Moira in N.E. England

I haven’t used Minky but I now prefer fleece to the more traditional wadding and backing.

Because it is so wide and my charity quilts are small I can use the fleece to make wide ‘self-binding’.

Fleece is great for self-binding as it does not fray. It does not stretch and needs very little quilting as there is no wadding to secure.

I have only found one down side to using fleece. Because there is no middle layer a dark or bright coloured fleece can show through a light coloured top.

juliasb

I have been thinking about using Minky or using using a different fleece. I have only worked with a fleece once and that was many years ago. I found it awkward to work with. Have these product improve enough for me to try again? I am following this thread very closely.

Iceblossom

Early last year I think it was I did my first quilt with fleece backing. It is a "big brother" quilt, bigger than a crib and smaller than a twin, but mostly it is the width of fleece. It's meant to be dragged around and taken to the park and be sat on and hard use. To keep with the nautical theme I did basic shells, maybe about 6" diameter.

I found it easy to work with. I used no batting (those matching twin quilts with the minkee backs had a light batting). If I was to do it again, I'd put in some sort of interlayer, a thin batting or at least a width of flannel or something, but you don't have to depending on needs and climate.

One thing to keep in mind, some fleece are going to show through a light top without any batting.

edit: That picture actually shows where I had to piece in a bit of Seahawk-non-fleece along the bottom because the tolerances were close and by the time I quilted down to the botton I found I had set the layers together badly and I had a tiny little sliver maybe .5" x 3" that I had to fill in. The binding was the same Seahawk print and the patch not noticeable at all.

ckcowl

I’ve used Minky on the back of many quilts over the years- love the stuff. I always use batting. I know some people don’t. Be sure to smooth it- don’t stretch it. I machine quilt it with wide, flowing designs. It quilts up beautifully. I wasn’t successful folding over the Minky for self binding the one time I tried so I just attach binding out of quilting cotton- something from the front usually- I machine to the back, fold forward and hand stitch it. If you are good at machine binding the folded over Minky might work for you. I’ve just never managed to do it.

Rff1010

Leah Day had a video where she gives some tips n tricks....including using fusable interfacing as a way of conttolling the stretch. Also discussed pros and cons of batting with fleece.

Rff1010

Its fleece not minkey but a few visuals on FMQ with the stuff. No batting. The stitches just sink in giving nice definition and hiding my lack of experience. The quilt itself is very swishy so I'm getting alot of pain in my shoulders from keeping the smoothness between my hands. Frequent breaks! Anyone else have some experience to share?

Lee in Richmond

I have not used fleece or minky for a backing, but I would probably have tried "birthing" it. Since no one has mentioned that here, there must be a good reason not to do that.

judykay

I am thinking of doing this on a few baby quilts. I have used minky on baby quilts the only issue I has is when I laid it out to pin you need to be careful as it stretches and can go wonky if not careful. I am a hand quilter and did not have any problems quilting it and I did use batting with it. I didn't do anything different with my binding strips, I use 2.5" strips and just cut everything even and attached the binding as usual. I love the feel of minky, so soft and it seems to wash well, I wash all my quilts before I gift them and I didn't have any problems. Minky is polyester and not cotton so it will not shrink.


Any helpful tips and tricks?
Do you still use a batting?
Do you find with quilting cotton or cut the minky large and bind with the backing?

Thank you to everyone who always shares their experience with us newbies![/QUOTE]