A quilt may have a beautiful top and lovely background fabric, but if it doesn’t keep you warm what is the point? The stuff in the middle matters! The fluffy stuff in the middle of the quilt is called batting.
Batting gives your quilt insulation power. Batting holds your body heat underneath the quilt to keep you warm. Missouri Star has many choices for quilters so that they can select exactly the type and size of batting that they prefer for their projects. Some quilters like Mountain Mist batting which is an 80/20 cotton & polyester blend with a medium ⅜” loft. Missouri Star Quilter’s Best Blend batting is also a midweight 80/20 cotton & polyester blend. Another blended option is Warm 80/20 Batting. Bosal Katahdin batting and Warm & Natural are both brands of mid-weight, warm and natural cotton batting. Quilter’s Dream offers wool batting, 100% cotton batting, and polyester batting. Missouri Star also sells Quilters Dream Fusible batting.
Other types of batting have been developed to insulate and support things beyond quilts. Precut batting and Quilt-As-You-Go pre-printed batting can be used to make fabric bowls, oven mitts, sewing machine covers, table runners, and entire quilts. Quiltsmart fusible interfacing comes printed with grids. They have several jacket patterns that are pretty nifty! Bosal In-R-Form is not precut, but it is a fusible, foam batting used to make bags and other things that need sturdy but soft support.
Just like batting is part of the mechanics of the quilt–it’s what makes the quilt work. Sometimes quilters need special materials to help with the engineering of the quilt top or assembling the layers–they need an adhesive, an interfacing fabric, or a stabilizer.
If you like to appliqué designs on the tops of your quilt, you may need help adhering the appliqué to the quilt block before you stitch it down. A product like Heat N Bond Lite or Wonder Fuse can do that for you. If you appliqué or embroider, you might want to become familiar with the many products of the Therm O Web company. They manufacture Heat N Bond Fusible Interfacing, Heat N Bond Iron-On Adhesive, and Stitch N Sew Stabilizer for embroidery.
People who embroider usually use a fabric stabilizer on the wrong side of the fabric. Some folks like to use fabric stabilizer spray or an iron on fabric stabilizer. Other folks use fabric interfacing on the wrong side of the area they plan to embroider.
Maybe you need pillow forms. Or you want some Quilters Select Free Fuse powder–the magic that holds the layers of your quilt together while you quilt it. Maybe you are looking for interfacing for a tote bag or Christmas ornaments or drink coasters. Look to Missouri Star. We have all kinds of products to help put the right stuff into your quilt projects.
