Batting and Joann's

I have progressed far enough in my "football quilt" to need batting now. However, my stash had been depleted to the point where I don't think I have enough of any one kind of batting to make a quilt this size. So, yesterday, I dragged my boys off into Joann's. (I now it's only Joann, but that's so silly. I like that 's' at the end better.) Now there was a shocker. By the time I got back to the batting section, I was rather upset. Our particular Joann's only carries polyester batting now! It's like walking into the fabric section at Wal-Mart to look at their batting. Not a pretty sight. They no longer carry the Heirloom batting and they definitely didn't have the thermal batting I wanted. I think it's called ThermaTex. Then there was their so-called 100% cotton batting that was 80/20. Let me know what that's good advertising! Sheesh! However, on my way out, I noticed that they now carry this eco-friendly batting made out of 50% bamboo and 50% organic cotton. Like I said, eco-friendly. Expensive stuff too. However, I had to see what it felt like. I mean, bamboo batting? How weird! Imagine my surprise when I reached into the bag and felt it and felt one of the softest battings I've felt in a long time. I mean, it was so soft that my only thought was, "It sure is a shame to have to put that inside of a quilt." Then my next wonderful surprise was that it didn't need close quilting. It could be quilted up to 8" apart. I like that kind of batting because there are just times where I don't want to hide my quilt's visual pattern in misc. quilting. Okay, and I'll admit that I actually don't like the final quilting stage. I like to get it done as fast as possible. So I'm a weird quilter, no big deal. I enjoy quilting for the color combinations, not the actual quilting part. *grin*

So, needless to say, I now have a bag of bamboo batting sitting in my living room. With a 3% shrinkage, it's perfect for my needs. Now, to only get the backing fabric prepped, pieced, and that first section quilted. You know what? There's no way this quilt is getting finished in time to be used for this year's football season. Oh, well. It turns out that my middle son just found out that he adores wrestling. Maybe I can fold up that quilt and use it for bleacher padding during wrestling season. *grin*