I once had a quilt long armed quilted and asked for a puffy quilting. When I got it back she had used 2 layers of batting to make it thicker. The darn thing was so heavy that you couldn't lift it or sleep beneath it at all. Have yet to figure out why she did it. Ruined a great quilt top!!

I like puffy quilts also. I found the highest loft poly batting does the job for me.
The only way you can do this is make a practice piece or two. If you do use 2 layers of high-loft polyester batting ask a longarm quilter if they can deal with it or not. I think they can do it ok.

For me being a novice quilter, I can't make a puffy quilt. That is more like a comforter which is polyfill. My quilts are more suited to be bedspreads, or even a blanket.

An adorable video, the size of those shears!!!!

Thanks for all of your ideas! It is not the little puffy squares quilt that he wants. He is saying puffy as opposed to a quilt made with a cotton batting that is flat when quilted. I will not be sending it to a longarm quilter. I would like to make a pattern other than just squares...I would like one of the 3D type patterns but don't know if that would be lost in "puffiness"! : )

Do you mean that you used 2 different battings...a poly and a cotton? That might be the answer. Thanks!

This pattern isn't 3D, but it's one of my favorites for guys:
https://www.craftsy.com/quilting/pat...ern-pdf/286448

Close quilting will flatten even puffy battings. I think what your grandson wants is something soft, like a commercial comforter. To achieve that effect, you want to use a high-loft polyester batting and minimal quilting. In order for minimal quilting not to ball up and shred after several washings, it needs to be a high quality polyester batting. I'm not an expert on poly's, but Hobbs PolyDown is one of the softer, higher-loft polyester battings. Here is a link to it:
http://www.hobbsbatting.com/products/poly-down/ . Website says you can quilt up to 4" apart.

I would argue against layering with a cotton batting simply because the cotton will add a lot of weight and no loft. Layering with wool would be better because wool provides more loft than cotton and also weighs considerably less than cotton.

I think he wants a comforter not a quilt.

Thank you Prism99. Nice pattern. Good point re layering. Also I found on the site you directed me to "Cloud-Loft'' Batting which is thicker and can be quilted 4"-6" apart. That should do it - now I just have to find out where I can buy it!

I was thinking the same. You could get him a comforter and piece a duvet cover for it. I did that back in the day and it came out really nice. Very puffy and you can wash just the cover.