Your honest opinions on batting
 

I would like to invite y'all to post your honest opinions - pro & con - on the batting that you use. I do sell batting, that is a given. Please name the brand and type [fiber content & manufacutring method; needle punched, needled onto scrim, resin bonded, thermal bonded...] and why you like it. And if you have had a bad experience, share why it was negative.

I hope that we can all learn from your comments. Pellon/Legacy is always trying to improve products that we all use in our work. Please talk about any brand and type and tell us all what sort of work you do; hand quilting, long arm, etc. New quilters to the highly experienced can learn from your input.

You can have input into the products that you use in your quilts.

Darlene Christopherson

My favorite is anything from Warm and Natural, it is sturdy but still easy to hand quilt through. I enjoyed working with Hobbs Heirloom fusible - but it is 20% polyester and I don't care for that, but I will use it for wall hangings and table items. My second favorite is Soft Touch 100% cotton, quilts up really nice and drapes lovely, I just don't care how if I tug on it ...it rips too easily.
Not about batting, but I used a Pellon fusible interfacing yesterday and loved it!

Your name sounds/looks familiar...have you judged quilt shows?

I use lots and lots of Warm and Natural or Warm and White , this is my number one go to batting. I use this batting as it preshrinks better ( holds shape/does not shred/not as fussy about method of shrinking) than the other primarily cotton battings. It has a very sturdy scrim.
For many of my full size quilts or larger I use Hobbs 80/20 as it has a bit more loft than Warm and Natural.
But as a consumer I find the trade off between breath ability of cotton, and the warm of a poly to be in constant conflict. I love wool ( hobbs) but find the price point to be above my ability to use it all my bed quilts.
I have been trying to find a 50/50 poly cotton to experiment with... thinking that might give me the best of both worlds. One draw back I have considered is a 50/50 will not give the shrinkage in bed quilts for the antique crinkle look. But my thoughts is I would get more warmth than a higher cotton content batting.
On about 1/2 of the bed quilts , I have taken to double batting, one layer of Warm and Natural for the shrinakge/crinkle and one layer of poly for the warmth. This has yielded very good results , in when the warm and natural shrinks , the extra layer of poly gets a higher loft and more added warmth.
I have used silk blend battings but have concerns about the long term durability as silk is prone to dry rot.
It always a tough call to make a switch to a different batting when you consider the time/dollars spent on making a quilt .. and if a batting "under performs" it may not reveal till sometimes years later..... and its un-cureable!

I'm also a Warm and Natural fan. I don't like poly batting. I use the W&N for both machine and hand quilting. Very user-friendly.

When it comes to batting, the type will depend on the finished look that I want to achieve. If I want a smoother, more modern look....I use poly and Hobbs PolyDown is my choice as it's easy to use, not overly lofty and reasonably priced. If I am looking for an old fashioned crinkly look, I use an 80/20 blend that I buy at WalMart. It is much cheaper than Warm and Natural, but quilts and washes well. I don't overquilt, but usually have quilting lines every 2-3 inches, so the quilting requirements don't factor in to my choice of batting. I have a Janome 6600 and do all of my own quilting, even the king size quilts. I do use basting spray, so compatibility with a spray is a necessity.

Hobbs Heirloom Fusible (80/20) is the one I use most often, but I also like the non-fusible version, plus Hobbs Heirloom Natural (cotton) and the version with the scrim. I make mostly traditional style quilts or I finish antique and vintage tops and I like the shrinkage and the washability of all these.

If I'm making a child's quilt, I like Hobbs Poly Down (polyester) - it's so soft and silky and seems to stay puffy forever.

I have bought some wool batts and some fusible bamboo blends, but I haven't gotten around to using them, yet.

I primarily hand quilt. I like Mountain Mist Lite for the smallest stitches; Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon because it doesn't beard and handles well. I recently completed a quilt with Hobbs Polydown, and I was impressed because it was easy to quilt, a bit puffier than the Mountain Mist Lite, and when the quilt hung at a show, it was very flat - no wrinkles or ripples.

Right now, I'm using Hobbs Premium Wool, and I like it...but I'm reserving a full opinion until the quilt is finished and hung.

Battings I don't like are Quilters Dream, the lightest weight - yes, it was easy to quilt, but there was no puff to add contrast to the quilting. I also didn't like Warm and Natural, or any batting with scrim, because it's too hard to hand quilt. I also don't feel that it loosens up to fill spaces between stitching lines.

Janet

So far I have only used the poly batting from Walmart because that is the closest place to buy as well as the least expensive. I inherited some others, bamboo for one, that I have not tried yet. Would be interested to try others once I use up what I have on hand.

I don't like Warm and Natural at all. It's too hard and doesn't give much definition to you quilting, plus it's stiff if you quilt it much closer than that 10 inches apart. I use Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 the most and Quilter's Dream poly when I want a poly batting.