Just going to put it out there straight away, this is not about double sided quilts, this is about being a bit creative – especially when you haven’t got enough fabric for your backing!
Once upon a time, when the world and I were young (and dinosaurs roamed the earth!) I had enough money to buy the fabric that I needed. Which was really lovely! I was working on a Storm at Sea variation and had spent a lot of time choosing the fabric for the front of the quilt. I was going to select the fabric for the back later when I knew what size it would end up at.
Backing – Storm quilt
In stomps the divorce of the century! No access to my bank account (tip of the day – don’t have joint accounts!) meant no buying of fabric. Your life goes to pot, and then, to cap it all, you haven’t got any fabric for your quilt back! Disaster! I pieced together every scrap left over from the top until I had created a piece of fabric large enough for the back. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t planned, but by golly I wasn’t giving up!
There were a few quilts made around that time that had pieced backs, but it was a few years later when I started to design backs (as opposed to just slinging it all together!) If I have a piece of backing fabric large enough then I will use it – there’s no point in making work after all! But when my top is wider than the standard width of fabric then I get creative.
There are no rules, but as a guideline I would always suggest that you avoid centre lines and borders on backings. It is really hard to ensure that everything lines up front and back, so best to avoid making things too difficult when it’s not necessary.
So, no more getting into a tizz when your backing fabric isn’t long enough or wide enough. Have a look round and see what fabric you have that will go with the backing; then think about where to add it so that the back is balanced. Like I say, avoid trying to add an insert in the centre of the backing – no matter how hard you try, it won’t end up in the centre, and will look like you have not succeeded. Also, avoid adding a border all around the backing fabric for the same reasons. If you are planning to have lots of parallel lines of quilting, then maybe use an insert that leans towards the diagonal so that the quilting lines aren’t trying to match.
Now, off you go and experiment!
Happy backings!
Sheena
Great advice, thank you 🙂