Why am I having so much trouble hand quilting on flannel. I have washed and dried it. I have a thin polyester batting. I have tried brand new needles, long ones, short ones, etc. Either I can't get the needle to go through all the layers or once through, I have to pull the needle through with my teeth. Luckily, these are only baby bibs that I'm quilting. Maybe I'll re-think my plans to make a flannel baby quilt.

I tie my flannel baby quilts, but I know what you mean about pulling the needle though with your teeth. It can get a little bulky. Good luck. A bib might be a good thing to machine quilt.

I agree. Any of my quilts that are flannel I have either machine quilted or tied with worsted weight yarn. Sometimes even pulling the yarn through can be a challenge. I would be interested to know if someone here knows a technique that makes it easier.

i machine quilt them -- much much easier :-)

When I made some baby quilts with flannels I hand "quilted" it with colored pearl cotton thread in patterns. Not really quilting, more like sashiko. Then used a larger needle and kept the rubber aide by to pull it through.

I use a utility stitch when quilting on flannel. It is a larger stitch but you still need to have evenly stitched stitches. I use pearl cotton too.

Ditto, this is how my granny taught me!

I hand quilt flannel quilts using pearl cotton, also, and a large, even, stitch, of about 1/4 inch. I use no. 5 "sharps" needles. I call this primitive stitching.

I've hand quilted when just the backing is flannel, but the only front/back flannel quilt I made is machine quilted. That extra thickness is really hard to get even stitching for me.

lots of information on this thread, thanks