Quilt Batting comes in a vast variety cottons, polyesters, wools, blends, and more! Here at Heartbeat Quilting we have many styles of batting to fit your needs!
Drape refers to the stiffness or softness of your finished quilt. While thicker batting may contribute to your quilt’s weight or loft, it won’t necessarily make it stiffer. The more quilting stitches your quilt calls for, however, the stiffer it will be.
Loft is a reference to the thickness of quilt batting. Low-loft refers to a thinner batting, while high-loft is indicative of a thicker batting. With high-loft battings, quilting lines are more evident, giving the quilt a puffier look and feel. If you want to highlight your piecing skills, you might want to go with a low-loft batting for a flatter finish.
Low-loft batting is generally easier to handle and stitch. A medium-loft batting will add more texture (puffiness) and warmth to your quilt, but the higher loft will be harder to machine and hand quilt. High-loft batting gives you a puffy look and is often the batting of choice for tied quilts.
Scrim is actually a fine mesh that stabilizes the cotton to prevent stretching. Designed for quilters looking for more strength in their cotton batting, this unbleached, mid-loft batting is made with natural cotton but has a thin scrim (stabilizer) needle punched into the cotton. This scrim provides superior strength over cotton alone, and prevents the batting from stretching and distorting. Quilt up to 8” apart. 3-5” shrinkage.
Quilt with the Scrim side down. We think it also can help to avoid longarm needles from punching the batting through the backing. It’s quite invisible and easiest to locate by plucking the batting apart at a corner so you can see the scrim.
No stretching – cotton has movement – all fabric does. Movement tends to be more noticeable on larger projects and can result in folds or tucks in the batting – we love that the scrim keeps this concern to a minimum and this makes us love working with it more- Genius!
If you’re not sure which batting to use, ask us or download our Batting Comparison sheets!