What kind of batting should i use for a quilt

I'll wait Let's jump in! I mean, why are there so many different toothpaste options?! And what is the difference between plaque and tartar? And is there actual glitter in that one? I feel like every toothpaste aisle needs a coach that will lead you to the perfect toothpaste for your individual dental needs. I also feel this way when picking out quilt batting. Or, I used to. A few months ago I went on a soul-searching, quilt batting journey.

I packed a small backpack, waved goodbye to my husband and walked off into the distance with a single goal in mind, "Find the perfect batting or die trying. I'm happy to report that after my strenuous campaign into the cotton fields of Mississippi, through the sheep herds of New Zealand, and even deep into the bamboo forests of China, I'm back. Maypole Quilt Pattern Download. Triangle Jitters Quilt Pattern Download. Campfire Quilt Pattern Download.

Thrive Quilt Pattern Download. Shine Quilt Pattern Download. Mod Mountains Quilt Pattern Download. Rocksteady Quilt Pattern Download. Modern Fans Quilt Pattern Download.

Quick review for the newer crowd: What is Quilt Batting? Also known as wadding, quilt batting is a layer of material used to fill quilts, giving them warmth, thickness, and weight. The biggest decision and yes, I acknowledge that choosing how to finish off your quilt baby is a very big decision comes down to material. Above is the Fly Away quilt pattern. Things to look for: cotton seeds in the batting. These can actually stain fabric, so beware!

Cotton can also bunch after washing unless quilting lines are pretty close together. Read the package instructions to double check how closely your stitching should be. When inside quilts, this produces a soft, crinkly effect on your quilt surface, which some people like for comfy bedspreads, and others hate on their quilts-on-display. Pictured below is the free Squared quilt pattern. C lick here to get it! Allergies, anyone? This type of batting is also easy to work with, and pretty low-maintenance.

And warm. Yeah, 10 points for the poly blend! See more pics of this fluffy Maypole quilt here! Wool will never get fold lines or creases, even after months of being folded, which is pretty awesome for you quilters out there with stacks on stacks of quilts filling various corners of the living room.

The downside? You heard me right. Bearding, in the quilting world, is when fibers from the batting travel through the top of the quilt. The best way to avoid bearding from your wool batting is to use a sharp needle probably fresh from the package when quilting and piece your quilt top with tightly woven fabric.

If your fabric is a loose weave or a low thread count, the wool can easily travel through it once the quilt has been washed. Above is the Bayside quilt pattern. Bamboo batting is the high-end batting option… for a reason.

It drapes soooo nicely. Hopefully this gives you a pretty good preview of what all these materials have to offer, and what pricing you can expect polyester on the low end, cotton, then wool, then bamboo at the top. The other component that is going to affect the cost is which brand you choose.

I have a few brands I use regularly and recommend. Here are the three brands that get the Suzy Stamp of Approval:. During my long and grueling quest to find the perfect batting, I met a spiritual guide A Quilter's Dream. And what a wonderful dream it was! I love all of the options, and I love that I know I can count on all of them being well-made. For those who like to shop online or only have access to big craft shops — this stuff is very easy to come by. I've tried all of the big box store brands, and Pellon is where I keep coming back.

Pellon also offers all four major batting material options, and is a standard go-to batting brand for a lot of beginners and experienced quilters alike. It looks like a terrible stain you can't scrub out.

Hobbs is another well-known, top-quality brand that pretty much offers every different kind of batting option out there. When choosing the best quilt batting for your project, there are a few other things to keep in mind:. Know the Skinny on Scrim. Don't Get Too Lofty. Go for higher loft if you want a nice, puffy quilt with very visible quilting lines.

Sometimes, it takes some experimentation to really get the hang of choosing batting anyone have some weird batting results they want to share?? I like being able to do loose quilting sometimes! And also now I feel like I can only use bamboo batting forever…hmmm….

I am finishing my first quilt ever for my hubby for Christmas. Is there a better batting I could use? Tutti girl, you missed nothing. I was very sneaky and intentional about not sharing a favorite. Hi Suzy, I am making your Indian summer quilt pattern for my granddaughter.

I had to improvise because I am making it as a twin size. She will be using when she moves to a twin size bed as she is just turning three. I plan to straight line quilt. Would you use all cotton or a poly blend? I have only used warm and natural cotton for the two other quilts I have made. The flying geese triangles? Thank you. Having to quilt so close is not the way forward for me! I did do a charity quilt a couple of weeks ago batting and backing provided along with the flimsy and that was a polyester one, I found that better to work with than I thought it wold be.

Great post! Have you ever done this? I have never done that, but I doubt it would ruin the quilt. It may make it really stiff, but eventually, it would loosen up. Good luck! Good job describing each type of batting Suzy! I use two layers of warm and white batting all the time in my quilts. I have no problems with quilting this batting on my domestic machine.

Just set your tension to get good stitches, and adjust the presser foot pressure if needed. After washing, you have a substantial, but flexible quilt that gets more and more cuddly with repeat washing, even if densely quilted.

Choosing batting is such a weird mystery to me, so thank you for this! I always tend to like my quilts to be as drapey and floppy and non-stiff as possible. I have found cotton poly blends to have a floppier drape straight off the sewing machine.

I have a weird batting story… I finished a quilt recently that I started over ten years ago when I was young and had no idea I was using too many colours. So for batting I used polar fleece! Not even one piece! I sewed two different colors together! So now the whole quilt is weird, the top that I made when I was young and silly, and the finishing when I was older and still silly.

Originally, quiltmakers would use all sorts of random materials to fill their quilts. I know this is an old post, but what you said about what they used to use reminded me. Not pantyhose, just silk or maybe nylon , thigh high stockings. Very heavy and completely cool! This brought back a memory of when I was in high school decades ago and making stuffed animals. Not all of us were rich enough or stylish enough to have hosery for daily wear. Hi Suzy, I love your information.

Have you ever made a baby or throw quilt and used flannel instead of batting? The result is a thinner quilt. Many thanks. Using flannel as a substitute for batting is a fantastic idea——and, like you said, more authentic to traditional American patchwork. Large pieces of flannel would be quite durable and should hold up over time just as regular batting. I make baby quilts for NICU babies to cover the isolete.

I use black flannel prewashed for batting. This is mandatory to keep the light from getting in the babies eyes and to help keep the heat in. I am making a baby blanket 36 x 36 and I was going to use it. The machine I am using is a long arm Pro Sticher in the bubbles pattern. Will that look okay? Even cotton thread can cause a quilt to shrink a little bit when washed. I think that quilting design will look great!

Suzy, I have read this before, but went back and read it again. Thanks for all your kind help! As I longarm quilt for others I get pretty much everything to work on. The thinnest? Quilters Dream has a wonderful bamboo blend batting.

Great info — Thanks so much for the post! Did I miss the Warm and Natural? Did you not include it because it is not top quality? Personally, I think Pellon is better quality and never has those terrible dark flecks that drive me bananas.

This is super helpful — and might get me to try a bamboo or wool in the future. On a similar note, what are your thoughts on spray basting? I had always pin basted until a couple weeks ago, when I tried spray basting. Any advice? Here are my reasons: 1. Spray basting was making a mess in my house. No matter how neat I was, that sticky spray would get on my floors, walls, and furniture.

That stuff is expensive! Pins are a one-time investment. When I spray basted anything larger than a baby quilt, my quilt sandwich would shift and get all out of wack. It is bad for your lungs and the environment, it leaves a sticky residue on your quilt, too. How about silk batting? Thank you Suzy! Great job wandering the batty world! But another dreamy option is silk!

Silk batting in a lawn or voile quilt is like the lightest, drapieat quilt ever. Ship me some of that! What happened?

The experience left me disappointed and a little bit frustrated. Am I alone? I have found it common for cotton batting, specifically, to be thinner and denser than it used to be. I tried the Quilters dream wool and it started bearding heavily as soon as I started quilting it. Is there a way to minimize the bearding? In your experience which one beards the least of the wool batting? You are seriously one funny lady.

I will continue to stalk you. Darn algebraic robot checkers…. Hi, my husband and I are in the process of house hunting for the perfect acreage. My big dream is to raise alpacas and make quilt batting from their fleece.

In your pilgrimage of finding batting…did you come across alpaca fiber batting? Any thoughts on that type of batting? I am unfamiliar with alpaca batting, but would be the first to jump on board if I knew where to get it! Let me know if you start producing it. Sounds super dreamy. I have used alpaca and it is wonderful. It is lighter yet warmer than wool and most people who are allergic to wool are NOT allergic to alpaca.

Typically fusible batting is only activated by steam — which means that I was on my hands and knees trying to steam iron a quilt while it was on the floor. The process was miserable, not to mention that I bunched up both the backing and the quilt top.

In the end, I ripped all of the layers apart and pin basted it. I used fusible batting on my first quilt, a bedspread sized beast for my son. Putting the quilt sandwich together turned out well but was no fun — yes down on my knees on the floor.

I hand quilted it for about three years then got impatient and asked a friend to longarm it. She tried. The thread kept breaking so she handed it back to me. Even hand quilting I could only use short pieces of thread because of breakage.

I finally finished it before my son graduated from high school. To top that off, when I finished, I washed it to get the adhesive out and the thing started bearding. Fusible batting is typically used for making a quilted purse or bags where you want the item to have rather hard surface with some cushions, and it has its own place in batting and interfaces in sewing world.

It depends on the fusible batting you use, but typically it is not recommended to use any steam as usually the instruction says so and this is same for making clothes when you need to use some fusible interfaces for neck line etc.

When you are ironing, you should not be moving your iron like regular iron like gliding the fabric but you just need to leave the iron on for 20 sec. It is a lot of work normally, so this is not usually recommended for such huge areas like bed sized quilts, etc. Very useful info. Do you have a recommendation on what kind of batting to use for tablecloths or placemats, since they have to be washed more frequently?

I once heard someone that said she used flannel as batting, but I thought flannel shrinked a lot. Thank you for your advise. Great question! And one more thing you may want to consider — I used a heavy-weight home dec fabric on the back of my placemats to give them a bit more heft and make them sturdier. I think that helped a lot. Most batting comes preshrunk, but yes, inevitably both the prewashed batting and prewashed fabric will still shrink a small amount on the second wash anyway.

Prewashing your fabric will lessen the crinkle, however. Hi Suzy; Have you ever used flannel for the batting on a quilt. It looked like it might be easy to sandwich it all together without pins or glue thus the main reason for considering it. I think flannel for batting is a wonderful idea, however I have never personally done it. I still recommend basting as usual. Good post altho, none of this information is new.

Pro Tip: Some battings specify an optimal quilting distance between rows of stitches. Take a look at your quilting pattern and use this info to your advantage. There are two types of bonding: thermal and resin. Thermal bonding is made by adding a fine layer of low-melt polyester scrim, then applying heat. The low melt polyester melts and forms a light barrier on either side of the batting. Resin bonding is made by adding a glue-like substance to both sides of the batting that helps hold all the fibers together.

Bearding refers to wispy fibers that eventually seep out of the quilt top, and is something to avoid. This shedding is very annoying, and a good reason to go with a high-quality quilt batting from the start.

However, it withstands washing better than a resin bonded batting. Batting comes in natural, bleached and black. Typically, you should use bleached batting in very light quilts, natural batting in quilts with predominantly cream or medium value colors, and black batting in predominantly dark quilts. This will keep any bearding camouflaged. Click here to cancel reply. Your advice is exclusively for machine quilting. Some attention to what works for hand-quilting would be good. Ever been overwhelmed by the variety of batting or wadding options available or which batting is the right choice for your quilt?

This post will discuss the choosing batting for a quilt, including the different kinds of batting options. This post is part of the original Beginning Quilt Series or How to Make a Quilt from Start to Finish , but options have changed a little since that time and I wanted to update the post.

As always — feel free to weigh-in and share your thoughts in the comments. Basically the definition of a quilt is a blanket made of a top front and back with a layer of batting sandwiched in between and held together by some kind of stitching through all three layers.

Today we are going to discuss choosing the right quilt batting and backs. There is a wide variety of quilt battings available on the market. The two most relevant factors in choosing a batting for a quilt are Loft and Fiber. This means how thick or thin your batting is.

Low Loft batting makes a thinner quilt obviously but it is less bulky and works much easier for a running stitch whether done by hand or home machine — particularly if you are quilting it yourself. High Loft batts are best for a thicker, comforter-type finish where the quilt is going to be tied typically by hand or if you really want to show off the quilting. This defines what the batting is made of.

Wool, Bamboo and Silk have become more available in recent years. These other natural batting options have wonderful qualities, but are usually more expensive. Polyester — Pros: Less expensive, lightweight but very durable. The Higher Loft versions are good for those who want their quilting to really stand out. The Highest Loft polyester batting is good for a thicker quilt — probably easiest to tie. Polyester batting options are often warmer — providing insulation without a lot of extra weight.

Cotton — Feels like a thick flannel. Light and breathable natural fiber. Heaviest weight batting. Better option for machine quilting. Generally must be quilted closely. Washes better without pilling. This can be good or bad, depending on your personal preference. I personally like when the batting shrinks after the first wash because it softens the quilt and gives it a softer, more vintage appearance. Generally softens over time and ages well. Good for machine quilting.

This is what I use most often. Resists folding and creasing and has great stitch-definition for showing off fancy machine quilting. Wool batting is warmer and at the same time lighter-weight. Bamboo — eco-friendly, natural fiber. Typically blended with Cotton which makes it great for breath-ability.

This Maple Leaf quilt was made with Bamboo Blend batting and the texture of the quilting as well as the drape of the quilt are amazing, even for a quilt that is densely-machine-quilted. Fusible Batting is made with a fusible resin on both sides of the batting. This is a temporary fusing and typically works best on smaller scale projects. You can find Fusible Batting here. Not all brands are created equal, so making sure that you get a good brand will be something to keep in mind.

If you have a special quilt that you want to invest in, I think batting is an important thing to consider. I mostly recommend this for custom quilting because it really makes the quilting POP! This is a great choice if you plan to display or enter a quilt into a show. I have tested it in many of my personal quilts and it washes and wears well. If you want to spend a few extra dollars for a special quilt that needs to be extra cozy, I recommend a bamboo or a bamboo blend.

I actually put this in most of my quilts. You want a quilt to be a family favorite? Add this batting! It also gives the perfect crinkle.

Thanks Melissa! Batting is also available to purchase in bulk by the entire bolt — which is a great option if you use a lot of batting. Batting goes on sale often at the big box stores. Lots of Quilt Batting options are available by the roll or off the bolt or pre-packaged individual sizes.

Connecting Threads has a huge variety of batting choices and frequent sales. Wool batting is a natural and lofty option. It holds its shape and it springs back.

It's excellent for hand and machine quilting, and can also be tied. It has the benefits of cotton, but with more loft. Bamboo batting is very breathable and ideal for machine quilting. Bamboo is processed into luxurious fiber using pollution-free methods with little waste. Bonded batting has a light adhesive on both sides to hold fibers together. This helps so the batting won't shift or beard. Bearding is when batting fibers push through the fabric. Fusible batting contains a fusible web so you can baste layers together.

When using fusible batting layer quilt backing, batting and quilt top together. Use the wool setting on your iron, press from the center out pressing each area seconds.