Have you ever snuggled a quilt with cuddle or minky backing?  They're amazing.  They really are in a whole different category from traditional quilting cotton quilts.  These plush, pet-able fabrics make a quilt much warmer and fluffier.  For a throw quilt in a cold climate, it's a nice way to go.

But, but, cuddle and minky are knit fabrics.  That means they STRETCH.  Whether you are basting and quilting on your home machine or long arm quilting, you have to be extra careful not to stretch the backing in the process.  Some people have horrible experiences and vow never to use cuddle or minky as backings again.

All the sudden we've had lots of customers interested in these plush backings for our long arm quilting services.  One brave customer allowed us to use her quilt as a test case.  Marta of From Marta with Love had already purchased a cuddle backing and knew it was the right choice for project.

First, research.  Of all the suggestions we found, this excellent article written for long arm quilters at APQS was the most helpful.  We followed advice about loading the selvedge perpendicular to the roller bars and using pins instead of clamps.  And, of course, we stitched a little test sandwich.  

Be sure to choose a minimal quilting pattern that's fairly open for these types of backings.  Anything dense will matte down the plush fabric so that you loose the effect.  Plus, denser quilting is more likely to pucker when you're working with stretchy and bulky backings.

I'm happy to report that it all came out swimmingly!  Quilting with cuddle was more time-consuming than with quilting cotton, but the results are so worth it.  I've used minky before for baby projects, but had never considered it for throw quilts.  Now I will!  

If you're interested in having your quilt long arm quilted with a plush backing such as cuddle or minky, we can do that for you!  A $35 fee applies to cover the extra attention it requires.  Add this Plush Backing handling fee to your cart, along with your quilting service.

And don't forget to snuggle that quilt!