SunQuilts

I think I am in the minority here but I am not terribly fond of the "wrinkled" lock after washing a quilt. I pre-wash all my fabric but I am wondering which batting shrinks the least. And do you wash/soak your batting before use? Thanks.

amma

100% Polyester does not shrink like cotton.
Poly/cotton doesn't either. :D:D:D

bearisgray

I also prefer the "flat" look.

I have washed warm and natural - and it washed up beautifully.

I bought some Quilter's Dream - and the package said DO NOT WASH before quilting - and the expected shrinkage was around 1%. Of course, the blah blah was on the INSIDE of the packaging.

EIQuilter

I don't do anything with my Quilter's Dream battings, but I do wash and dry my Hobbs 80/20 before I use it. And one time I got a fusible 80/20 by mistake - I learned I should have washed that one twice! The first time took out some of the fusible (which is what I had hoped), but it didn't shrink it as much as usual. When I used it in a quilt, it shrunk even more the first time I used it and I was very unhappy with the finished quilt.

Lori S

Poly does not shrink ... and blends of poly/cotton will shrink. The amount depends on the amount of cotton. I pre- shrink 80/20 as they WILL shrink ( experience speaking) .
I do like warm and natural or warm and white , it shrinks up nicely with out loosing shape , shredding or other undesirable issues.

sewingladydi

Try Warm Blend. It's a poly & cotton batting made by Warm and Natural, but shrinks less than 1%. And you can quilt up to 10" apart.

Tartan

I use Hobbs 80/20 and I do not pre-wash my batt. It has a shrinkage of 2% when washed after quilting. I machine wash my quilt with Shout color catchers and put in the the dryer. I take the quilt out of the dryer before it is totally dry and block it out on the carpet (out of traffic area!) It usually will finish drying overnight and comes out nice and flat, no wrinkles.

SunQuilts

Well, the LA quilters who do my quilts (mostly I make large bed size quilts) use 80/20 so it sounds as though the wrinkling won't be too bad. They do not, of course, pre-wash since the batting is on a huge roll. I think though if I quilt any of my smaller quilts at home, I will try the pre-soak plan. Thanks a lot to everyone.