Backing a quilt with Minky
 

I am thinking of doing this on a few baby quilts.

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!

As a favor for a friend, I quilted a baby blanket she had backed with minky. I have a longarm but no frame. I found the fabric hard to deal with and was glad I got to practice a bit before I went with minky myself. I wouldn't chose minky for a backing again because it was so stretchy, It puckered a bit on the back side and I'm not sure the 505 adhesive we used really took. We used minky for the binding and machine stitched it on. Glad that project is overwith and I probably won't do that again!

I have used minky on the back of several quilts. I really like the feel and I think it makes the quilt a little extra special. I quilt on my Janome 6600 and I really didn't struggle anymore than usual :)

I have used batting with the minky backing I did not feel that I needed to cut the binding wider

I’ve made 3 “I Spy” donation quilts with fleece backing (no batting). I bound one - cut the binding 3” - worked well.

Other 2 after quilting, I cut the fleece 2” larger and turned it (2x) to the front. One backing had diagonal pattern (lines about 8-9” apart) so I merely stitched the lines - very happy with my diagonal quilting so I’ll be looking for fleece with a similar pattern In the future.

I have used minky on several baby quilts and also on several throw size quilts. I use batting and spray baste them, then stitch in the ditch with my walking foot. When I baste and use my walking foot, I have never had any problems.

Timely post for me ... I have a couple of quilts in the works that I have been thinking of using minkee for a very large snowman applique (likely reverse applique, with the rest of the front being cottons) and possibly minkee for the backing too.

Do you foresee any problems in using the minkee both front and back?

How wide is minkee?

Thank you!!!

I groaned inwardly when my cousin showed up with luscious gray minky for the back of the t-shirt quilt I was making for her graduating senior.
I decided not to use batting because I didn't want it to be heavy, and it worked great. I stitched in the ditch around shirt squares.
Tip: I stitched on top of newspaper like I do when I applique.
The minky was about 54-60 inches wide and she bought too much, which prompted me to fold it to the front like a cozy frame. Loved it. Will use it again. Have no complaints.

I've quilted down two crib sized quilts on a long arm using a minkee-like backing. My friend had put the minkee on the frame and then let it sit for several months -- it stretches! I was able to use it but had to take out what she had done previously and redo withe orientation on the frame turned around.

Had zero problems, would do again. My friend in Phoenix sends her minkee projects to be quilted, her quilter does not charge extra. She has a long arm frame with a medium throat machine -- she cannot do above about a crib size with her machine, just gets too thick wrapped around. She tried doing it halfway and taking it off and resetting it but she always got more of a lump in the middle than she liked.

So for the snowman applique, the big question is do you have a long arm? Or at the very least a deep throat sit down domestic?

I do have a Sweet 16, so have that option. However, I have a friend who has long arm basted my quilts lately, and had been thinking of having her FMQ the whole thing when I am ready. I am pretty sure that she has quilted with minkee before. If so, then she could follow through to the end.

Thank you so much for sharing the details of how you have thought this through. It sets me up to know what I need to consider, about doing them myself and/or to discuss with her about doing part or all.

But first ... I need to get them to that stage!! :)

thx for advice! I'm finishing borders is a baby quilt right now (which as per my usual is turning out huge. I just can't seem to get the hang of small quilts) and will try this.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Minky Backing
 

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]