Quilt in a Day Forums

I am almost ready to start piecing a twin quilt and intend to use polar fleece as the backing, skipping the batting. I've never used fleece before like this, but my LQS owner assures me people do this all the time. So, People Who Do This All The Time, are there any changes to make? I have a long arm. Do I change the tension? Needle? Thread? Do I roll it onto the bar or float it? Does it matter? Quilt tight? loose? I was thinking of an overall meander. Please help! Thank you! Mary z

I would be very leery of putting that on my LA - it stretches and moves way too much for me - also your needle might not like it to sew on. I know that my older serger did not like fleece at all and the fleece would knock it out of timing.

If I did quilt it - I think I would leave out the batting and replace the batting with a piece of flannel for some added warmth. I have a jacket that has flannel inside of the quilted layers that I made and it is a warm jacket.

Good luck
Jana

I have used a thicker fleece as a backing instead of batting and it worked well. The quilts I used it with were tied (not hand or machine quilted), so I do not know how it would impact quilting.

I made 2 quilted sleeping bags using commander cloth(good quality jacket winter material), thinsulate as batting and a heavy fleece for the inside material. I only quilted it in lines about 6 inches apart along the length and put in a zipper. It was tricky because I was using incompatible materials(stretch and non-stretch). I had to be very careful with the fleece but the two grandchildren love their bags.

Would I do it again. Yes. However, I think that I would spray baste the fleece. Mine did not stretch much, but the first piece of fleece I tried did not make the cut, too much stretch.

A big meandering works well with using fleece for the backing. We have done several in the group for a children's project.
Even though they were sewn using a LA we did pin them first to make sure the fleece stayed where we wanted it to in case it wanted to stretch.
The thing to watch out for when using fleece for a backing is that you might think your tension is off but it isn't. It might be the fleece coming through but not to worry it will work out great as ours did.
We also used minky on a couple BUT those we used the adhesive spray.
Hope this helps.
Have fun!!
T.