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  1. #1
    kelliedi's Avatar kelliedi is offline Senior Member
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    Default Mixing types of materials

    Ok soooo I want to make a John Deere quilt using half-hexie template. Some of the material that i want to use is flannel and the other is cotton. Has anyone done this personally? If so did it work and what are the pitfalls? What do i need to be careful of? I was just wanting to know before i cut my materal and ruin it all.

    thanks
    kellie

  2. #2
    Dragonfly's Avatar Dragonfly is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: Mixing types of materials

    The first question that came to my mind was "have you pre-washed all the fabrics?" Flannel has a much lower thread count and shrinks at a much greater rate than the cotton, if you mix them and then wash there is big chance that your quilt will pucker in all sorts of odd ways. If you have pre-washed well then you should be able to do it, it may not be perfect but will hopefully be ok.
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    Bubby's Avatar Bubby is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: Mixing types of materials

    Kellie,

    I don't think it's a good idea for you to mix your quilting cotton with flannel fabric. The shrink factor was mentionedd above and I agree with that. I have some old quilts mades mostly of cotton and here and there a flannel piece was used and the flannel just hasn't held up like the cotton. If you are totally in love with the flannel, why not make an all flannel quilt? I have seen flannel backings on cotton quilts and I guess if you pre-shrunk the flannel first you could give it a try on the back of your quilt. The thing about flannel is that it continues to shrink over several washings and you don't really know where it will stop.

  4. #4
    K. McEuen's Avatar K. McEuen is online now Moderator
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    Default Re: Mixing types of materials

    I agree with Barb. I wouldn't mix the flannel into the top with the cotton because of the "wear" factor. Flannel can be used as a backing. I've done it many times and have quilts that my grandmother made 75 years ago that have flannel backs. I prewashed my flannel in warm water and machine dried it and haven't had any issues with it continuing to shrink over washings.
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  5. #5
    kelliedi's Avatar kelliedi is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: Mixing types of materials

    Thanks for all the advice!!!! i hadn't even thought about shrink factor. I don't generally pre-wash my fabrics, so i will either do all cotton or all flannel.

    again thanks for the advice.
    kellie

  6. #6
    mandymae's Avatar mandymae is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: Mixing types of materials

    I made a John Deere Quilt, using BOTH cotton and flannel fabrics. It was a tad tricky. As long as you pre-wash it the shrinking wont be an issue. However, the flannel still stretches alot easier than the cotton so beware of that when you go to cut/sew/iron the seams. It's tricky, but not impossible. Here's a picture of mine that I made for my little boy: Mixing types of materials-hunters-quilt.jpg

    (Hopefully that picture attached correctly) But the flannel fabrics in that are the light blue tractor pattern, and the green and blue plaid pattern. The rest are cotton. So as you can see I didn't use much, but it just goes to show you its not impossible. I mainly wanted to use some flannel for the mere fact that I made it as a baby quilt for my son so I wanted the textures to be different for him.

    Good Luck!

  7. #7
    alwaysinmyroom's Avatar alwaysinmyroom is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: Mixing types of materials

    What a cute baby quilt! I am sure the baby likes the feel of the different fabrics and the colors are wonderful!

    I have made a few baby quilts using both flannel and cotton with no problems. I do not prewash my fabrics but the care labels said that the fabrics had been preshrunk and that shrinkage would be less than 1%. I mixed and matched the front but used cotton for the back and binding. I would say the extra step of prewashing would make it even less scary...can't wait to see what you make!

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