All About Quilt Battings

The batting that you choose to put into your quilt can make a big difference in the final appearance of your quilt. Cotton battings, like this, will give you a really flat look. But they drape beautifully and they're really warm. But the quilting doesn't come out or show up that much. This is an example of a quilt that was made using cotton batting.

Polyester battings give you that poof, but they're a little stiff and they aren't as warm. A good compromise is a wool batting. It's got the poofiness of the polyesters and yet it's got the drape and the warmth of the cotton. And the quilting just looks beautiful when you use a wool batting. It lets the quilting motif stand out really nicely.

There are quilt battings that have more than one fiber in them. There's a blend of cotton polyester. It's 80 percent cotton, 20 percent polyester. And that's really popular with quilters right now. This quilt right here is an example of that.

It has that drape and the warmth of the cotton and yet that polyester, that 20 percent gives just enough of a poofiness to it that your quilting stands out a little bit. There are battings that are made fireproof, like this. And they're great for children's quilts and baby quilts. There's even some quilt battings that are made out of cornstarch. And they have kind of the look and feel of the 80 cotton, 20 percent batting.

You can also get some battings that are made from silk and exotic wools like alpaca or cashmere. There's also battings that have fusible on them and those fuse to the backing and the top of your quilt so that you don't have to spend as much time basting your quilt with pins and needle and thread. Some battings are white, they're bleached white like this. Other battings keep that natural look and they have all the fibers left in there. They even make black battings.

And that comes in handy if you have a quilt that has a lot of dark fabric in it or a black backing or whatever. Because batting tends to beard. And what that means is the little fibers start poking up through the top of the quilt. And if you have white batting in a dark quilt, the white fibers are gonna really show up. So the black batting is a good choice for that.

Some battings are scrimmed or needle punched, if you can see the little needle punches in this. And what that does, it holds the fibers of the batting together and it allows your quilting to be spaced out more. You could go, quilt ten inches apart with a scrimmed batting whereas with an unscrimmed batting, you have to probably quilt every two to four inches. So just experiment and research a little bit and see what kind of batting gives you the final result in your quilt that you prefer.