Has anyone used minky for backing?
 

Hi everyone, This is my first question on the board. Has anyone ever used minky fabric for backing a cotton pieced quilt top? How would I prepare the top and batting? Would I have to wash them first? Should I use a poly batting? Would my LA hate me for using it? The quilt will be for my grandson and I thought minky would be so nice and toasty!
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
Cindy

Yes I have used minky as backing but when I do I nix the batting. It's just too thick and heavy to quilt through. :) Yes, I wash the minky also and dry it ahead of time, and all my cotton fabric is usually pre-washed before I start making the cotton pieced top.

Talk to your long armer before using it if you aren't planning on quilting it yourself so you don't end up in a pickle trying to get it quilted. ;)

Hope that helps! :)

if your top is done don't wash it before quilting/binding- only wash--if it is pre-washing the fabrics before making the quilts---if you do a search you will find hundreds of us use minkie all the time---it quilts up beautifully with a long arm. do check with your long-armer to see if she has experience with it & any particular instructions.
i have used batting in a number of minkie backed quilts- i don't particularly like ones with out batting- i generally use hobbs heirloom 80/20. but it's your choice- i have used poly batts a couple times with minkie backed quilts.
minkie makes wonderful backings- quilts up beautifully- only down side i know of is the cut edges shed (alot) until finished (i generally purchase exactly what i need so i don't have to do any cutting on it- i order it in 2 or 3 pieces if necessary & when it arrives i take the package outside to open it & shake it out really good before taking it into the house) other than that i've never had a problem with it- the first time we took some to a longarmer was 8 years ago & it turned out so wonderful-now it is often our backing of choice.

Joann's has it on sale at 50 percent off today through Sunday. Just bought 5 yards of it.

The lady cutting it asked what I was going to do with it and I said "back a quilt with it!" Then I told them about spray basting. Since you are going to a long arm quilter with it you need to ask her/him about what they require in the way of preparation.

I have made minkee backed quilts with batting, without batting and using flannel for batting. My favorite so far is using flannel as batting. I wash/dry, wash/dry it to make it shrink as much as possible.

Minkee wears very well, better than any other backing fabric I have used.

Some don't like it because it shifts on them when quilting. I have always used the spray basting on it and it never has shifted on me.

It comes in such nice colors these days. It seems like when it first came out it was only in "baby colors" (pastels). The minkee I bought today is a solid black. I'm using it to back a Dragon quilt which is mainly black, gray, white and some red.

It is cuddly - my son sleeps with his every night and I made it for him 5 1/2 years ago for his birthday.

I cursed the one minky quilt I made because of the crawling. It was pieced with woven cotten. It does quilt beautifully and I just FMQ'd it with my standard sized Bernina. I will have to try the spray basting trick next time. It does shed something awful as well, but once the project is finished, it feels so good!

I did not have a good experience using it as backing. It slipped something terrible for FMQ. Never again. Good luck. I like the idea of it :)

Both of the two quilts I have made have minky background. I have had zero problems with it!

Whoops! Didn't answer your other questions. :) I didn't use batting. Didn't pre-wash. they were baby quilts, and they were toasty enough on their own. Just quilt well enough (close enough together) that there is no sagging.

I recently made a pieced quilt with minky backing. I had no problems. I researched on internet and found the best advice was to spray baste. I thought it seemed too thin so I used warm & natural batting. It came out great. FM and SID. Did not pre-wash anything. Also sewed binding to the front and hand stitched to the back.

We have quilted a minky back with the long arm-no problems-just try nor to stretch it.One of the mustache quilts is going to have a minky back-hoping to do this by Monday.

I have used it before. My kids love how warm it is. I'm not a pre-washer and I've made them with and without batting. I live in WI and it gets cold here. I used batting with the minkee. If you are in a warmer state, I would probably skip the batting and maybe put a layer or flannel if you needed something in there.
On a longarm, it does work wonderfully. I've sewn it on a domestic machine and it's hard to keep it from sliding around. Your longarmer should not have a problem with it but do talk to them first. Everyone is different and they might have special instructions.

I love minkee. I stitch in the ditch. I pinned like crazy and i used batting. They are toasty and ready for my grandsons. I will post pictures of the I spy quilts backed in minkee as soon as I finish the binding and wash them. Minkee has one way that is really stretch and the other way does not stretch. Just plan for it. I had just enough minkee for the quilt so I made sure the stretchy direction was the direction I was a bit shy on extra. It worked.