Lecture: Alicia Campbell, “Batting, Batting, & More Batting, Which One Should I Choose?”

Better known as The Batty Lady to anyone who’s frequented local quilt shows like Road to California probably at some point as encountered Alicia.  Alicia learned to hand quilt from her grandmother when she was in elementary school. She quilted until her second son was born and then took a hiatus while her three children were small. During that time the quilting industry evolved with machine quilting, rotary cutters and major improvements in quilt batting.

She has always been fascinated with what goes inside a quilt sandwich, so when she resumed quilting, she began to look at what currently was being used and all the changes that had been made. She started studying the different choices of batting and what gave quilts their different looks and also discovered that it was almost impossible to find those choices in one place. Local quilts stores sometimes have batting; most do not. Major stores have some choices but they don’t always have samples. Most quilters are tactile, so online stores might have more choices, but you’re not able to touch and feel the differences and quilt shows rarely had a booth with batting. So “The Batty Lady” was born.

She does hours of research about the current products and trends in batting, talks to the manufacturers, does test samples of the battings, and makes quilts using both hand and machine methods. She brings numerous types of batting to shows and quilt guilds in the California, Arizona and Nevada so that those in attendance can touch and feel the products. After listening to her “batting informational” quilters can make an educated choice for the quilt batting they need since quilt batting is a preference based on what type of quilting you plan to do and what your desired look is for the finished product.

Aicia will be bringing lots of samples (and some giveaways!) along with her to her presentation at our guild.