Choose your Batting
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 = thin and High Loft = thick.
Low Loft batting makes a thinner quilt which will drape around your bed and is considered “summer weight”. Low loft is good for lap quilts, throws, baby quilts, car quilts and picnic blankets.
High Loft battings are best for a thicker, winter weight bed quilts and for people who like heavier weight quilts. Inexpensive batting, even those labeled high loft, will eventually crush down and lose their loft. Wool and good quality Polyester blends will maintain their loft over time.
FIBER
The three most common types of quilt batting are Polyester, 100% Cotton, and Cotton/Poly Blend and each has its own pros and cons. 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 Low Loft options don’t need to be quilted as closely together. The Higher Loft versions are good for those who want their quilting to really stand out. Polyester batting options are often warmer – providing insulation without a lot of extra weight. Cons: Tends to shift when not densely quilted and ‘beard’, which means the polyester fibers migrate through the fabric to the outside of the quilt. This means that if your quilt is dark colors, tiny bits of white batting will beard to the surface.
Cotton –Pros: Cotton feels like a thick flannel. It is a breathable natural fiber. It is the heaviest weight batting and the best option for machine quilting. It washes better without pilling. Generally, cotton softens over time and ages well. Cons: Most cotton requires quilting of 8-10 inches or less. Some cotton bating shrinks and creates a crinkled look.
Cotton blend - (usually 80% cotton/20% polyester). Very similar to the cotton option, but is less-expensive and doesn’t shrink as much. Good for machine quilting. This is a very popular choice with our customers.
What is Scrim – Cotton and Cotton/Poly blend battings sometimes come with a feature called Scrim. This is a thin layer of stabilizer on one or both sides of the batting to prevent the fibers from separating or stretching. Scrim is often needle-punched onto the batting making it stronger and more stable. The benefit of this is that you can place your quilting stitches further apart—as much as 8-12″ apart, versus a maximum of only 3-4″ for batting without a scrim. Batting with a scrim is great for machine quilting, but it is too dense for hand-quilting.
Wool – 100% natural fiber, but it can shrink so if you buy it, make sure the label states if it’s been pre-shrunk. Wool resists folding and creasing and has great stitch-definition for showing off fancy machine quilting. It’s also beautiful for hand quilting. Wool batting is warmer and at the same time lighter-weight. Cons: higher price and the potential for allergic reaction for some people.
Bamboo – eco-friendly, natural fiber. (Typically blended with Cotton which makes it great for breath-ability.) Bamboo is a soft, warm alternative to animal derived batting.
Fusible Batting is made with a fusible resin on both sides of the batting. This is not recommended for our longarm machine.
Choice Quilting stocks batting by the roll, usually with 20-30 yards on a roll. Buying batting by the roll allows us to offer better prices than packaged batting sold by Walmart or Joann. We stock batting manufactured by Hobbs, The Warm Company, Pellon, MDG Co and others. Quilters Dream is available by special order in all colors, sizes and fiber. You should always buy the best batting you can afford. The anticipated use of the quilt will help determine which batting to use. Special quilts gifted for weddings, etc. will look beautiful and last longer with wool. Children’s quilts that will be laundered often will do well with polyester or 80/20 poly/cotton blend.