I use flannel because it is warm and soft. When I get the flannel home I wash it in warm water and dry it in a medium dryer. (No one I know uses hot water to wash anymore even for baby clothes.) If the flannel doesn't perform well with my washing then I don't use it in a quilt. But I buy good quality flannel and I have seen my quilts 10 years and older still being used. I make quilts to be used - and if they wear out, so be it. I can make more.

quality flannel doesn't pill, it is very soft when it washes though

I use flannel because I love it--warm and soft and cuddly. I still have a flannel quilt that my great-grandmother made for me nearly fifty years ago.

I use flannel backing on 99% of the quilts I make. My family loves the soft and cuddly warmth you get with flannel. The few quilts I made with 100% cotton are seldom used. So far, the quilts with flannel backing have held up well to repeated washing and drying with very little pilling.

We have 4 cats in our home and cat fur and lint is a fact of life here. LOL!! I recently made my DGD a quilt with Kona cotton in red. The red cotton picked up more cat fur than the flannel.

Pricing is everything. Well, not everything, but when you need a good deal.

I made a quilt with a flannel back for my husband because I knew he'd like the softness and extra warmth. As others have mentioned, the quality of the flannel is important. Mine hasn't pilled yet, but I don't wash it often. Lint has not been a problem either.

It was a little harder to work with, because it's more stretchy, or maybe I didn't smooth it out well when I was making my sandwich. When I was quilting it (stitch in the ditch) it would sometimes fold over when crossing another seam line, and I wouldn't realize this until I was done with the seam and then had to redo it. I learned that I had to hold the quilt a little taut while I sewed.

I prefer regular cotton fabric backing for myself. I don't mind flannel shirts, but for some reason I don't like to have flannel sheets/blankets touching me.

I've used Lots of flannel, for backings, in tops, for appliques, for raggy quilts, flannel is a favorite! I've not had ( pilling) problems - I use good quality, double sided flannels- not single sided, thin, loosely woven. Flannel is a wonderful, warm cozy quilting cotton!

None of my cotton quilts are as cuddly and cozy as my flannel quilt. When I am really cold, it is the quilt I look for.

A good quality flannel does not do the things you have mentioned-cheap flannel does. I have used flannel on the back of a couple of quilts. I do prewash it twice in hot water before I incorporate it into a quilt because it does shrink more than regular quilting cotton. I used black on one quilt and did not have dye migration either.

Sounds like what most of you are saying is that the better quality flannels are less problematic. There's so much of it being made, I knew it had to be popular.