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My son wants a warm, cozy couch quilt for Christmas. I am piecing the top in flannels and wondered about using fleece on the back. Is there one brand of fleece that works better for this type of thing? If so, where did you find it? Thank you for any help!
I've used from Joann's and I've used from Walmart. Didn't have any trouble with either.
Blessed are the quilters, for they are the piecemakers.
I had someone quilt for me last year. It was a cotton pieced top and a fleece back. She said the fleece stretched a lot. It was from Joann's. So be prepared for some stretching.
I love fleece backing! I get mine at JoAnn's (I think it's currently 50% off. I use elmers to sandwich and have never had any problems with stretching. It's a lot more forgiving than regular cotton, so the back of the quilt looks great!
There's good fleece and there's bad fleece. The good fleece is thicker, with a gently stretch. The bad fleece is thin and is VERY stretchy. WalMart used to carry both but I've notice our locals WMs have started carrying much more of the bad kind.
Neesie
By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
~Richard Dawkins
When selecting fleece look closely at it, if you can clearly see the base fabric knit threads, it is not a good choice.Originally Posted by Neesie
If you always do, what you have always done, The results never change. Change is the wings you give yourself.
When I used fleece for the backing of a quilt I made. I sprayed it with 505. No stretching of any kind. Worked perfectly.
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It really does save lives, my husband is living proof.
I bought fleece from Joanns after sme careful comparison shopping as they have many kinds: not too thick; not too slippery like Minky or that dimpled stuff that loses its shape; I checked to make sure it wouldn't shed by rubbing it against some plain cotton fabric; I checked the amount of stretch and whether it seemed to go back in shape right after I stretched it out.
I did spray baste (heh heh guilty as charged!!!), but I noticed the back of the fleece didn't stik as nicely as I would have liked to the batting. I did a good amount of structural quilting before I did any decorative stuff, and I kept the decorative stuff to a minimum, like sun motifs in setting triangles, or nice curlicues going up a path of HST or big meanders or whatever. I'm no quilting genius so no fancy loops and feathers.
I kept quilting stitches a little bigger than usual and kept an eye out for any pulling during the quilting because you might end up with a little pinch of fabric inside one stitch due to the bulk of the fuzz underneath.
Good luck, have fun with it!
SueSew
"If it's messy, eat it over the sink!" Mom
Why the guilt?????
Here's the link to a quilt that I did with a fleece backing ... with notes as to how I conquered the stretch and quilting issues!
Who Let the Cows Out?? ... a jumbo one block quilt with fleece backing
Fleece makes for a wonderfully light in weight quilt .... with lots of warmth!
Yes indeed ... it's on my radar to be used as a backing again!
BTW ... if you are wanting to use it for LAQing ... the gal that does mine has used it for all her family quilts, and has absolutely no problems with it on the LA.
Last edited by QuiltE; 11-06-2014 at 04:24 PM.
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Sew many ideas ... just sew little time!!
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I do a lot of charity quilts with pieced cotton tops and fleece backing. All fleece does stretch...so, I do a lot of quilting on these pieces. It helps to stabilized the quilts.
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