Quilting problems
 

I am quilting a baby quilt that I had appliqued woodland animals onto the top. I had pieced and fused the appliqued animals to a cotton fabric which was also pieced/fused and had a piece of flannel as a batting. I am using minky as the backing. Unfortunately the minky fabric is being pulled through to the top side of the quilt. I have also had severe thread breakage. I have changed the thread numerous times size and types and numerous bobbin changes, too. I finally ended up using Aurilfil Thread and a 14 topstitch needle. I have adjusted the tension numerous times. I am FMQ using a BSR on a Bernina 830. I have 3/4 of this large baby quilt completed and don't like it and I will be ripping the quilting out. What I have finished is heavily quilted. I now realize I have probably used too much quilting and when I redo it, I will not do as much. I didn't want to use batting, but perhaps I need to so the minky backing is not pulled to the top. Any suggestions are truly appreciated.

You have changed the needle right? In this situation, I might try a ballpoint or universal needle. It might slip between the thread weaves and not tend to tear and then pull up some broken threads that tore using a sharp or topstitch needle. (I use sharps with cotton fabric all the time, but a change is worth a try)

I would use jersey or ball point on minky

I have used Minky as backing on several of my quilts. Only one (and I don't remember who made it), which is navy, pulled through to the top. I did not end up using it. I purchased it from Amazon and it was the "dot" type of minky. However, I have been buying Shannon Minky of late and have had no problems with it using 80/12 needles on my Brothers INNOVA-is machine.

When quilting on fused fabric shapes that are on a fused background your needle will probably get gummed up, stop frequently & run your fingers down it to get the "goop" off, that might help with the thread breakage.

Thanks for the suggestions. The minky is Shannon fabric. I might try using a free motion quilting foot and dropping the feed dogs. I've tried several new needles and bobbins.

Just to be clear your appliques are 5 layers thick, with two layers of fusible between them? You day the appliques are pieced, did you stitch them down?

If the appliques are stitched, when quilting I would not quilt over them.

I made the background and then fused the applique down and stitched the applique. The flannel was used prior to appliqueing the animals onto the background. The minky is for the backing. Once I "unsew" the quilting, I plan on using warm and natural for batting. I am debating using the low loft Quilters Dream. I really wanted this to be more cuddly and didn't want to use batting - best laid plans!

I would not heavily quilt your quilt, if you want it to be cuddly.

I may be wrong about this but I believe Jenny Doan has a Utube
video with some hints about sewing with "cuddly" fabric.