Hi Bestie! Of all the batting questions we get, "which one do I use?" is the one that never stops. So here is the person who answers it better than anyone: Stephanie Hackney, Director of Sales and Marketing at Hobbs Bonded Fibers. In twelve minutes she walks through the five questions Hobbs asks at every booth, lecture and phone call to get a quilter from "I have no idea" to two or three right choices. I've pulled the answers out below so you can skim them, and linked every batting she holds up.
Key Takeaways
- Hobbs narrows nearly 20 battings to two or three by asking five questions: What are you making? How will it be used? Who is it for? What finish do you want? How will it be cared for?
- Show quilt: double bat with Tuscany Wool on top and Tuscany Cotton Wool (80/20) underneath. Wool has no crease memory, so a quilt folded for months of judging hangs flat; the cotton-wool layer adds heft, drape and back-side definition.
- Everyday, charity or gift quilts: Heirloom 80/20. Natural for most fabrics, Bleached for whites and pastels, Black for dark fabrics (no lint), Fusible if you'd rather skip pin or spray basting.
- T-shirt and memory quilts: Thermore. Thin, light, zero shrink so pre-shrunk shirts stay flat, and it can be quilted up to 10" apart so you don't have to stitch through the designs.
- Heavy stitching or a bed quilt that must drape: Tuscany Silk stays soft under dense cotton or cotton-poly thread. Whole cloth or modern quilts with open space: Heirloom 100% Cotton with scrim, doubled, quilts 8–10" apart.
- Hand quilting: 100% wool and silk first, then Poly-Down and Thermore. Choose by the finish you want: silk or Thermore for art quilts, wool for loft and puff.
In This Video
- 0:00 — Introduction to batting
- 0:33 — Selecting show quilt batting
- 2:47 — Utility and everyday quilts
- 5:17 — Batting for memory quilts
- 6:25 — Finishing and texture goals
- 9:22 — Choosing for quilting style
- 10:22 — Summary and resources
Question 1: What Are You Making?
The project type alone usually gets you to two or three battings. Stephanie's example is a show quilt, and the Hobbs answer is specific: double bat it. Tuscany Wool goes on top, directly under your quilt top, and Tuscany Cotton Wool (80% cotton, 20% wool) goes underneath, against the backing.
Why wool on top? Wool has no memory for creases. A show quilt gets folded, stacked under other quilts and left that way for a month or two of judging. With wool under the top, the creases loft out within minutes of hanging. Why the second layer? Wool alone is very light. It hangs well but doesn't have the heft and drape you see in winning quilts. The cotton-wool layer adds weight and, because it has some wool in it, gives the back of the quilt loft and stitch definition too. Judges look at the back.
Question 2: How Will It Be Used?
A quilt that lives on the couch with the kids and the dog has completely different demands than a show quilt. For everyday quilts, charity quilts and anything you're giving away without knowing how it'll be washed, Hobbs recommends the Heirloom 80/20 line, and the line has four versions worth knowing apart:
- Heirloom 80/20 (natural): the all-around default.
- Bleached 80/20: for white, pastel and sheer fabrics, including dress shirts in a memory quilt. Keeps colors bright with no shadowing.
- Black 80/20: for black, navy, dark brown, dark green and purple fabrics. Its real benefit is no lint: you finish quilting without reaching for the lint brush.
- Fusible 80/20: double-sided fusible that replaces pin or spray basting. The fusing medium washes out on the first wash, leaving ordinary 80/20. Two rules: don't get it wet while basting, and don't toss it in the dryer with a spray mist to relax wrinkles.
Question 3: Who Is It For?
Stephanie's example is a longarmer making a T-shirt quilt for a college student. The Hobbs pick is Thermore, a very thin, very light 100% polyester. T-shirt and memory quilts get heavy fast: the shirts are heavy, the stabilizer adds more, the thread adds more. Thermore adds almost nothing. It doesn't shrink at all, so shirts that are already shrunk stay flat instead of puckering. And it can be quilted up to 10 inches apart, which means you can quilt around the T-shirt designs instead of through them.
For charity quilts the answer loops back to Heirloom 80/20, because you can't control who gets it, how it's washed, or what it goes through.
Question 4: What Finish Do You Want?
Think about how the surface should look before you pick a fiber. Stephanie's booth banner is quilted with 80/20 because it needed to be flat, light and foldable; the emphasis is on the lettering, not the texture.
If you plan to stitch heavily, especially on a bed quilt that still has to drape, she points to Tuscany Silk. It takes a huge amount of cotton or cotton-poly thread without going stiff.
For a whole cloth quilt, where there's no piecing and the stitching and loft are the whole show, she recommends Heirloom 100% Cotton with scrim, doubled. The scrim is a thin polyester stabilizing layer needle-punched into the cotton. It stops the cotton from distorting or pulling apart when handled, and it's why this batting can be quilted 8 to 10 inches apart instead of the usual 4. That open-space allowance also makes it a strong choice for modern quilts with large negative space.
Question 5: How Will You Quilt It, and How Will It Be Cared For?
Longarm, domestic machine or hand? For hand quilting, Hobbs' two best products are 100% wool and silk. After those, Poly-Down and Thermore also needle beautifully. Pick among them by the finish: silk or Thermore for an art quilt, wool when you want real loft and puff in the design.
Care is the tiebreaker. If the recipient isn't a quilter, or it's a charity quilt, Stephanie's answer is always 80/20 because it survives any washer and dryer. If you're making a quilt for another quilter, silk or wool is a gift they'll appreciate; just tell them what's inside and how to care for it.
Products Featured in This Video
- Hobbs Batting Sample Pack — swatches of the whole line, the fastest way to feel the differences Stephanie describes
- Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Batting Package — the everyday, charity and gift default
- Hobbs Heirloom Bleached 80/20 Batting Package — for white, pastel and sheer fabrics
- Hobbs Heirloom Black 80/20 Batting Package — for dark fabrics, no lint
- Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Fusible Batting Package — skip pin and spray basting
- Hobbs Tuscany Wool Batting Package (King) — the top layer for show quilts; no crease memory
- Tuscany 100% Washable Wool, Queen — same wool in queen size
- Tuscany Cotton Wool 80/20, Queen — the bottom layer of the show-quilt double bat
- Hobbs Tuscany Cotton Wool 96" Roll — cotton wool by the roll for longarmers
- Hobbs Thermore Polyester Batting Package — T-shirt and memory quilts; quilt up to 10" apart
- Hobbs Heirloom 100% Cotton with Scrim Batting Package — whole cloth and modern quilts; double it for loft
- Hobbs Polydown Batting Package — a hand-quilting friendly polyester
- All Batting at Linda's — nearly 500 battings including Tuscany Silk when in stock
Keep Learning
- The Quilt Batting Buyer's Guide: How to Choose From Nearly 500 Battings at Linda's
- The 80/20 Batting Showdown: Hobbs, Quilters Dream, Pellon, Bliss, and Linda's Deluxe Compared
- 100% Cotton Batting Compared
- Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Batting Package Guide
- Selecting Batting for Quilting
- So You Want to Make a T-Shirt Quilt
If you're still torn after the five questions, the Hobbs Batting Sample Pack settles it faster than any article: you can feel the loft and drape of each one in your hands. And we're always a phone call away.
Happy Quilting! From Corey.
Frequently Asked Questions
What batting should I use for a show quilt?
Hobbs recommends double batting: Tuscany Wool on top, directly under the quilt top, and Tuscany Cotton Wool (80/20) underneath against the backing. Wool has no crease memory, so a quilt folded for weeks of judging hangs flat within minutes, and the cotton-wool layer adds the heft and drape that wool alone lacks while giving stitch definition on the back.
What is the best all-purpose batting for everyday and charity quilts?
Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 (80% cotton, 20% polyester). It holds up to repeated washing and rough use, which matters when you can't control how the quilt will be cared for. Use the Bleached version under white or pastel fabrics, the Black version under dark fabrics to avoid lint and shadowing, and the Fusible version if you want to skip pin or spray basting.
What batting is best for a T-shirt quilt or memory quilt?
Hobbs Thermore, a very thin, lightweight 100% polyester. T-shirt quilts get heavy, and Thermore adds almost no weight or bulk. It does not shrink, so pre-shrunk shirts stay flat, and it can be quilted up to 10 inches apart, which lets you quilt around the shirt designs instead of through them. See So You Want to Make a T-Shirt Quilt for the rest of the process.
What does scrim in batting do, and why does it let you quilt farther apart?
Scrim is a very thin polyester stabilizing layer needle-punched into cotton batting. It keeps the cotton from stretching, distorting or pulling apart when handled, which is why Hobbs Heirloom 100% Cotton with scrim can be quilted 8 to 10 inches apart while most battings need stitching every 4 inches. That makes it a strong choice for whole cloth quilts and modern quilts with large open areas, and doubling it gives whole cloth work extra loft.
Which Hobbs batting is best for hand quilting?
Hobbs' top two for hand quilting are 100% wool (Tuscany Wool) and Tuscany Silk, because the needle glides through them. Poly-Down and Thermore also hand quilt well. Choose by the look you want: silk or Thermore for a flat art quilt, wool when you want loft and puff in the quilting design.
Read the full transcript
[0:01] hi there my name is Stephanie Hackney and I'm the director of sales and marketing for Hobbs Bonded Fibers most of you probably know us as Hobbs batting and if you've ever been to our website or visited with us at a show you realize that we have a lot of different products uh and sometimes it can be a little bit challenging to decide which one is the best one for me to use on my quilt so let me walk you through the process that we go through when people come to the booth and talk with us or they're at one of our lectures or they call or email us and we're trying to help help them pick the best batting for the results they're trying to achieve so the first question we'll ask you is what type of a quilt or quilted project are you making right what type of project really can help you narrow down to two or three batting very quickly so for instance let's say that you were going to be making a show quilt what we would recommend to start with is that we would want you to use the wool right Tuscany wool use this on the top of your show quilt and what we mean by that is generally we're going to recommend that you double bat a show quilt and I'll tell you why uh but we want to start with the wool and the reason being is that the wool will not only emphasize your piecing and your stitching but the wool does not have a memory for creases so that means that when you send your quilt in and it gets folded up with all the other quilts and there's a lot of weight on it and it may
[1:19] sit like that for a month or two months or or more while it's being judged and before it's hung up it's going to start to get some creases from the weight on it so having a wool on the top can really help the quilt to finish nicely once you hang it up few minutes the wrinkles Loft out the crease is Loft out and it'll look very nice now why do we recommend double batting the double batting is because the wool is very lightweight so if you're going to be just using wool the quilt will be lightweight it'll hang nicely but it's not going to have that same beautiful drape that you see in most of the winning show quilts so what they're doing is they're putting a second bat on the back right they're making a sandwich of bats and this is what we recommend for the back which is cotton wool this is 80% cotton and 20% wool if you pair these two which basically is going to look like this you're going to put the cotton wool you're going to put your backing then your cotton wool then your wool and then your top on and that's going to be your sandwich the middle of your sandwich your batting layer will have two layers and what that's going to do is it's going to give you a really nice heft to the quilt you're going to have a beautiful creaseless finish on the front and then your piecing and your stitching is also going to show on the back and because this back layer has some wool to
[2:36] it it will give a nice Loft and definition to the back of your quilt as well and for those of you who've submitted show quilts you know that the judges are looking at the back as well so that's a good choice for that so the second question we ask is how is it going to be used how is the quilt going to be used is it an everyday quilt is it a quilt that's going to be thrown on the couch and the kids and the dog and everybody are going to be on it and using it all the time then you want what we consider a utility quilt right and a utility quilt is going to have a very different set of Demands than a show quilt and for an everyday quilt or for charity quilting or for quilts that you're going to be giving away and you really don't know how they're going to be used or cared for we would recommend our 80/20 products so the 80/20 is the heirloom 80/20 which most of you are familiar with and then that also comes in a bleached version and it comes in a Black Version okay when would you use the bleach in the black the black is ideal for black Fabrics or any very dark Fabrics dark blue dark brown dark green purple navy blue uh and the best benefit of this is that it doesn't leave any lint right so at the end of your quilting instead of having to get a lint brush out uh and get all the lint off of your quilt
[3:53] you're ready to go now when would you use the white batting the white batting is really best if you're using white Fabrics or very light Fabrics so if you're using pastel color Fabrics white Fabrics or let's say that you're making a memory quilt uh that you're going to be uh using some maybe men's shirts right and maybe they're not t-shirts maybe they're dress shirts and they're very sheer this would be a good choice for that as well it will keep your colors nice and bright so again we've got these three versions uh we also have a version that is called a double-sided fusible so the 80/20 comes in this double-sided fusible and that might be a really good choice too espe especially for a beginning quilter who may not be so comfortable with either spray basting or pin basting the fusible basically takes the place of either of those uh and that fusible medium is washable so as soon as you wash the quilt that batting is going to feel just like this 80/20 batting right but it's going to save you time you don't have the the overspray from the uh spray fusing we've already put that into the product and again as soon as you wash your quilt that fusing medium washes out it is important that you don't get that wet um while you're doing your uh basting and it's also important that you make sure that uh if you're going to toss any of your batting into a dryer with a little
[5:10] bit of uh spray mist uh to knock the wrinkles out of it we do not recommend you do that with the fusible batting third question who is the quilt for so let's say that you run a long arm shop or you've decided that you want to make a gift for maybe a college student and you're going to do a t-shirt quilt uh how we would normally recommend uh you proceed with that is to use a product like thermore thermore is 100% polyester product it doesn't shrink at all and it's very lightweight so why is that important well first of all it's very thin right very very thin and very light weight t-shirt quilts and memory quilts tend to get very heavy especially if you're using T-shirts because those are already heavy on them by themselves and then you're going to be adding thread to them which will add additional weight so the reason that you're going to want to use the Thermore is because it's very lightweight it's thin won't add any bulk uh but probably the biggest benefits are number one it won't shrink so your t-shirts are already shrunk you don't want them to wrinkle up you want them to remain nice and flat this is a good choice for that and then the biggest benefit is that this product you can actually Stitch 10 in apart so if you're thinking about a design on a T-shirt and you don't want to have to go through the T-shirt design this would be a really good choice Okay so we've talked about
[6:27] what are you making how's the quilt going to be used who's it for right so also who's it for if you're doing charity quilts then we recommend that you use the 80/20 line right because you're not going to be able to control who gets the quilt or how it's washed how it's cared for or what kind of use it's going to use and abuse it's going to take um and so the 80/20 would be a really good choice on that another thing to think about is the finish of your quilt right how do you want the Finish to look so let's take our Banner here for an example you'll notice this is fairly flat right it's got some pebbling in here but it is relatively flat because we really wanted the emphasis to be on the name and the product category names uh we wanted this to be a relatively flat product this is made with our 80/20 batting which is very very thin and very flat but it's also very lightweight this is a banner that we we fold up or roll up and take with us from show to show and it needed to not add any extra weight because all the quilts that we carry tend to add up very quickly and we have very heavy bags uh so really think about the finish of your quilt if you're going to heavily heavily Stitch your quilt then we would recommend our silk right this this silk can take a ton of cotton thread or cotton poly thread uh and it will not get stiff so if you really want to make
[7:45] a beautiful bed quilt you want to heavily Stitch the edges of that you want it to drape nicely over the bed this would be a good choice think about uh if you're going to make a whole cloth quilt right if you're um going to be doing a whole cloth quilt you don't have piecing for people to look at what you have is your stitching and the texture and the Loft that you're getting out of that stitching what happens to the fabric as a result so you need to use a batting that is really going to provide a good look for that one of those is one here called heirloom natural with scrim okay and a scrim layer all that is is it's a stabilizing layer it is a very thin polyester layer that is needle punched into the cotton the biggest benefits of this is if if you take two layers of this you can get a beautiful Loft to to a whole cloth quilt and you're going to double this up and just like you did with a cotton wool mixture that we talked about earlier in the show quilts you would just make two layers of this uh and that's going to give you a really really nice finish the biggest benefit of this is that you're getting to use 100% cotton but without some of the downsides of cotton cotton comes apart very easily if you really tug and pull on it can get distorted easily the scrim layer prevents that and also allows you to go 8 to 10 inches apart on
[9:02] your stitches now that can be a really huge thing on a whole cloth quilt right let's say that you have a lot of stitching in the center and then you have a lot of open space uh generally with all of our batting you're going to need to stitch every 4 in so with this batting you can go 8 to 10 in which means you can leave some open space this might also be good for something like a modern quilt Okay so we've talked about what are you making how's it going to be used who's it for what kind of finish or Texture you want on it let's also talk about how you're going to be doing the quilting are you going to be using a long arm machine a domestic machine or are you going to hand quilt so the first thing we're going to talk about is hand quilting if you're going to hand quilt the products we recommend that you use are the 100% wool and the silk those are the two best products that we make for hand quilting after that you could also go into our poly products and that would be our Poly-Down or the thermore the thermore being this product here right all three of these could be used very well for hand quilting the biggest difference is going to be in the Finish or what type of quilt you're making if you're making an art quilt you'd be better off to go with the silk or the thermore if you're going to be making a show quilt that you want some real Loft and puff to your
[10:19] design then we would recommend the wool so we've talked about the five different ways that we determine how you're going to be uh selecting a batting the first one being what are you making the second being how's it going to be used the third is who's it for the fourth is what is the finish that you want and then the final one is the care right so if you're thinking about uh a quilt that you're going to make for someone who's not a quilter or a charity quilt then we would always recommend the 80/20 product that's this one here we would always recommend this because it's a great all-around batting you don't have to worry so much about washing and drying and it'll hold up to a lot of use and abuse um if you're thinking about uh a quilt that's for another quilter um then you might want to use the silk or the wool I'm sure they would really appreciate that just make sure they know what kind of batting is in it and how it needs to be cared for and we've got some other videos that talk specifically about each of these products if you have any questions feel free to reach out to Linda's Electric Quilters or you can go to our website at hobbsbatting.com a lot of the information that we share when out lecturing visiting guilds or at trade shows is on our FAQs so if you just go to our website and in the search box put
[11:38] in F as in Frank, A as in Apple, Q as in Queen and you'll find all of the information that we share in our lectures we've also recorded a Facebook live with Linda's Electric Quilters and we hope you'll check that out uh it's about an hour and a half of very valuable information and again we welcome your questions and comments anytime thanks so much for joining us [Music]
