Oh, my goodness, a minky backing sounds perfect!

yup, I figured even if they didn't really appreciate the quilt they'd enjoy the minky.  I've not ever done a minky backing before so we'll see how it goes.  I understand there are tricks, I'll have to search the internet.

Dee in TX (DBRADFOR3) said:

I understand there are tricks, I'll have to search the internet.

Minky is a knit, much like fleece.   The cut edge is REALLY stretchy.  What I've done is sewn a strip of muslin onto the cut edge so it *won't* stretch.   The muslin strip is going to be cut off when the quilt is squared up, so you can even do an overlap seam rather than a conventional seam.  The overlap part doesn't create a ridge the way a conventional seam will.   If that muslin strip is sufficiently close to the the edge of the top, then the machine carriage will tend to get hung up on the side tensioners ... and that's obnoxious.

But, that's a work-around that has worked nicely for me.  You don't need the muslin strips on the selvage edge, as they are already non-stretchy.

I am not experienced working with Minky/Minkee, but I would suggest wearing a mask (and maybe safety glasses) when working with it.  The little fibers go everywhere, including in one's eyes, and right up one's nose.  

Well, that information would send me right to the best quality polyester fleece I could find.

I've seen where people put masking or painters tape where they are going to cut to limit and shedding.  I was going to try that.  Or as Judy said, find a nice regular fleece.  I've gotten a few that draped really nicely.

Like I said, I have never used it myself, but it does feel SO cuddly.  And YouTube is full of videos showing tips and tricks for working with it.  

I picture in my mind little Pig Pen from "Peanuts" surrounded by a cloud of Minkee fibers as he walks along.  Only I seem to be conflating Linus with his blankie and Pig Pen with his dust/fiber cloud.  

This past week, I've been indulging in my desire to sew/quilt stuff.  I've finished quilting a couple of tops.  I've finished piecing a couple of tops (now hung up, waiting to be quilted!).  

I pulled out a baby-sized panel that I bought in Mexico City (hmmm.. maybe around 2015?) when we were visiting our oldest daughter there.  I paired the panel with fleece for the backing and started quilting.

You know how, when you do something/anything for a long time, you don't even need to consciously think about all the little steps, tips, and tricks to accomplish the task?  You just do it because you've done it so often, it's second nature.  Well, that didn't exactly happen with my quilting.   It's very annoying to remember these details after the fact.  Harumph.

There are times when I like to do border quilting designs.  Sometimes I'll turn the quilt to do the side borders; sometimes I'll just do the side borders as I progress down the top.  When you're doing an all-over or edge-to-edge design, you don't need to think about the quilting design with respect to the edges of the quilt ... you just quilt off the edge, no big deal.  But with some specific border quilting designs, sometimes you DO need to be concerned about where the quilting along the edge ends.

Because .... you need to think about the amount of the edge that is going to be covered by the binding.  At the minimum, it's going to be 1/4".  My bindings tend to be about 3/8".  SO ..... what I do is is to mark a line about 1/2" from the edge, which tells me to *stop* quilting at that line, otherwise the quilting is going to be covered by the binding.

Guess what detail I forgot to do when I was quilting the borders of the panel print?  Yep .... I didn't mark that 1/2" line.  Sigh.  So, I blithely and merrily went on my way, quilting loop-de-loops along the borders.  About halfway done, I realized .... drats drats drats ... I quilted the bottom of the loop-de-loops *right up against* the raw edge of the top.  Drats drats drats.  And harumph.

Nope, I did NOT rip out all the quilting, I just continued onwards, being really annoyed with myself for forgetting that little detail.  Obviously, I need to keep up my quilting skills  and not take such a long break between projects.  :-/

Ohhhhh, that’s a nice block.  What that one called?

hey..that sounds like something I would do...