Flannel on back of quilt
 

I am making a quilt for my sister who has cancer. The fabric on the front has not been washed (all cotton), and I am using warm and natural batting. I want to put flannel on the back so do I wash the flannel first even tho the cotton has not been washed ? What do you think about also making the border out of flannel also? Not sure I have ever seen that.
God Bless you all. Vivian

Definitely wash the flannel! It shrinks quite a bit. You could do a test square to see how much. I make a lot of 2 layer, no batting flannel baby blankets. I don't see why a flannel border wouldn't work.

I would definitely pre-wash the flannel, regardless of whether or not the other fabric was pre-washed. Flannel tends to shrink a lot more than regular cotton does, and also sheds a lot of lint so I like to get as much of that off as possible so it doesn't all end up in my bobbin case. You might even want to wash it twice. (2nd wash can just be a quick rinse to get it wet, then toss in the dryer. The dryer is what does the shrinking.)

I don't see any reason you couldn't make the border out of flannel as well. I was actually going to do that on a quilt I'm working on now, but changed my mind. Not sure if I'd use flannel for the binding though - my gran did that a lot and it seems the flannel bindings wear out faster than regular cotton. Might have just been how the flannels were made in the 70's, though!

I think flannel seems to shrink a little more than regular cotton, so I would preWash the flannel at least once. Then quilt.

Definitely wash flannel. It shrinks a lot, shrinks unevenly, often sheds a lot of dye, and worst of all it sometimes pills, making it unusable in a quilt top or back. I see no problem using it in a border, or even mixing with other cottons on the top. I recently made a baby quilt with cotton blocks and used flannel as sashing, binding, and backing.

Take it from someone who knows, WASH flannel first. On one of my quilts, I did not wash it until after it was quilted, and it came out all wonky, due to the additional shrinkage. It would make you feel (and look) bad if that happened after you gave the quilt away. Also, some flannel is very thin, and doesn't hold up well to washing. You would want to know that, too, before you put it on a quilt.

I would definitely pre-wash the flannel but I wouldn't use it with the unwashed cotton since shrinkage will vary.

Flannel has a very loose weave and shrinks allot. I would both wash on normal warm and then dry the flannel in the dryer even if I do not prewash the fabric used on the front.

I use a lot of flannel, back lots of quilts with flannel and use it along with regular cottons on tops. I always prewash the flannel. I've used it plenty of times with cottons that were not prewashed... Came out just fine. I also mix prewashed and new cottons in the same quilts without problems