How to Quilt>Backing for your Quilt

Backing for your Quilts

 

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Not long ago, we talked about backings for your quilts.

The most obvious way to create a backing for a quilt is to get one piece of fabric slightly larger than your quilt top, and use that as a backing fabric.

However, sometimes that isn't exactly possible. It could be that the quilt is larger than any width of fabric. Or it is possible that you don't have enough of one piece of fabric, and you just don't want to buy any more fabric for that quilt - especially for the back.

Trust me, I've been there!

Long ago, I made an Ocean Waves quilt for engineering son, Bubba. I had gotten some extra special Pima cotton for the project, and was running out of the fabric.

When I went back to the fabric store, there was no more, and I wanted to finish the quilt using the Pima cotton. Silly me!

Anyway I was able to take pieces of fabric that were left over, and sew them together to create a striped backing.

If you are piecing your backing, you may want to keep in mind whether the fabric you are using for your backing will show through to the front of your quilt.

Several years ago I made an Irish Chain quilt using white fabric and green fabric. I decided to piece the backing using a light fabric in addition to a brown fabric. i didn't realize until after the quilt was finished, that the brown cast a shadow onto the front of the quilt.

What made it especially bad was that the brown was in two strips on the top and bottom of the quilt back, with the light fabric in between. This showed through onto the front and made two darker strips on the top and bottom of the quilt. Very disappointing!

In short, here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you piece the backing:

* Use fabric that won’t show through to the front of your quilt, creating a kind of shadow

* The seams in your quilt backing may make it difficult to quilt, especially if you are hand quilting. Keeping the number of seams on your backing at a minimum might be a good plan

* You may sew two lengths of fabric together creating a seam through the center of your quilt. Often it is better to run the seam in the backing from side to side instead of from top to bottom.

Since the front of this quilt was relatively dark, it wasn't possible for the fabric to show through to the front of the quilt.

Most of my quilts are learning experiences in one way or another. And this quilt was no exception. The backing was fine, and the piecing went together well. The lesson in this quilt was hand quilting the Pima cotton. Way too dense thread count, making it very difficult to quilt.

Engineer son, Bubba's, Ocean Waves quilt. The borders and backing were created as I was running out of fabric.	Since I didn't have enough of any one fabric, I pieced the backing, cutting strips of each of the fabrics I had left and then simply sewing them together.

Another consideration when deciding on your backing is how you will bind the finished quilt.  If you will add a separate binding, the backing fabric can be completelly different from the quilt top.

Often I like to have a complete surprise on the back of my quilt - adding fabric that is completely different.

However, if you plan to fold the edges of your quilt backing over to create the binding, you will probably want to choose a backing that will go with your quilt top. And, even if you piece the backing, it can complement the quilt top.

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren

www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

 

©2009, Penny Halgren
Penny is a quilter of more than 27 years who seeks to interest new quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create beautiful quilts.

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