Flannel on fleece question

I'm finally finishing the free-form pieced flannel quilt top I started making several years ago. It started when my mom sent me a large box filled with strips and squares and .... blobs .... of gorgeous flannel fabric. She started to make a quilt, cut everything "wrong" and stopped right there and sent the resulting pieces to me. I've just been puttering with them, putting a few together here and a few there. Now I've got a twin sized quilt top. And I want to put it on a really soft piece of wooly fleece. Big question, should I wash/shrink the quilt top before quilting it onto the fleece, which won't shrink a bit? There was no way I was going to wash the hundreds of individual strips and pieces of flannel in the box Mom sent me. Now, with it all sewn together, I think it will survive a washing. But I wanted to throw out the question before going further.

Sunny

Reply to
Sunny
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Why don't you just annoy it, Sunny? When I need to shrink cotton lace for one of my heirloom projects, I put it in water as hot as possible - and then surprise it with an ice water soak. Maybe twice. That does some shrinking without the trauma of really washing it. Next, I think you'd better slip it in a pillowcase so it doesn't get all frayed dancing around loose in the dryer. Polly

"Sunny" I'm finally finishing the free-form pieced flannel quilt top I started

Reply to
Polly Esther

Depends on the effect you want and who will be washing it in the future. If you do decide to wash the top I would serge or zigzag around the outside edge first. And probably do as Polly suggests and be a bit gentle so the seams don't ravel to nothing. Of course if you just plan that it will shrink and make the fleece sort of crinkly that might work well too. (How about sewing some pieces of flannel together, sewing it to a scrap of fleece and see what happens when it is washed?? then decide.)

Pati, in Phx

Reply to
Pati, in Phx

Pardon my ignorance... (Not to worry, I brought enough for everyone to pass around... :-)

Why would you NOT?

Is that a euphemism for "crazy quilt" or something different?

Doc

Reply to
Dr. Zachary Smith

Doc, "free-form pieced" means I sat down with a box of strips and pieces of various kinds and started stitching them together randomly until I had a chunk. Then I put that aside and made another chunk the same size. Stitched those two together, thought it needed a long strip down the side, pieced several long strips together and added that. Then I made another one the same size. Etc.

No "blocks" and no plan. Just putting the pieces together until they ended up big enough for a twin bed. Well, actually, big enough to match a gorgeous, buttery soft double sided fleece blanket I found two winters ago on massive sale. So that's free form piecing. You can do it while watching television or worrying about your kids or something else going on in your head. It's just your fingers and your eyes. Looks really good when you're done. I'll post pics in a couple days.

Sunny

Reply to
Sunny

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