Recently at a speaking engagement, I was asked what quilt batting I used.  My favorites are Thermore for hand quilting and Quilters’ Dream Request Cotton or Wool for machine quilting.  The person followed up with do use always use a thin batt.  My answer was it was my preference.  The better answer came to me about a week to late...
Thin batting is my preference because thin batting make my stitches look better.  The improved stitch quality was something that I noticed on my own years ago.  Stitch quality is something that as a Certified Quilt Judge that I look for in others quilts.  While there are many characteristics to stitch quality, one of the most common is consistent stitch length.  Whether you are machine quilting or hand quality, having a consistent stitch length adds to the visual appeal.  I have found having a thick batt makes it more difficult to keep a consistent small stitch.  Another feature of stitch quality is having the stitches align. While those babbles that happen are typically from moving your hands while machine quilting, or using a bent needle while hand quilting, having a thick batting also makes keeping the stitches aligned more difficult (in my experience).    

I am looking for a quilt batt that helps my stitches look their best as opposed to a fluffy quilt to snuggle under.  This is my preference, and my experience.  If you are looking to improve your stitch quality, you may want to try a thinner batt. 

A few years ago, friends and I were talking about splice quilts.  A splice quilt is where you take a photograph of something, divide it into sections and different people re-create the different sections in their own fabrics using their own techniques.  When all the different sections are completed, they are joined together to re-create the original photograph in quilt form. We thought the idea was interesting but no one had not participated in making one.  We decided that we like to give it a try.  It has taken us a while to find the right copyright free image, that we all liked and agreed on.  We decided on a picture of a sea turtle.  Each of us will complete 2 sections.  Here is my first section.  It is not 100% accurate, but I think it is a good likeness.  I started out by dyeing 2 shades of "terra cotta".  My lighter shade turned out a bit too little, so I ended up going in with Inktense pencils to darken the edges.  I also used some white and yellow tsukineko inks to lighten/hightlight in the darker color.  I hand appliquéd each section of the shell to white background fabric.  The blue water is also a hand-dyed fabric hand appliquéd down.  Now, onto the next section... I think I'm going to paint that one.