There's a lot of good information here, but it might help if the quilter knows in advance exactly how they plan to quilt their patchwork item: If you hand quilt it yourself, you will want your quilting patterns to show prominently: so go with a higher loft. If your quilt will be done on a longarm by a professional quilter: ASK which they will prefer to use. The first time I used a pro long-arm quilter the answer was "Warm&Natural!!!" It is so stable, it is much easier to load into the machine and keep straight and squared. If your quilted item is a garment, you will want it to drape nicely, so only use a thin batt that is intended for garments.