Here’s a quilt I recently made for a friend’s 3 year-old niece who is going into chemo for leukemia soon. It’s an I-spy with 4″ squares and a few 4-patches thrown in for variety. It’s backed with warm and cuddly sherpa fleece and tied with prayers. Hopefully it will provide both comfort and entertainment for her in the coming weeks and months.
Fabrics like polar and sherpa fleece (a textured fleece fabric that feels like curly lamb’s wool) make great backings for kids’ comfort quilts. They’re soft, cuddly, and easy care too! There’s no need for batting or binding, just layer the quilt top and fleece backing right sides together and sew a pillowcase finish (sew around all the edges, leaving an opening on one side to turn the quilt right sides out, then hand- or machine-sew the opening shut). Fleece comes 60″ wide on the bolt, so you probably won’t have to piece the backing. Most fleece fabrics can be machine washed on a cool gentle setting and dried on low heat.
Tips for backing quilts with fleece:

• Lay the backing fleece right side up on a flat surface and gently smooth all the wrinkles out. (On some fleece fabrics, the back and front is very similar. Whichever side you like best is the front.) Fleece can be stretchy. Be careful to smooth and not stretch or your backing will end up smaller than the top. Lay the quilt top right side down centered on top of the fleece backing and gently smooth the top’s wrinkles out.

• Pin the layers together every 3-4 inches around all the edges to encourage it to stay put while you sew.

• If you have a walking foot, use it. If you don’t have a walking foot, place the pins closer together and sew slowly.

• Fleece is thick. Reduce the sewing machine foot’s pressure so that there is enough room for the feed dogs to move the two layers forward freely without resistance. (Sherpa fleece is one of the thickest. Anti-pill fleece tends to be thinner.)

• An 8-10″ opening will give you enough room to turn the quilt right side out and arrange the edges and corners into place. Backstitch at the beginning and the end to secure the thread.

• Tying fleece-backed quilts works much better than quilting, and looks great too! After you turn the quilt right side out and sew the opening shut you can tie the quilt every 4-6 inches. I used YLI Jeans Stitch, but crochet yarn or perle cotton works great too. Here’s a quick video demonstrating how to tie a secure knot. For more information on prayer quilts visit Prayers and Squares.

• You can wrap the quilt for gift-giving with a ribbon of fleece left over from the backing.