Environmentally Friendly Quilt Batting

Are you looking for a greener quilt batting? I have found and tried four earth-friendly battings in my green quilting.

Hobbs “Heirloom” Organic Cotton Batting

This batting is very soft and lightweight, about 1/16 of an inch thick. It can be quilted up to 4” apart. I like this batting for a very lightweight quilt, but not for something meant to be heavy and warm. Hobbs appears to have stopped selling it in prepackaged sizes, but it is still available by the yard. One place to purchase it online is http://www.organiccottonplus.com.

Nature-Fil Bamboo Batting by Fairfield

I use the 50% Bamboo/50% Organic Cotton Batting regularly. This is one of my favorite of the green quilt battings. It has a soft, very silky feel and it is easy to work with for machine quilting. It is light to medium in weight, about 3/16 of an inch thick, and can be quilted up to 8” apart. You can buy prepackaged, craft, twin, or full/queen sizes. I have found it at my local Joann’s store as well as online at http://www.equilter.com/. You add to your greeniness when using this batting because Fairfield donates a portion of the proceeds from their bamboo battings to support environmental and ecological initiatives.Dream Green Batting from Quilters Dream Batting

New on the market, this batting is made from recycled plastic bottles. What a great way to reduce, reuse and recycle! This batting is soft to the touch and is a very pale green color (imagine a very light green colored plastic bottle). It can be quilted up to 12" apart and is light weight and thin. I'm currently working on a wall-hanging quilt which will us this batting and will be entered into a local green quilting contest. Here are a couple of interesting factoids: using the craft size Dream Green batting keeps 3.5 plastic bottles out of landfills. A queen size Dream Green batting keeps 20 plastic bottles out of landfills! I have been able to purchase this product at my local quilt shop.

EcoCraft Eco-Friendly Batting

This is my least favorite of the environmentally friendly battings I have tried. It is made with PLA (Polylactic Acid) fibers which are man-made fibers derived from corn. The batting is fairly thin, about 1/16th of an inch thick, and feels stiff to the touch and not very soft. It reminds me of polyester betting. It can be stitched up to 4” apart. If you are looking for something that performs like a polyester batting, then this would be a good choice for you. You can find it online at several stores, including http://www.equilter.com.

Return from Environmentally Friendly Quilt Batting to Quilting Greener