quilt backing question
 

I finally finished my first queen sized quilt top. For the backing I found a 100% polyester king sized quilt set that I could afford. Am I crazy to use the flat sheet for the back? It says it has a 400 thread count. I'm not very good at free motion quilting and plan on splitting the batting so I can quilt it myself.

IMHO....I would not use polyester.....the flat sheet principle I think is ok,,,,,,I am going to assume that the top is made out of cotton fabric, I therefore would only use 100% cotton backing.....equal to equal or same to same.......IMHO

Thanks. I'm a little unsure of the quality too. Just hope I can find the receipt and hopefully return the set. Darn, and it matched perfectly. At $20 bucks I should have known it was too good to be true.

I've used top sheets and had nice results. I personally would use 100% cotton, so I am not sure how it would work with 100% polyester.

I have used polycotton sheets for backing. 100% poly, I have not tried. However, for my mother I used a firm poly fleece for warmth. Turned out soft and warm, no problems with the quilting.

I have used poly/cotton blend and had mixed results. If the needle hits some of the poly threads just wrong, it causes runs like in panty hose. Poly/cotton broadcloth was the worst and because of that experience--I would not use the sheets you just bought. Another thought is the thread count is very high compared to normal quilting fabric and it's going to be a bugger to quilt through--almost impossible for hand quilting.

You learn from trying, why not give it a try and see what happens? I have used poly/cotton sheets for backs and they last well but I didn't machine quilt them.

I used poly/cotton sheet for the back of a tied comforter. It worked great, it is beautiful and looks wonderful, it is too warm to use. If we didn't have heat in the winter it would be great. Also, the poly/cotton sheet backing causes the comforter to easily slide off the bed. Just my experience. I haven't used 100% poly sheet.

Sometimes the weave of sheets is too tight and hard to quilt through. My niece always likes to use sheets when I do her quilts. I just make sure I wash and dry them to get out all the sizing and loosen up the weave. They are %100 cotton, but inexpensive. I think the lower the thread count might be better. One of the first quilts I ever made, about 20 years ago I suppose, I used a flannel sheet for the backing. I don't think it was 100% cotton, but it has held up very well. It was tied, not quilted, not sure if that makes a difference.