If you are making a quilt top with all batik fabrics, Is it important to also use a batik backing, or will other cotton fabric do as well? My LQS sells batik backing fabric for $17.98. Ouch! I don't blame her, I'm sure her prices are quite high. But if I can use other regular good cotton LQS fabric, it sure would be a cost savings.

Do whatever looks good to you. :)

You don't have to and u can also do a pieced backing either with the same fabric or with some of the fabrics on the top and then a backing. It really is up to you. I like to piece my backing. But that is me.

Since it's your quilt, you can do anything you're happy with! No quilt police here.

If you really want batik for the backing, there are a lot of online shops that sell it for a lot less than your LQS. Or is that price for 108" wide fabric?

Oh! precious picture of the baby!!!

It is their 108" I think I can find some regular 108" fabric that will look good with it. I've been told to not mix Batik and regular cotton on the quilt top. Just wanted to know if there's any reason to not use regular cotton on the back.

Thanks!

I mix batiks with quilting cottons all of the time, without any problems :D:D:D

Well Yea! I'm glad to hear that. That opens a lot more options.

I do too! Who said you can't??

Why wouldn't you be able to?

I use whatever color suits my quilt best...if it is a regular peice...fine..if it is batik fine...I have never had a problem..we wash our quilts all the time. I would just say to put color cachers or retayne in the first wash...after that...no problems. The batik tends to soften up after about 2-3 washes...in my experience.

I mix batik with regular cotton fabric too. Never thought about not doing it...
Works fine for me.

Thanks for the info. The LQS ladies told me to not mix batik and regular cotton in a quilt top. They said the texture is different and would not stretch and shrink the same when washed. Today they told me I need Batik backing for a batiq quilt top -- they didn't explain that one.

Most of mine are mixed quilts. I like to get a focus fabric and then usually pick out some batiks and a pattern that really show it off. Just look at the picture section on here. You will always see basis mixed. Even with other types of fabrics like fleece and flannel and homespuns.

I totally agree you can mix and match the two types of fabric on the front and back to your liking. I do it all the time.

However, FYI -

$17.99/yard for 108" batik is the equivalent of $6.60-$7.20/yard for 40"-42" wide batik fabric.

Just saying. ;-)

Sounds like a money thing to me. Sorry that they were trying to "police" you.

I mix and match Batiks and other cottons together without a problem. Made one last December for ME and mixed them on the top, cotton and batik, and used a cotton 108" back. Works fine. Even though the price of 108" cotton may seem high, you only need as much as the shortest length of the quilt, no piecing and no leftover, so the price is actually cheaper than buying two lengths on 45 " fabric and having to piece it together.

You can find batik backing at Thousands of Bolts much cheaper.

Usually by the time I am done with a bed size batik quilt top ... and the batting ... its tough to spend the money on the batik backing fabric. I use what ever I want. Only a few times have I sprung for the batik backing fabric. I have even done a flannel back on a batik ( pre-shrunk the flannel) .
The only difference is that batiks will not shrink ( if they are a true batik, they have been immersed in hot water). So if you have a concern about the backing .. not playing well with the top ...pre-shrink it. Some of the lower cost backing do have a bit more that usual shrinkage.

Thanks for the info on backing at THousands of Bolts. I'll check it out.

I use fleece backings on my batik quilts and have had no problem. I do quilt by hand so I dont know how they would machine quilt with the fleece back. But they are for use by family in the winter months so also get washed a lot with no problems.

I've never used a wide back fabric. I either use pieces, usually of what's in the top, or if I'm going to use one fabric, I piece that into a wide enough piece.

I check sale bolts at shops, plus when I go to a retreat each year, at the end, the owner has sale bolts that are $3/yd. I can usually find things that might not be pefect, but certainly work! With most patterns, if you want to, you can match them up so it's hard to even find that seam.

Today my chore is to baste sandwich the landscape quilt. The top is all batiks - the backing is Northcott Stonehenge. That was what looked best so that is what I used.

Do what ever you want. It's your quilt.

Thank you Dee Dee - Wow!! what a terrific online store!! ...and all those FQs under $2.

No reason why you couldn't use any cotton fabric. I use regular cottons with batiks all the time, and if you prefer batik backing, you can find it much cheaper than that.

I find that batik fabric does have a "different" feel to it. Higher thread count perhaps or thicker dyes in it.. The gal that does my machine quilting for me always takes that into consideration when we select a quilting design for the top. She suggests not using a design that is too dense.

Have you checked out equilter.com? She has some gorgeous batik backings. I especially like the peachy one at the bottom of page 2. Thinking of purchasing that one for a jelly roll batik quilt top that is still hanging on my board. There are over 200 backings in stock right now.

I mix batiks and cottons all the time. I love batiks for backs-well I love batiks anywhere. I prewash all my fabrics so they've been preshrunk/color tested before I combine them. Connecting Threads has batiks too. Sometimes people in LQS are just expressing their opinion or what they've been told and take as fact. good luck with your quilt.

You do not have to use a batik backing! Whatever you want is good!! :lol:

Just my opinion--if I am going to machine quilt on my sewing machine or hand quilt, I use batik to back an all-batik quilt. Batiks are so much more stable on the crossgrain. I'm cautious about using a fabric with a stretchier crossgrain. If it's quilted on a long-arm I wouldn't be concerned.

Mix em up. I do it all the time. Have any block from the front left? Use those on the back too.

it is your quilt. do what you want to.

I've used regular yardage batiks for backs just because that's what I wanted. Also all the batik backing fabric that I've seen looks different (more cotton looking) than the regular yardage of say Hoffmann or Kaufman batiks. I'm getting ready to make a back from a mixture of backing batik and Hoffmann batiks; this will be my first "pieced" back.

love thousands of bolts. my go to online place : )

I used a batik fabric on the back of a quilt that was made using batiks with black Kona cotton. It made the quilt so slippery that I can barely use it as a lap quilt. I always pre-wash my fabric so I can't even blame it on that. After that experience I always use regular 100% quilt shop quality fabric on the back of all my quilts.

I found clearance batik @ fabric.com, at the time it was 30% off clearance price, so I really got a deal, but their regular clearance prices are a real bargain too. I really wanted to use batik for the quilt back of a very colorful top. The fabric wasn't my first choice of colors but there are so may colors in the top and anything would have looked fine. I think mine turned out great. I'm going to check them now to see if any batiks are on clearance. I'll let you know.

There's a clearance batik in purple for under $6.00 a yard if you want to check it out, Hope that is helpful. I love the help and ideas I get from everyone here, I've learned and explored some great things.

Fabric.com has 108" batik for $10.99.

Go to SewBatik.com Their batik wide backs are made of goods that don't have that really tight weave, and the fabrics are beautiful. These are really great people to work with, too!

Do whatever looks good to you. That's one of the nice things about quilting. You get to follow your gut all the time.

Try www.MarshallDryGoods.com for backing--it is $7.99 and they have a good selection. their tie dyes are similar to batik.

Even though the price of 108" cotton may seem high, you only need as much as the shortest length of the quilt,


Don't you mean the longest length of the quilt?

Not if the shortest length is less than 108". ;-)