Quilts without batting

It is perfectly possible to make quilts without batting as I have discovered - an idea first mentioned to me by a friend. It works best with flannel cotton which is slightly heavier than regular quilting cotton.

When you have pieced your front, use fleece for the backing. The combination of flannel and fleece gives about the same 'loft' as if you had used batting in between.

I didn't find it any more difficult to quilt. It was probably slightly easier to quilt, as you are only concerned with two, as opposed to three, layers shifting around.

And it washes just fine too. The combination of flannel and fleece makes for a very snugglesome quilt.

My 'New Wave' quilt

Oh Fransson's New Wave quilts are popping up everywhere and each time I see one, I have one of those 'I want to make one of those' moments. I particularly like this one.

But I had a quilting dilemma. I wanted to use a rather groovy Michael Miller 'cow hide' flannel as the strip that divides each colour block but I didn't have enough. Solution: make the dividing lines 1" wide instead of the regular 2" wide.

I think it is such a great way to really show off fabric.

And actually, I think it looks better with the narrower strips because this particular fabric would have over -powered the others had it been double the width.

On the back, I just sewed together the left-over slivers from either end that you have to rotary cut off to give the quilt straight edges and appliqued them on. Plus, I added just a bit of a line of the cow-hide print, as well as using it for the binding.

Quilting was in all-over circles.

I think this just might be my favourite current quilt.

Peekaboo!

Postscript: I donated this quilt to our school 'fun day' raffle yesterday to raise funds for the school. When they were drawing the prizes at the end and the quilt was held up, one 11 year old boy was heard saying to another:"That's a well lame blanket."
H'mmmm ;-(