Batting 101

 Choosing batting may seem like an overwhelming task…but it can be easy if you know what to look for. Here are some things to consider:

Polyester vs. Cotton: When machine quilting, cotton batting or cotton-poly blend batting are best.  Stay away from polyester; 100% Polyester batting pulls apart and stretches easily, making it difficult to machine quilt. We always buy 80% cotton 20% polyester (80/20) batting. We’ve found that we like the price, and the 20% polyester makes the batting less stiff. We have also used 100% cotton batting, but it is a little pricier and is not worth the extra money.

 

 Loft: Stick to a low loft batting to make machine quilting easier. The batting we buy is a ¼” loft height…perfect for machine quilting.

 Price: Batting can be expensive but if you watch for it to go on sale, it is reasonable. We buy our batting at Joann's (surprise, surprise). For queen size 80/20 batting, the regular price is $30.  On sale for 50% off it costs only $15 (much better!).

 

 How much to buy: You want your batting to be  5" bigger on all four sides of your quilt top. We buy the queen size packages so we can fit 1-2 quilts (depending on the size) per package of batting.

 Piecing Batting: When we run out of batting, we like to piece our scraps together. We do this by butting up our two batting scraps and zigzagging down the seam. We use our walking foot to make feeding the batting easier.

 Hope this helped!!