thrifty thursday or one way to piece batting

My sister is visiting this week and we have been cleaning and organizing. Today I tackled my mountain of batting scraps. I use my leftover batting for making coasters, quilted purses, and doll quilts, but I don't use it fast enough. I have several larger pieces set aside, but they aren't quite large enough for baby quilts. For my latest WIP, I pieced my batting for two reasons:

1. My favorite batting has increased to $10.99/yard. (ouch! even with a coupon.)
2. The storage space in my closet is nearly maxed out.

What I did:

First, I find two pieces of batting that are going to be large enough (once they are combined) for the quilt. I draw the line at one seam per quilt. :)

I look for the straight edge from the manufacturer and place the two straight edges together.

Using hand quilting thread (that matches your batting), make large whip stitches and join the batting. (I used contrasting thread here to show the detail.) It takes a bit to get the right tension to join the seam without buckling. You want the batting to be joined without any gaps, but you don't want to pull too tightly to cause a ridge where the seam is. Whip stitch the length of your seam, and knot at the end. That's it.

For this baby size (about 46" long) it only took me about 30 minutes, which I didn't think was bad at all. But of course, I don't mind hand stitching.

I have also heard that you can use your sewing machine set on a zig zag stitch to join the batting, but I have never tried it, as my JUKI doesn't have a zig zag stitch function.

Have you pieced batting?