Quilting flannel without batting
 

Is it a good idea to long arm quilt a flannel blanket (it's flannel front & back) without batting, to make as a receiving/summer baby blanket? I don't want to put another flannel layer as batting but I worry about the puckering of stitches and the tension without that extra layer.

I have a Handiquilter sit down quilter, not a long arm, but I haven't had any trouble quilting just two layers of flannel. In fact, panels for baby quilts were some of my first practice pieces. Just test your tension before starting on the quilt proper, just like you would any item.Pam

I quilted a table topper without batting and found the two layers to be very difficult to hold onto to quilt it.

Flannel shrinks a lot. That said, I would suggest washing and drying it at least twice or three times. Then it should be much better to quilt. You may have to pin it till you see how it acts. Good luck.

you shouldn't have any problem with it and no bat--if need be you can adjust your tension, but I seriously doubt it will be a problem in the long arm. One thing to remember is you may see the "pokies" more without any bat cause the top and bobbin thread usually will "lock" and be buried in the bat and you won't have that extra thickness. So I'd definitely suggest a #50 wt thread and the same color top and bobbin.

Thanks for this info. Altho I do not have a long or mid arm machine, I do have a queen sized top made of flannelette scraps and have been wondering how to quilt it, since I would like to use it as a light summer blanket. I think I will just back it with well shrunk flannelette (all the fabric that produced the scraps was prewashed and dried)

Thanks everyone for the input and thanks "quiltingshorttimer" for the thread suggestion. Think I might even try a smaller needle.