I'll bet the fleece quilts are very cozy. Thanks for the advice. I may use a long armer to do my next quilt with minky on the back.

I am a longarm quilter, and I use minky and fleece fabric;s a lot, because customers love it. Just be careful to load the stretchy on the side and DONT roll too tight. Use a loose all over quilting pattern and you will not have a problem. I like to use Superior, mono poly thread as it will not show.

Sounds great Dawn. My mom told me Amazon.com has minky for 5$ per yard.

I'm glad you finally found a system that works for you! And, the people who have complained to me about working with Minkee, have perhaps bought their Minkee from Joann's, and therefore maybe it has more stretch to it. I personally did not have a problem, and the quilting on the front side looked really cool on the backside, buried in the Minkee. (I stretched and taped it to my cutting table as I was making my sandwich, working half of the quilt at a time) The only problem I had, was sometimes the bumpie dots became inies instead of outies. I'll post some pictures of the quilting some day when I fire up my main computer.

Dawn

I finally got it right. I used my t pins to keep the minky stretched at each side. I ironed fusible fleece to the cotton. Then I started on one side and put straight pins literally every inch from one side to the other. I am planning to do one quilt for this charity each month.I also need to make one for my daughter. That involves cutting a.lot.

Jan, keeping posting and let us know what you learn. I have two pieces of Minky downstairs that I need to at least put a back on. When on vacation the 2 grands with us were cold from the air conditioning. I had DH stop at a fabric shop to find a piece of fleece. I ended up with minky. They were fine covering up with it in the car, but I was told it would ravel or run if not hemmed. I think I will back it with fleece or flannel so it will still be cuddly soft for them. If I do any quilting it will be widely spaced. I will do it on my longarm without stretching it too much.

Well I don't see where I got some more responses like from Scoopie. I am trying to make a little girl baby blanket and the minky I bought from Joann's is giving me more trouble than I've had before. I could see thru the criss crossed yellow. So I went back and bought some purple dot minky at Joann's again thinking it would be the same quality as those in quilt shops. It seems to have more stretch in both directions than I have seen before. A friend suggested that I iron fusible fleece batting to the cotton front and I thought that would help. I also tried to square up that fabric before the fusing. Now I am going to google the topic of sewing with minky. I think my old technique of using t pins to stretch it across the stretchier grain might be helpful. I also think I need to baste carefully(I use straight pins). I couldn't find any tutorials about it on my pinterest board for diy baby gifts. Will let you know how it goes. Jan

I didn't expect the link to put it's video right here. That's cool.

is the video. I watched it again and she uses one or two of those folding tables depending on the size of the quilt. That means people in small spaces can do larger quilts and then tear it all down. If the link isn't right I googled: youtube video on how to make a sewing table with foam insulation. I was going crazy with my first quilt because being about 65 or 70" square it was dragging toward the table which is lower if you don't do the insulation on top of your table. She also uses a layer of thick vinyl over it all to help the quilt slide easily. You will love it.

This video sounds very interesting...any chance you remember the link? Always looking for ways to make quilting with my domestic easier

That's great that it doesn't shrink. I should have bought some today at Joann's while I had coupons.

Hi Jan -

I don't remember that video so it probably wasn't me, but we've definitely communicated about a lot of things through the years. Minky does wash without shrinking. It's polyester. However, if you are using the textured Minky, you can lose the texture when you wash so I would test that before washing.

When I did my last minky backed quilts I didn't pay attention to the stretch when basting. I rushed them for a birthday party for the neighbors 2 boys. But I do remember stretching the minkee on my carpet with T pins probably with the stretchy grain being what I stretched across from right to left. Ooh a new thought: Does the Minky wash without shrinking? Thanks for the info, Nancy. I remember when you referred me to the Youtube video on how to use foam insulation to make my dining room table the same height as the machine stitching surface. It enabled me to sew 75x75" quilts that would have been so much harder to free motion without that support. I think it was u because who could forget your cutie pie dog in the snow.

Thanks for the info