Pro tip: Batting

People frequently ask what batting I use in my quilts.  For my bigger quilts I use a good quality, LOW loft batting.  

Personally, I use Quilter’s Dream request batting, but there are other good brands out there. The important thing for batting is that it maintains a uniform and consistent thickness. 

Here are 2 rules of thumb: 

1. Always buy batting from your local quilt store. “Big Box” stores may have cheap batting, but you normally get what you pay for.

2. Just by looking at batting, you can get a good sense of whether it’s consistent.

I used to teach beginning quilting classes at my local quilt store, and could always tell when someone bought batting somewhere other than our store. I would see batting with chunks of fibers in one location, very thin areas, and once, a lady’s batting had a big hole in it. This is what you do NOT want.

Here are some other things you can consider when selecting your batting.

**Warmth** — Now, if cotton batting is not warm enough for you, you can always use a low-loft wool batting. With the summer we have been having this year though, I would say cotton is king.

**Small projects** — For smaller projects, like place mats, table runners, and wall hangings, I might use a mid-loft poly blend batting.  It gives the project a bit more substance. Again, it needs to be uniform throughout.  

I have used a mid-loft batting on larger quilts, but they get very heavy, and they are hard to control when hooping and loading into your embroidery machine. If you really want to use a mid-loft batting, then have a friend help you keep the quilt puffed up around the machine, or purchase a Weightless Quilter, which is the equivalent of have a few extra friends holding the corners of the quilt to help out. (You can find Weightless Quilters at your local quilt store, or on the DIME web site: shop.dzgns.com).