, I have found the ones made with Warm and Natural to have the stiffest drape; Hobbs 80/20 is next; Hobbs PolyDown and Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon have both given me the softest drapes.

One advantage of polyester batting such as Hobbs PolyDown is that it dries a ***lot*** faster than cotton. Some charities that send toddler quilts abroad request poly batting for this reason, as the recipients need the quilts to dry quickly when hung out on a line.

I bought W&N batting on the roll - I have soaked lengths of it in HOT water in the washer (with no agitation) until the water cools to tepid and then washed it on a gentle cycle with a very little amount of detergent on gentle for only a couple of minutes. (My washed is older - and I can "fake it out" when I pay attention to what I am doing). Then I let the washer spin it out and dry it in the dryer. I think the setting was "until dry."

It survived nicely.

I have turned some - what looked like battings - to shreds by trying to wash them, too. So now I DO read the instructions that come with the batting.

I actively dislike "the puckered look" - and even with all the precautions I take - there is still a bit of puffiness in a washed quilt.

In my experience, fabrics do NOT shrink evenly. I have measured hundreds of pieces before and after washing - so I do know what I'm talking about on that statement.

Bearisgray - I do so agree with you. I don't care for the puckered look -- especially for table runners -- and do shrink my W&N washing it in hot water and drying in a hot dryer (just got a new steam dryer and I wonder if I use that option could I avoid the washing step --- hmmmm). I use a lot of W&N, but also Hobbs 80/20.

I also agree about the randomness of fabric shrinking. I have washed fabrics from the same line and some shrank and some did not. When I started quilting again in 2000 or so, I did not wash any of the modern fabrics, figuring that the companies had solved the problem of shrinkage and after making a few quilts that shrank really funny I started pre-washing. One reason I don't like precuts is that they don't lend themselves to pre-washing.

I wish I had the funds to make small, near identical quilts to do independent testing on each brand/type of batting to see which I truly preferred.I would have friends rate their preferences. Last I would send to family to see what they liked. Nothing scientific, just a curiosity thing. I would then share with the board. I would do this in my dream world.
I have only used Warm and Natural. No complaints. Just never 100% pleased with softness and drape.

My grandmother & mother quilted VERY close together and still ended up with lumpy cotton batting that they hand carded themselves. And yes sometimes they had bits of cotton bolls in their bats. Of course they didn't wash quilts often like we do now. It's kind of hard to wash a quilt in a wash pot or a wringer washing machine.

Wait now, there's NOTHING wrong with using W&N right out of the bag! It will shrink up a bit and give the quilt a little bit of a "crinkle" but LOTS of people really like that look and use cotton batting exclusively just so they can always get that vintage crinkled look. For me it depends on the quilt, sometimes I pre-shrink, sometimes I don't. Just depends on how I want the quilt to look at the end and what style I'm going for. On quilts I make for my MIL & GMIL; they like the vintage look so I make sure NOT to pre-shrink so I will get maximum crinkling. :)

I think it's a matter of preference/opinion. I also find the W&N to be stiffer, flatter and heavier than I would like in a finished quilt. I'm currently experimenting to find the perfect batting. I was going to try the QD Oriental Blend next, but then I read up on the chemical processing required for bamboo, and decided to skip that. I'm going to try Hobbs Silk, and Hobbs wool/cotton blend in my next two quilts.

I've heard people mention Dream Cotton and Dream Wool -- is this the same as Quilter's Dream, or a separate company?