Dont use the family cat. They hate it. And the blanket squiggles non stop and is hard to get to lay straight. I dont mix my fabrics because they wash differently? some might stretch out over time some will shrink, some need no heat, some are ok with heat .. I would use the non cottons for things like crafts, wall quilts, etc. I also however HATE using stretchy fabric (not good with it) and worse yet.. satins. or velvets. I love love love satin and velvet however I hate sewing with it. It MOVES!

I only use 100% cotton.

I've saved this links and refer to them when I need to "refresh" my senior memory:

To know more about burn tests, see:

http://quilting.about.com/od/fabrice.../burn_test.htm

http://www.lindrix.com/fabcontent.html

http://www.fabrics.net/fabricsr.asp

http://www.fabriclink.com/University/BurnTest.cfm

HTH

PatB

I've used real thin fabric - first I used an iron on interfacing to stabilize the fabric. It works great.

Darren, I once made a corduroy crazy quilt (hey, it was the 70's!), used cotton fabric for the binding and the backing, embroidered all over it. It was one of Mom's favorite quilts and she used to wash it in the machine and line dried it! If you do not want to invest in fusible backing, you might want to try backing the thinner pieces of fabric with muslin. Just stitch the two pieces together and sew it as you would one piece of fabric...

Speaking of faux suede, I've heard that this fabric is excellent for raw edge applique...does not frey or ravel and easy to work with. I've not tried it but I have a collection of faux suede that I purchased from eBay off and on for a year or so.