How to choose the right batting: part three. Thick battings.

Happy New Year to all of you there!
Some time has gone, since what I called “part two” of this long post of mine, focusing on quilting battings and their ideal applications… But, you know: Holidays – and even more making preparations for them – are amazingly engaging and… Weeks went by, without giving me the chance to dedicate it the time such an articulated subject deserves
However, could I ever open the New Year without keeping a promise made in the year just closed??!!???!! Certainly not! So, here we are with our third part, meant to make thick battings a clearer subject.


The battings you can find here at Casa Cenina are between 0.4 and 0.75 cm approx. thick, i.e. they feature the standard level thickness for quilting the quilts meant to be used in the most traditional way, let’s put it this way Of course, I’m talking of bed quilts: those we like lazing under in the cold Winter mornings, just like in these days of January! Ad in fact, these battings are available in the most different bed sizes, to cover single, double and even king size beds.
All these battings also share 100% suitability both for machine and hand quilting and can be basically divided according to the kind of material they’re made of: polyester, wool and cotton. The best known and most reliable brands in this industry are the American Hobbs Bonded Fibers and the German Freudenberg.

We know virtually everything about polyester: it’s a by-product of PET – yes, the polyethylene, used for mineral water bottles! – which very thin threads are spun from and then, in battings like the following ones: 45x60, 81x96 and H295 woven in a very small denier polyester and then resin bonded to resist bearding. This makes the above-mentioned battings highly resistant, even to stronger washing and spin-drying, so they are ideal for those quilts that require frequent washing at certain temperatures, such as, for example, baby or children quilts.

Even if they aren’t as thick (they range from 0.2 to 0.5 cm) these two battings from Freudenberg are also made of polyester: H630 and H640 and, in my opinion, they deserve a special, “honorable mention”, for they’re iron-on: you just have to iron them on the top of your quilt and sew and quilt them, with no basting at all!!! And this is truly amazing At least for me… Since, I confess, I hate basting… Even more when I’m working on large quilts!!! What’ more, thanks to this feature, they’re perfect for crafts such as cartonnage with fabrics – to fill the lids of our boxes, for example, or the several sides of the epoch-making Victorian sewing boxes, like this one here.

As for natural fibers, wool and cotton are definitely the two most widespread raw materials for patchwork battings, which are available, again, in several sizes, including the largest of over 3X3 meters, like this one made of wool and these are also made of wool, though smaller, but with the same specific characteristics: Wool 45 x 60, Wool 81x96.

The wool these battings are made of, in fact, is a super wash wool, which eliminates most or all of the shrinkage. It is then carded and resin bonded to help retard bearding. This special process makes the wool machine washable – quite an important plus! – while also providing it superb insulation, so that the fiber breathes allowing excess heat to dispense away from the body. Let me just suggest you not to spin dry it, since with wool it’s always better to avoid it and lay it out flat to dry

Spin-drying can, on the contrary, be safely used with our “beloved” cotton that, of course, can also be always machine washed, even at high temperatures, though we still have to bear in mind a certain, natural shrinkage (in any case not higher than 5%). In the instance of these battings: H275, Unbleached 45 x 60, Unbleached 81x96, the 100% cotton comes either from the USA or from Europe and it is carefully carded, and specially needle punched to prevent bunching and shifting.

Tuscany Bleached Cotton is made with fine 100% USA cotton. It's carded, and specially needle punched to prevent bunching/shifting and is completely washable. It will shrink 3-5% like all needle punched 100% cotton batting. It can be quilted up to 4" apart. Bleached cotton should be used with light or white fabrics to eliminate the shading of darker battings.

Tuscany Unbleached Cotton starts with fine 100% USA cotton is carded and specially needle punched to prevent bunching and shifting. It is completely washable and will shrink 3-5% like all cotton batting. It can be quilted up to 4" apart and should be used primarily with medium or dark colored fabrics.

And cotton is definitely the most versatile patting material and that means it is also the most suitable for any kind of heavy or light quilt But there’s anyway a “discriminant” that can help us selecting our batting and it’s all in the two words “bleached” and “unbleached”. The former ones means an optic-white batting, be used with light or white fabrics, in order to eliminate the shading of darker battings and not to see any “shade” underneath the top. Similarly, if our top is made with medium-dark to dark fabrics, the best choice will be an unbleached cotton batting, with its natural ecru color.

Hear from me soon and... Happy quilting!