to practice free motion

[Judy B.]

Should I quilt cotton fabric to a fleece to make a throw? Or should I duplicate quilting a layer of flannel to a batt and a cotton top? I could use cotton on both sides with a similar batt to practice. I could also buy flannel to duplicate the thickness and qualities of the project I need to do free motion on and the throw is for practice. I am only quilting a throw about 44 by 60.

[Kathryn S.]

Jan, I would try to duplicate the actual quilt in the practice piece, fleece is kind of stretchy and won't act like batting or flannel. It would be better to know right away what kinds of problems you might run into! I once made a baby quilt with Minkee (sp?) on the back, and just quilted it very simply with ditch or straight line quilting because the Minkee pooched and moved around on me. I had to pin baste pretty closely to keep it under control.

Kathy

[Beth A.]

I made a baby quilt with Minkee and just spray basted it and (much to my surprise) it machine quilted just like all my other quilts. No special problems.

BethMI

[Beth A.]

Jan, I would try to duplicate the actual quilt in the practice piece

I agree with Kathy on this one. I know even switching from one brand of cotton or cotton/blend batting to another can be different, and using a poly batt can be very different. Some people do not like to use flannel for backing, personally I have had no problems there.

If you are just practicing to "learn" then I would recommend cotton for both the top and bottom, and what you will normally be using as batting for the batt. If you are practicing for a particular quilt, then use the fabric and batt combination that will be used in the finished project.