I have a Hawaiian Applique wall hanging top that my mother did in the 70s and recently gave me to finish. It's brown and gold so I wanted to add a bit of color. I added a batik border, and then the same batik on the back and basted it for hand quilting. I even went and took a class with Luxine Neuman (The Thimblelady) to learn her technique. When I started quilting, it looked so flat and my stitches were not penetrating the back except for a thread or two. I went and talked to the ladies at the shop where I took the class (One of the employees is now certified to teach her method) and the consesus was that it was because of the batik backing - batiks are more tightly woven and harder to penetrate with a needle making small stitches. I tore out all my stitches (bummer, I had completed a large section of the center) and have replaced all the batik backing with plain cotton and a thin soft poly batting (the first on was cotton, not sure if Warm and Natural). It's basted again but I haven't started quilting it. I would never try hand quilting a batik again (other than the borders on this piece).