8 Ideas for Making a Quilt Backing

If yous find yourself losing steam after your patchwork quilt top is made, you're not lonely. The chore of creating a quilt bankroll textile is often non well-nigh equally enticing as starting a new project.

But wait! Finishing that quilt is going to exist soooo rewarding. Hither are some ideas to help yous push on to make that quilt backing.

Recollect - your quilt back should be two-iv" larger than the quilt top in all four directions.

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No. one - Utilise Wide back Textile

This no-sew alternative is my go-to for large quilts, call back twin-size and bigger. With bed quilts the backing fabric is rarely appreciated. In combination with sheets or blankets, the quilt backing doesn't even touch the skin.

Wide bankroll fabrics make the cheapest and easiest quilt bankroll. The only downside? Selection is limited. Ask your local quilt shop to stock wide dorsum fabrics or shop online. Fat Quarter Shop has one of the largest selections I've seen.

Wide back fabrics are commonly 108" broad. That's probably large enough for the longest side of your quilt. Measure the short side of your quilt to determine how much yardage to club.

Example: 88" 10 98" queen quilt. The short side is 88". Buy 2 2/3 yards for 96" of wide back textile.

No. two - Utilize a Flat Sheet

A high quality flat bed sail may be large enough to serve as your quilt dorsum. This is another no-run up alternative, which is more likely to be bachelor locally. Look for 100% cotton wool sateen. Do not buy a stretchy sail material, such equally jersey or "t-shirt" material.

Before basting your quilt sandwich, check that your sewing auto will stitch easily through the bed sheet. Make a minor test quilt sandwich and give it a go.  Sometimes a sail's tight weave resists quilting.  A fine needle would conform the sheet, but may not be hearty enough for the rigors of quilting.

No. 3 - Buy Yardage

For most throw quilts, the backing textile is seen and felt almost every bit often as the quilt top. Using one, truly special fabric for the backing can really enhance your enjoyment of the finished quilt.

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Regular quilting cotton yardage is 42-44" wide. For this approach, y'all'll have to purchase enough yardage to sew two big pieces together. When you lot sew together the yardage together, you lot'll take a piece approximately eighty" wide.

Example: lx" ten 68" throw quilt. The long side is 68", which will work with the 80" joined-yardage width. Purchase enough yardage to equal the brusk side of the quilt multiplied by ii, with some extra. 60" x 2 = 120". Buy 3 three/4 yards for 135" of backing material.

No. 4 - Simple Pieced Backing

Another squeamish style to make a quilt back style is with two different fabrics. Utilize the full-width of i textile and arrange the other fabric every bit a smaller row or column, to bring the quilt back up to size. This approach frequently means you can purchase less yardage than the above approach. The pocket-sized row or cavalcade tin be pieced so that at that place is non a bunch of actress fabric left over.

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Example: 60" x 68" throw quilt. Buy two yards of the master fabric (the bee fabric in a higher place). That provides a cutting of material 42" wide and 72" long. Buy 1 one/3 yards of the column fabric (stripe cloth above). Cut it in half to yield (two) 24" x width-of-cloth sections. Connect them to create a long column and and then bring together the column to the principal fabric.

No. five - Puzzle Together Fabrics on Hand

Is your fabric stash getting a little unwieldy? Make the quilt dorsum using fabrics on paw in colors that coordinate with the quilt acme. This is a great mode to use fabrics that have been hanging effectually for awhile or ones that are more than fun whole, rather than chopped upwards for patchwork.

First by identifying 1-two appropriate fabrics that you lot accept in full-yard cuts (or larger).  Lay your quilt top on the flooring, to provide a visual reference for the quilt dorsum size needed. Keep in mind that your quilt back should be 2-iv" larger than the quilt back in all four directions.

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Place the large cut(s) on the quilt meridian with a bit extending beyond the quilt top at the edges. And then add together smaller cuts to make full in the gaps for your quilt backing.

Since yous can see the quilt top during this process, information technology'due south easy to imagine how your developing quilt dorsum will coordinate with the quilt top! When I create a quilt back this way, I don't even half to mensurate the quilt superlative. Score!

No. 6 - Make a Consistent Grid

Did you buy style too much textile for your quilt top? Use whatever leftovers on the quilt dorsum! In contrast to the improvisational puzzle method, here the quilt back is made up of consistently-sized fabric cuts. Decide upon a size that suits your fabrics, and so cutting them to the aforementioned size. Fat quarter shapes or big 20" squares - the larger you can go, the faster your quilt back will stitch together.

How many fabric cuts exercise you need? Well, that depends upon your quilt top, of course. Simple multiplication will reveal the answer when yous are working in a straightforward grid.

No. 7 - Use upward Extra Blocks

If you've made a few more than quilt blocks than yous really needed for your quilt tiptop, contain them into the quilt back. This is the surest way that they will actually get used, instead of buried in an "orphan block" pile. Using extra quilt blocks in the quilt back besides instantly boosts the sense of unity between both sides of your quilt.

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When I utilize extra quilt blocks for the quilt dorsum, I like to design the backing on the floor using the Puzzle approach from No. 5. The quilt blocks become part of the puzzle!

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If you have smaller blocks or lots of blocks, showtime by sewing them together, perhaps with sashing. This makes the blocks a large puzzle slice. Once joined information technology's much easier to see what y'all need to add together in order to complete your quilt dorsum.

No. eight - Etch a Statement

Practice y'all have more free energy for creating that quilt dorsum than you thought? Peradventure you'd like to create something special that shows off your favorite fabrics or other features from the quilt top. Consider using a edge or even contrasting colors to sew a quilt back with fashion.

Here are some examples of my quilts, dorsum and front, where the quilt back makes more of a statement.

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I hope this list has sparked your imagination. If you think about information technology, making the quilt back is actually an opportunity to stitch another quilt in fabrics/colors that coordinate with your offset 1. Sure, sometimes it'south dainty to but practise something piece of cake and motility on to the adjacent project. Other times you might savour lingering over that quilt back construction if you give yourself the space to exist artistic.

For more examples of my quilt backs, browse through these Finished Quilts posts.

Happy quilting!