What to pad a patchwork quilt with? Advice from crafters please!

[Cloudia]

I am making a patchwork quilt and am unsure what to use as the padding section.

Is it best to use cotton heavyweight batting (the sort that is woven, soft, feels like a blanket and is used as the middle section for curtains) or should I use the polyester type "puffy" wadding (the sort that comes on a roll, not the loose sort for stuffing toys)?

Any advice is welcome! I also don't have a quilting machine but my own machine will go through the three layers ok, except it might get a bit bulky when I'm trying to machine the middle of the quilt. Should I just hand-sew stabilising stitches here and there or not bother at all?

TIA

I don't know if its too late now, but I've just bought a 4M roll of 4oz wadding from a seller off ebay and its only 99p a meter.

the main difference between cotton and poly batting is that cotton shrinks when you wash it, which gives it more of a crumpled "quilted" look, the quilting lines/patterns show up more. with poly batting everything lies a bit flatter, but it has more of a squishy overall feel (the cotton battings can feel pretty thin and insubstantial if you're not used to having quilts).

for sleeping under i'd always go with cotton (or wool/silk if i'd won the lottery ) but that's cos i'm a natural fabrics freak. similarly i'd generally pay out for proper quilt batting cos you can predict how it will behave and if you've put a lot of time/money into the top it would be terrible to have it screw up first wash.

as for basting, you can do it by hand or use a billion bendy safety pins, OR you can use basting spray which is fantastic but not cheap. 505 is the best of the bunch when it comes to not causing long term damage to fabrics etc (but we're talking over generations here, not in 5/10 years).

oh but using a blanket for wadding is a really good substitute (ans what they used to do in the olden days) and has the benefit of keeping everything stable when you're sewing. do you have a walking foot for your machine? unless you're doing free motion quilting where you guide everything by hand then a walking foot helps keep all the layers together when you're quilting. either way make a practice sandwich first and have a play around before starting on the quilt iteslf.

Hi there glitterfairy. It is lovely that you have a quilt that reminds you of getting stronger and moving on.

Nbg thanks for the offer but I was so impatient to progress the quilt this morning, I went to John Lewis to get some!

puppydavies thanks for your advice. I went for the polyester wadding in the end - it's funny how "rough" it feels on its own and how soft and puffy it is encased in the quilt layers! I too am a natural fabrics fan and had my eye on the silk wadding on Cotton Patch, but like I say I was too eager to carry on so had to settle for the poly stuff as it's all JL have. (have found that if I don't complete a project it can get left unfinished for weeks and I hate going back to half-finished stuff!!)

So, today I got the lining fabric out, laid the wadding on top and then the quilt top. I pinned at 6" gaps with long quilting pins and then machined lines in between.

I have been really lucky because the layers haven't slipped at all - its all been very well behaved. I haven't bound it yet though. I wasn't sure if you bound the edges then sew through the layers or the other way round - but decided to sew it first to stabilise the layers (probably wrong but hey!!)

Have now got to tackle the edge binding, eek - then it's finished (wha-hey)!

With the edge binding - I am right that mitring is an actual binding/edging technique? From what I have seen you sew the strips to the wrong side, do the fancy thing with the triangle, flip over to the right side, tuck triangle in again, fold under raw edge and sew to front of quilt? Is that right?

Cloudia - sew the binding on to the top side and then fold over and do the handsewing of it cloised on the bottom side

thanks dizzyday. I have endless patience for handsewing felt, dolls and craft items etc but when it comes to large scale items (this quilt is 190 x 90cm) I'm afraid I take the machining easy option!!

I found a great video on YouTube that goes into lots of detail showing how to bind a quilt on the machine, with mitred edges, so shall give that a whirl tomorrow.

After that I am really keen to get started on the baby cot quilt that I got some lovely silk cotton fabric for this morning also make some more log cabin cushions for the day bed in the baby's room.

Can't wait to start maternity in January (all that time for crafting!)

Are you working on anything special at the moment?

cloudia - quilting first and then binding is always the safest way for exactly the reasons you said! Can you post a picture for us all?

Oh never use polyester padding.It's vile.
The cotton is expensive but worth it.
I also trawl 2nd hand shops for thinnish cotton blankets which do the job too.

Agree re quilting being healing.I started at a very difficult time in my romantic life and it helped sooooo much.