I back most of my quilts with flannel. Wash the flannel so that it shrinks pin like crazy. I also sew up the edges to help hold it stable. Might try the starch though

I recently made a smaller quilt and put tons of pins in and only sewed diagonally with the flannel backing and it seemed to work okay. How are you keeping your sandwich together?

I just finished an 80 x 80 inch quilt for my son with flannel backing. Prewashed and pressed with a little Maryann's, pinned about every 4 inches. Did stitch in the ditch, free-motion, per Leah Day.com. Then more free-motion inside the blocks. I have a Pfaff with IDT but didn't use for this, of course. Anyhow, had no problems with bumps or gathers. I think Leah's site has very helpful information. Check it out. I hope any of this is helpful for you! Keep on doing your own quilting, it is great!

I have a friend that taught me to lay mine on a quilt table and lay it out and smoothe it and tape the corners and down the side with pieces of tape ( masking tape) Then start pining with safety pins thru both sides and thru linningabout 4'' or 5' apart. It worked great. I did mine with diagnal lines one way then the opposite with an eraisable crayone pen. It washes out. It is taunt on the table which is great. this is a simple lap quilt. Then I attach my binding. It made for a nive smoothe top & bottom
I hope this makes sense. I know not everyone has this tyoe of table to work on. Her double car garage is her sewing room.
the car stays outside.

Have you considered using fleece for the backing? It's been my experience with elderly people they love the warmth of fleece. I've read others comments about working with fleece and they didn't relay any problems with it. Whatever route you choose I'm sure your DFL will love it.

Andie

I have used flannel on several quilts. I have had difficulty quilting without puckers on any quilt with the feed dogs up. I find that FMQ works best for me.

I use flannel backing on most baby quilts and tie the quilt instead of machine quilting it.

When using flannel, I do wash and dry to shrink it, but do not iron, as I think ironing stretches the flannel out again. I take out of the dryer and smooth any wrinkles out flat, then spray baste well so it stays in place. I do pin the corners to keep them in place. I use my IDT (walking foot and I also use a large stitch lengtht (3.0-3.5) to keep from puckering. I try to stay away from diagonal quiliting as the bias stretches quite a bit. Seems to work well for me.

The only problem with that is that the shrinkage does not seem to be consistent with flannels, one may shrink more than another. Also, I like to see how nice and fluffy they will turn out after washing. I just bought some for a Christmas gift, one of the pieces I will not use because it isn't as "flannelly" as I would like, not like the others. I like to resolve all this before starting to sew.

Thanks for the heads up on this - I hadn't thought of my quilting design as being the issue. I had been trying to quilt a diagonal design w/out anchoring front to back w/SID or channel quilting first. Think this may be the source of most of my trouble. Looks like I may have to opt for a more traditional quilting style - save my lovely cable for a non-flannel quilt!