Quilt in a Day Forums

Ok, I know I haven't been on in awhile, but I have a dilemma. I'm making a quilt for my son and want it to be a light weighted quilt. I have pieced the top in cotton (of course) and the back I bought flannel. Because I want this to be a light-weight quilt, do I need to put a batting in it? Or will it be too hard to quilt without it? I plan on machine quilting it.

Thanks in advance!
Stacy

I made a quilt for my son who would be living in Florida for two years and used a very lightweight cotton batting - it was a very thin batting. It worked great. I have also made quilted jackets using flannel for the batting and they are warm. That also worked great for me.
Jana

Just a thought...I'd think that your main problem without batting would be the layers shifting during machine quilting. If you secure them together well, with some spray adhesive and some pins, it should be fine.

I'm not a quilt historian, but I know that past quilters have made "summer" quilts without batting, just a backing. The Quilt Police may argue that it isn't really a quilt if it isn't batted...just let them "talk to the hand", forge ahead, and do what YOU want!

I live in Tennessee and it's hotter than 7 Hell's in August and humid as heck. A summer quilt in only lined with flannel. The quilts that I got from my Granny's estate are all lined with just flannel. Of course, they didn't have AC back then either. Amie

I just use fleece on the back for a lighter quilt, no batting. Easy to stitch as the fabric seems to stick to the fleece.

Stacy,
I think the flannel on the back and no batting will work fine. I'm making my mom a lap quilt, using a large piece of fabric that she liked too much to cut up. It looks like it should have been for drapes and is heavier than cotton. So I'm only using flannel on the back and not batting. The folks keep their house pretty warm and I want her to use it.

Before I learned to be a quilter, I sewed fabric yardage together without batting and machine quilted it for lightweight throws. The kids are still using them. They make great pool/beach blankets, wrapping up a child after a bath, tossing in the car, and just general all around useful.

As has been mentioned, keeping the two layers together during the quilting might be a problem. If you machine quilt it, be sure to use a walking foot. I made a snuggle quilt for my granddaughter just using two layers of ligt wt. fleece. Instead of machine quilting it, I tied it. She has been "snuggling" with it for years and it is still in good shape.

I should think it would be fine as long as you pin well. I like to use fleece it I am not using batting. You can get some fun designs and it is 60" wide which is really useful.

Was thinking the same thing. Like the qults of valor. Sometimes they do have restrictions for patterns, etc.

Helen