Fleece as quilt backing?
 

My son wants a warm, cozy couch quilt for Christmas. I am piecing the top in flannels and wondered about using fleece on the back. Is there one brand of fleece that works better for this type of thing? If so, where did you find it? Thank you for any help!

I've used from Joann's and I've used from Walmart. Didn't have any trouble with either.

I had someone quilt for me last year. It was a cotton pieced top and a fleece back. She said the fleece stretched a lot. It was from Joann's. So be prepared for some stretching.

I am getting ready to back a pieced top with fleece. However I never quilt fleece. I tried it once and had a mess. ( I am not a pro so maybe it's just me). I will birth mine and tie it. I have done this before and it works fine. JMHO

I love fleece backing! I get mine at JoAnn's (I think it's currently 50% off. I use elmers to sandwich and have never had any problems with stretching. It's a lot more forgiving than regular cotton, so the back of the quilt looks great!

There's good fleece and there's bad fleece. The good fleece is thicker, with a gently stretch. The bad fleece is thin and is VERY stretchy. WalMart used to carry both but I've notice our locals WMs have started carrying much more of the bad kind.

When I used fleece for the backing of a quilt I made. I sprayed it with 505. No stretching of any kind. Worked perfectly.

I bought fleece from Joanns after sme careful comparison shopping as they have many kinds: not too thick; not too slippery like Minky or that dimpled stuff that loses its shape; I checked to make sure it wouldn't shed by rubbing it against some plain cotton fabric; I checked the amount of stretch and whether it seemed to go back in shape right after I stretched it out.

I did spray baste (heh heh guilty as charged!!!), but I noticed the back of the fleece didn't stik as nicely as I would have liked to the batting. I did a good amount of structural quilting before I did any decorative stuff, and I kept the decorative stuff to a minimum, like sun motifs in setting triangles, or nice curlicues going up a path of HST or big meanders or whatever. I'm no quilting genius so no fancy loops and feathers.

I kept quilting stitches a little bigger than usual and kept an eye out for any pulling during the quilting because you might end up with a little pinch of fabric inside one stitch due to the bulk of the fuzz underneath.

Good luck, have fun with it!

Fleece makes wonderful backs! Feel it, compare it, choose the one you like. Lengthen the stitch length and loosen the top tension just a bit. Quilt a big ( not dense) design. Big waves, loopy designs work well

Why the guilt?????



Here's the link to a quilt that I did with a fleece backing ... with notes as to how I conquered the stretch and quilting issues!

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...g-t239508.html

Fleece makes for a wonderfully light in weight quilt .... with lots of warmth!
Yes indeed ... it's on my radar to be used as a backing again! :)
BTW ... if you are wanting to use it for LAQing ... the gal that does mine has used it for all her family quilts, and has absolutely no problems with it on the LA.

I have made many quilts with fleece backing. I quilt them on the longarm usually with no batting. Most of it came from Joann's. I have never had a problem with it.

I have used fleece for the backing of several quilts. They do make for very cozy quilts with the fleece. I purchased some fleece from Joanne's and did not have any problems. I also purchased a lot of fleece from Pico Textiles which was very nice fleece and did not have problems. I quilted those quilts myself on my home machine, but it all went well

The quality of fleece varies widely... some will pill like crazy in the first wash. There is Anti pill fleece but I found there was still a bit of pilling. The very best fleece comes from Malden Mills and is sold as Polar Tec fleece. I have several garments made from it that are over 20 years old and still look like brand new after hard use and very frequent washing.

FYI - I like the classic 100 Polartec fleece.

I just pieced a baby quilt, NO batting and backed with fleeced and free motion quilted it. It turned out beautiful!
I may do this MORE! Oh fleece come from JoAnn's.

Wow ladies, lots of help. Thank you all. Sounds like I will be trying fleece for the first time. Will try to pick out a good quality piece to use. It's snowing here right now so fleece sounds nice!

I just quilted a huge quilt with a fleece blanket from Macys. I needed 90 X100 piece so a blanket allowed me to have a seamless back. I pinned heavily and used Thermore batting which I think helped the top and batting "stick" together well. Good luck, hope yours is not as big as mine. It was really rough on my arms and shoulders!

I do a lot of charity quilts with pieced cotton tops and fleece backing. All fleece does stretch...so, I do a lot of quilting on these pieces. It helps to stabilized the quilts.

I have used fleece for backing on many quilts flannel & cotton tops. I never had a problem quilting it on my machine. I buy the better fleece with not much stretching. 505 spray works well & so does elmers glue.

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Here is a fleece backing I did. TO help control the fleece from stretching. I blocked each square and then quilted a flower inside each square.

What I love about using the fleece backings, and I've made over 100 with them, is that you only have to quilt to stabilize the top and backing together. No worries about a middle layer that might shift or ball up. You can quilt as little or as much as you wish, even going so far as to outline a 12" square with no other stitching within it.
I agree about the thin fleece being harder to work with, but generally you won't find that for sale in a fabric section. You will find it in thrift stores, hemmed with a logo of some sort on it. Just be cautious when shopping there to check the fleece for density and stretch.

When selecting fleece look closely at it, if you can clearly see the base fabric knit threads, it is not a good choice.

I've done about 30 -40 quilts with fleece from JA's. Never had a problem, not stretching. BUT...I hand quilted them, so maybe that made th difference. goodluck

I used fleece and no batting. Flannel and fleece should make a nice warm quilt. Like others before me have said spray or glue basting will help with the stretching. Using your walking foot and a longer stitch length is also what I did. But I must say I like the idea of tying it. Another suggestion would be primitive hand sewing it with embroidery thread. A nice running stitch. You'll be surprised at how fast that goes. Also I know I'm cheap but I bought my fleece from the dollar store. It worked! Wish I had a picture but to many times I pass my quilts on without a photograph

I have used fleece. I like the anti-pill fleece. I like to buy something with a design of some sort on it. I found that on the plain fleece or plain fabric for that matter my mistakes in FMQ show up more.

I have backed several quilts with fleece blankets from Walmart and Target. I stock up on the blankets when they go on sale ( last year purchased top of the line King-sized blankets for $15 which I cut down to size as needed: throw, baby, or pieced for larger! I have also purchased fleece from the roll at Hancock's and JAF... just be careful because not all fleece is the same quality! My son's favorite quilt is made from pieced denim on the front with fire-engine red fleece for the back... he loves the weight!