Hi bkay, I'm not sure I understand the question about the stiffness.....are you using warm and natural cotton batting, or the polyester, wool or other?

I personally like the W&N cotton, but it does goes flat after some use and washing. I only have one quilt with the polyester batting and it's stiff, but then it hasn't been used as much as the other ones, so I don't know if it's the batting or not, perhaps it is now that you mention it???

The package says Warm and Natural Needled Cotton batting.

A dear friend gave me her ribbon winning, best of show quilt and it is soft and "poufy". I would guess it is polyester batting. I like the soft feel of it, but not the "poufy". Mine are stiff. I have not washed them, as I don't like the crinkly look. On the last quilt I made, I wet the batting in hot water and dried it, so I wouldn't get the shrinkage. That quilt is as stiff as the rest of them.

I know I've got lots of "wants" here and there may be no batting that will meet my wants, but trial and error is the hard way to learn.

bkay

Could it be the basting spray?

bkay

I am by no means an expert but I have been using Hobbs 80-20 lately. I order from Connecting Threads when on sale. I also use basting spray but always wash the finished quilt to remove that spray with its chemicals. Now, I would like a finished quilt to be smooth and flat so it looks like 'new' and almost always, the fabrics have been prewashed and dried to reduce shrinkage. I think most of us do that. But lately I have been doing what you did with the batting... wetting and drying to reduce that shrinkage. What I find is that the batting becomes soft and easy to work with and the finished quilt is not stiff and since everything has been preshrunk, lies pretty flat.

seems to me I read that heavy quilting will mean a stiffer quilt. I haven't dealt with that.

Everyone has their own way of working with batting and this works for me.

Theresa

Denser quilting will make a stiffer quilt, but I'm guessing most of the stiffness is from the basting spray and whatever they treat the batting with. I think the only way to get rid of that stiffness is with washing.

Donna

I agree with Donna. One of these days try wool. It's an amazing batting and washes. I love the loft and ease of quilting.

You could make a bunch of small sample quilts each with the different techniques. Label each. You can judge each to see which one you like the most.

Bkay,

i think you answered it yourself. Basting spray is meant to be washed away. It is just glue with additives to help spray a thin layer. If you don’t want to wash your quilts you should use pins or a basting stitch.

Most of my quilts are warm & natural cotton. They feel soft and cozy and I’ve washed them many times. I recently tried wool - Quilters Dream washable. Expensive but awesome. It puffs up a bit showing off all the quilting detail. I will still use cotton for quilts that get used and washed a lot but for that special quilt with special fabric and detailed quilting, it will be wool!

vasu

Vasu, I don't think that's all of it. The quilts I"ve sent out to the long armer were not spray basted and they seem as stiff as the ones I spray basted.

Good idea to buy some sample batting and try it. That way I can see how each behaves.

Thanks.

bkay

I use Warm & White 100% cotton for just about everything I do. It is just like Warm & Natural, but it is white needled cotton and I buy it 90" on a large roll from Joann's with a 50% off coupon usually ;-P I don't use spray baste because I don't like the idea breathing that in, so I use water soluble thread to baste. I always wash when finished and the thread baste washes away. Sometimes I air dray, but usually tumble dry until just damp. I don't feel like my quilts are stiff, but I have used Hobbs 80/20 also and I just checked, those quilts are a little bit softer than the Warm & White.