I have no idea what project my neighbor plans to use the sheets for, but I'll tell her it's been recommended that she machine quilt. I machine piece and hand quilt, so I may pass on purchasing sheets for a quilt. I'd hate to make things harder for myself!

I've never noticed before but does the count thread show on the bolts of fabric?

I have used bed sheets for whole cloth quilting, it turned out great and launders great.

No, very rarely to never.

Thread counter....wow, what is the brand name, where did you purchase it?

I personally hate to use sheets. I find that they ravel so much and that they are hard to do any kind of hand work on. I did use an old, old sheet for the lining on my bedspread blouse I made, but it seemed appropriate to the blouse (wearing your bed to work kinda tickled me.)

I use bed sheets all the time for backing - the thread count on the sheets does not matter to me, I don't always know the thread count as I will buy good sheets at garage sales, or the thrift store. I've never encountered a problem, but I do my own quilting. Some shops that do quilting will not take sheets for backing.

I have used sheets for backing and for piecing. I hand quilt and have no problem. Our vintage quilts often have a bit of variety in the thread count but all were hand quilted. Unless you do a quilt with all the same collection you probably will have a different count. And the print can sometimes be different in a collection that the plain or TOT. Try it, remembering there are no rules.

I do hand quilting...can't use sheets for that. Makes quilting too hard. My opinion, anyway.

I have had several quilts professionaly long arm quilted. The lady who does the quilting prefers sheets for the backing if the quilt is to be used regularly.