When planning their "first quilt" with my granddaughters, I decided to keep it simple and bought charm packs. I let them choose what they wanted on the Connection Threads website, and two of them chose batiks (of course, they are the most expensive!). But I have really liked working with them, and the ones we bought at Connecting Threads are very silky feeling--not stiff at all.
So...my first experience using batiks was a good one. I may use them in a quilt myself!