I’ve received quite a few questions about the Quilt Along regarding batting and backing so I thought I’d answer some of them here today.
If your new here, I’m hosting a quilt along on my blog right now. It’s a little different than a traditional quilt along in that we are not all making the same quilt. Rather, the challenge is to make a quilt (design of your choice) to give to someone you love for Christmas this year (or other winter holiday). The idea being to balance out all of the electronic buzz with some handmade goodness 🙂
I’m in the process of making 3 lap quilts for my kids. I’ll be sharing the steps along the way here incase you want to follow along with what I’m doing, and to keep myself on track.
Okay… now onto backing and batting.
Let me just preface this by saying, this is just what I like. I am by NO means an expert at this, what I’ve learned is all self taught or from reading blogs. I’ve made about 8 of these lap quilts over the last few years so I can share with you what I’ve learned.
For batting:
My favorite is Quilters Dream Cotton Batting. I also use Warm and Natural batting or Warm and White batting. Just usually whatever I can find locally and at a good price. Just know that if you have light colored or white fabric in your quilt top you will want to go with a white batting (not natural, as it might show through).
I LOVE the 100% cotton batting. It’s easy to quilt with (no funky stuff to break a needle) and washes up beautifully. There is a cheat sheet of Cotton Batting found here or here .
Backing:
Snuggles or Minke:
Let’s just say you have A LOT of choices when it comes to backing your quilt. I’ve used Moda Snuggles several times and not had a problem with it. I am NOT an expert machine quilter and have not had problems with it puckering or bunching while I machine sew it. I do have some tips and tricks to working with this that I will share when we get to the machine quilting part in a week or two. Just a note: make sure you’ve got a walking foot for the machine quilting part coming up…
Other Quilt Along Posts:
sonia says
I’ve never used Minke or snuggles, is it similar to velvet or more like towel? Is it the polar fabric they use in winter jackets? I’ve always used cotton for my backings and would love to try something new. I’m enjoying every moment of this quilt along. Thanks!