I have always been taught to use only 100% cotton for quilts. The other day I found 3 yes of the cutesy baby fabris for $3. Got home and did burn test and it was poly/cotton blend :-(
Today I got a whe box of bits and pieces of fabric a the thrift store with a mix of cotton and poly blends. Some would coordinate with the baby fabric very nicely (the blend). So my question why can't poly cot blend be used in quilts? I wouldn't mix but would use all poly blend. Corse flannel or minky on back would be nice... Really could use guidance. Thanks in advance.

You can use poly, the biggest problem I find is it fades differently than cottons. Cotton fades faster.

poly/cotton blends wear like iron and do not shrink or fade...and minkie is polyester...so, if you can use minkee why cant you use the fabrics you found? there are no quilt police; back in the olden days quilts were made with scraps of everything available. i know , there wasn't any poly back then but...crazy quilters use cotton,silks, velvets, leather/suede...ect. the poly would be great for a kid that is going to drag it around for years ...
all that being said...blends and polyester does not soften and fluff with washing like 100% cotton does, so there is the downfall to using it.
but again...no shrinkage, no fading, wears like iron...

Thanks so much for the quick responses. Now another question. If I would piece with all blends but decide to use a flannel back, in theory should that work if I was several times in hot washer and dryer to shrink it first?

It would probably be a good idea to preshrink your cotton flannel. As for the polyblends, the Amish and other famous quilters certainly use whatever. It is only us crazy"English" who only quilt with new, cotton fabric for our personal use or otherwise. The American style of patchwork quilting was invented to use up every little scrap of then imported expensive fabric.

If you are going to mix fabrics, prewash and dry the same way you intend to after the quilt is finished. I generally don't prewash if the fabric is like, but flannel shrinks a lot and so do some cottons. The poly may not shrink at all.

Use it. Shrink the flannel use the poly-cotton. If you are planning an hierloom quilt, use the best 100% cotton that you can possibly afford. Otherwise use it.

I've always been wary of using poly/cotton fabric and polyester batting in baby quilts because I was told that in a fire polyester tends to melt and stick to skin, rather than burn like cotton will.

I would use it :D:D:D I haven't ever noticed cotton/poly shrinking very much... but I would wash the cotton and flannel to make sure they aren't going to shrink :wink:

In a time long, long ago and a land far, far away...LOL...our grandparents and my parents used EVERYTHING! There is no reason not to use poly blends that I can think of. I use them because they are not as expensive and I have family (extended family) that will not take care of the quilts so I don't use expensive material or hand quilt them...I save those for myself or people I know will take care of the work and appreciate the effort and time I put into the project.

I don't think it's an issue unless you wanted to hand quilt it. If you are going to machine quilt, just prewash everything and have at it!

I am in the process of patching a quilt made with poly/cotton that is only about 15 years old. The fabric just split and separated in areas all over, not even in the seams!! It is a double wedding ring quilt and I am just trying to patch the holes. The owner wasn't willing to pay me to properly restore it.

I've used poly cotton in the past, mixed with all cotton. It was the colour or depicted exactly what I needed. No trouble, quilts now 20+ years old, washed many times.

I don't any longer - but that's because I've used what I had up. Only buy cotton now. If someone gave me some and I liked it, I'd use it.

I made a small biscuit quilt using a poly cotton blend. It still looks like new and it's been used and abused by many preschoolers. I made it for my DGD nap quilt at church preschool. She left it there and it's been in use for the last 10 years.

I mix fabrics a lot in my scrap quilts. I doubt any of them will be washed very much, so I'm not worried about fading. I ALWAYS wash to shrink flannel but don't usually worry about the cotton unless I think it might fade.

I have used cotton poly in several of my quilts, and haven't had any problems. Like someone else said, poly-cotton wears like iron.

Just be sure and use a lower heat setting. Blends that are heavy on the poly will start to melt and kind of shrink if the heat is too high (using all-cotton, i tend to just turn the heat up as high as it will go).

I am thinking of using a 50% cotton 50% poly to make a cushion cover. I would like to hand quilt it. If I pre-shrink the batting and backing will this work?

Yes that will work! You may find the poly will dull your needles faster than cotton. Poly dulls a rotary blade and sissors faster than 100 percent cotton.

This is good information. Thanks for the question and the information.
I have another related question. Why is cotton thread encouraged? To me it feels weak and expensive.

yes, just respect the nature of each of the fabrics. Example. press with warm iron because the poly and blends might shrink with heat.

Thank you. Very helpful and encouraging.