GarageDragon

I've (finally!!) finished the top of a quilt for my daughter, (inspired by Karla Alexander's Funky Curvy Rail, from her 'Stack a New Deck' book, mine is a watery theme, complete with many large appliqued fish), and now need to sandwich and quilt (and then bind, another question on that follows!).

I am backing it with some fleece she chose, and had planned on using flannel as a batting, but am now having second thoughts: does the regular batting serve any purpose in helping stop ravelling (there's a lot more ravelling going on with this quilt on the reverse side than on the last one I made - I guess because of all the pushing and pulling to get the top into my DSM to satin stitch the appliques on!)? This top has actually turned out better than I had hoped, so I would be gutted if it fell to bits in the near future! I am planning on FMQ (in a sort of loose stipple) - if I can manhandle the sandwich into the teeny harp of my DSM!

And binding: I was going to join two pieces of fleece to make it wide enough, sandwich and bind as normal, but am now wondering if I make the quilt only as wide as the fleece, I could potentially use the excess fabric on the pieced side (it has quite a wide border) to form the binding, by folding it over - would this work? What are the pitfalls of doing this? I know I would have to be REALLY careful with the sandwiching as there would be no room for error, but could it work?

Many, many thanks to all you lovely people, who helped me successfully through my first quilt - I hope you don't get fed up with my newbie questions!

citruscountyquilter

I have seen this done by bringing the backing to the front for binding but not the front to the back. I don't see why you couldn't do it though. There are several good tutorials on this. Google quilt self binding or binding back to front and you should get numerous links on how to do this.

As far as the raveling goes you quilting will hold the quilt in place and raveling shouldn't be a problem. The batting gives the quilt body but it is the quilting that keeps the layers from moving against each other much. If you use flannel for the batting be sure to pre-wash it because flannel has a tendency to shrink more than other fabric or batting.

maviskw

Bringing the pieced front around to the back to bind can be extremely tricky. The only way I would do that would be to glue the layers together with School Glue. Then it can't shift while you work with it.

PaperPrincess

The only downside of binding by bringing the front to the back or vice versa, is it results in a binding of a single layer which may wear thru quicker. As far as raveling goes, the batting isn't going to make a difference. Before you sandwich, go over all your seams by giving them a slight tug. If raveling was intensive it may have gotten to the point where the remaining seam allowance doesn't support the seam. If you have a seam that opens, use a bit of light fusible interfacing to bridge the gap. MUCH easier to fix before quilting!

AZ Jane

Take your completed top and piece of fleece, now lay on the couch with both pieces. It may be quite warm without any batting. Just a thought. Yes, you can use flannel for batting, wash a couple of times because of shrinkage, flannel is notorious. Make a small sandwich, just pinning it together will be fine, now try different binding techniques until you find one you like. And yes, some use the backing by just wrapping to the front. When I took a binding class, the made a good sized sandwich and tried different techniques on each side. Goggle videos for different binding techniques.

ManiacQuilter2

I have never been a fan of doing it to the front or the back. It is a real pain to get those corners folded correctly

Farm Quilter

If you are concerned about the seams coming apart, when you quilt it you can go over each and every seam with a wavy pattern that will help to stabilize the piecing, but it will definitely affect your quilting pattern choice. If you are concerned about the quilt coming apart, I would use a stabilizer on the seams before quilting. You put way too much work on this quilt to have it come back in a year falling apart!!

Daylesewblessed

You can easily bring a fleece backing to the front for binding, but cut the fleece a couple of inches bigger and trim for the foldover after you have done the quilting. Then you will be assured of having enough fleece if things shift a bit.

maviskw

You can make this into two layers also. (I will write this as if you will be bringing the back over the front, so if you want to bring the front over the back, change it accordingly.) First trim the front and batt to the correct size. Do not cut the back yet. Everything should be quilted or pinned or glued well at this point. Cut the Back about an inch and a half larger than the batt and top. Now fold that larger layer so that the fold ends up about 3/8ths of an inch from the edge of the smaller layer and batt. Tuck the extra fabric under the batt. That is your second layer. Now you have a folded edge. Fold that over and sew it down as you wish. At the corners, you will need to cut out a little of the bulk, but make the fold right out to the edge, make a 45 degree fold at the corner, then fold the next edge up to sew.

GarageDragon

Many thanks to everyone that gave me pointers and advice, it is really appreciated! I'm taking the advice to wash the flannel again (I had washed it once, but am giving it another go on a slightly higher temperature, in the hopes it won't shrink too much afterwards), and then I will make a start the sandwiching!