Batting

There is so much buzz about batting, environment and organics that you may wonder what is best for your quilt why what you have been buying does not seem good enough. There are many batting products available and include lightweight, heavyweight, puffy, thermal, green, bamboo, silk, wool, cotton, polyester blends and others. Each material has a specific purpose and it is important that you know what kind of quilt the batting will be used for.


Hand quilting is best served by wool batting because of the lanolin (basically a soap) in the wool helps the needle slide more easily. Silk batting is also an alternative for hand quilters. You may wish to use synthetic batting for large quilt and ones that will be washed fairly regularly since the batting will be more lightweight and will not bunch. A wall hanging may use cotton batting but be careful when using natural cotton because of cotton seed oil present in the cotton.


Bamboo does not seem better than cotton and is not more environmental friendly. Because bamboo is a hard wood it requires a considerable amount of chemicals to break the wood into fibers which are short so require bonding with another material usually cotton because of its long fiber. Bamboo is not as easily renewable as wool which is sheared from sheep’s or cotton which is grown yearly.


Organics are difficult to control outside of industrialized countries which have very strict regulations for the label. In many other countries the word may not mean the same and may have as organic only the ink used to print it.


When you are looking for batting make sure to tell the story of your quilt so we, the employees of The Running Stitch, can help you choose the most suitable batting for your project.


This article is a synopsis of a piece in FabShop News.