This pinwheel baby quilt has flannel for the top and quilting cotton for the backing. I’ve been told this is an unusual arrangement, but it works out beautifully just like a typical quilt using quilting cotton for both top and backing.
The first time I used this combo was actually in a rag quilt. Since it worked out for that rag quilt, I just figured why not use it in a regular quilt. For this quilt, the colors and prints happened to work out the way I wanted them to by using the flannels on top and quilting cotton in the backing. Plus, I love flannel, and find myself looking for excuses to use it.
Flannel is super soft and comes in lots of prints that are baby quilt friendly. I love working with it. I like to think of it as my soft snuggly best friend flannel, but I decided to go with regular quilting cotton for the backing for functionality.
Being a baby quilt, there’s a good chance it may end up on the floor or on the ground, used as a play mat or nap mat. Quilting cotton does have a smoother texture, making it easier to wipe off debris compared to flannel. I chose a dark print for the back for the same functionality. If this guy ever ends up on the floor or ground, that navy print won’t show dirt as bad as a lighter print.
The Quilting
I typically prefer free motion quilting. It looks pretty and has endless possibilities. Another big bonus is that it’s quicker: not as much stopping and starting, you can go whatever direction you want without having to turn the quilt around, and you don’t have to mark your stitch lines unless you just want to.
For this quilt, I decided to go in a different direction with organic wavy lines. They’re a great way to add nice texture to your quilt. You can do the wavy lines free motion, but if you aren’t comfortable with free motion quilting yet, they can easily be done with your walking foot. Another perk to doing walking foot wavy lines for this quilt is the walking foot helps tame the flannel. Flannel is a bit more stretchy and uncooperative than regular quilting cotton, and the walking foot helps feed the flannel top layer more evenly, motivating it to cooperate a little better for you. Chatterbox quilts has a good video demo for quilting the organic wavy lines with your walking foot.
Then of course, there’s pinwheels! I love pinwheels! They are fun and pretty and always seem to look good. Check out my previous post to see another pinwheel quilt.
As always, thank you for taking the time to read my post! I hope you enjoyed it or found it useful in some way.
Happy quilting!
