My DD came home with fabric and wants me to make a John Deere quilt for her fiancees parents. The front would be cotton but the backing she picked out is flannel. My question is.....what would you use for batting. I don't want it to be too heavy to pick up so I'm not sure if regular batting is the answer. What do you suggest.

Thermore is a really good thin batting.

Maybe use another layer of flannel?

I like warm and natural. It is light weight and easy to handle. Wash that flannel....a couple of times. It does shrink! Guess how I know? :lol: Happy quilting!

I just finished backing a couple lap quilts with flannel. I used Mountain Mist (I think that is the correct name) batting instead of my usual White and Natural. The quilt is not heavy at all, just right for lap use. I did wash my flannel in hot water and dried it on high heat in the dryer.

I would recommend using a good quality flannel if you can. I used flannel I got from Walmart and it fuzzed quite a bit. I don't mind since it is for us to use but I would have been disappointed if I were giving the quilt away.

This sounds odd but where do the parents live? If they are in a warmer climate you might just leave out batting. There is something called a summer quilt. In places like the deep south and the tropics quilts don't have any batting.
If they live in an area that has definate seasons then batting would be necessary. With a flannel back I would use the thinnest poly batting I could find. It will give the quilt loft without adding weight.

I made a lap quilt with a flannel backing and my batting is Warm and Natural. It came out great.

I never use batting. I use either fleece or flannel for all my backings.

Hey, Bev I was wondering how do you keep the fleece from stretching when you use it as a back. I have had this problem and relativly new at this.

I lay it out on my tables. Tape it so it doesn't move/stretch. Then I put my top on it , face down, pin real good
I use Blizzard fleece . It doesn't seem to stretch as much as others I've tried. I hope I answered your question

just remember that you must, must, must preshrink any flannel that you use. finish off the edges first and then hot water and dryer.

i'm not sure i understand: is the front the john deere cotton? and the back will be the flannel? and you need to know what to use for batting?

how much john deere front fabric do you have? or is that the flannel?

The front is all cotton. Some John Deere prints and some solids. The back is flannel with a John Deere pattern on it. What kind of batting, it any, would you use.

I live in Georgia, sleep under a wool quilt, cotton quilt and a flannel quilt in the winter. The flannel quilt is flannel on both the top and backing with batting. We like the weight of quilts. Of course we turn the heat down low and sometimes I run the ceiling fan so is will be cold enough for the quilts.

so i guess that answers that. depending on where they live, choose batting that's appropriate for the warmth you think they need. dd may know whether they like to be warm-warm or cool.

if they like warm-warm, just prewash the flannel as above, and treat it as any other backing. if they like cool, batt it with the lightest batt around (there are some mighty thin ones, and they're not all cotton) or prewashed flannel. it's all in the desired warmth.

I LOVE flannel as backings. I use regular polyester fluffy batting from JoAnns. It keeps it lightweight, as far as being too many pounds go. And if you want it for warmer places, just use the ultra thin. Flannel is go great to keep quilts on the bed! Besides being very very very cuddly.