DreamWeaver's Quilts Quilt Epiphany Weblog

Students in my classes always ask what type of batting I use. I really love Hobbs Heirloom Wool batting. I used to be a Hobbs Polydown girl, because I like my quilts slightly puffy, and you can’t get that from cotton (unless you want to do trapunto, which is way too labor intensive for me most times!). However, poly batting can be slightly slippery (think of those old polyester shirts and pants, folks!), which can affect the quality of your machine quilting if the layers shift during quilting. Cotton batting tends to grip the fabric of the backing and the quilt top better to minimize that shifting.

Then along comes wool batting. I think wool is the best of both worlds. It’s not as slippery as poly, yet it has the same loft so I get that puffy look I like. I’ve had people assume that some of my quilts are trapuntoed, just because I’ve used wool batting, and quilted tiny stipples in the background. Check out Material Marquetry to see wool batting in action!