Hodgepodge Patchwork Tuesday - A Pieced Backing for My "Think Outside the BLOCK Quilt"

What do you do with all the scraps leftover from a quilt? 

If you are going to stitch them together to create a cool backing fabric, you need to keep a few things in mind as you assemble it.

• Tight stitches as your backing fabric will be rolled onto rollers and stretched by your long arm quilter.
• It will be stretched and pulled, so there may be some wavy seams that you weren't expecting on the back of your quilt. I'm OK with them, because I know why they are there.
• Your backing fabric for a long arm quilter is at least 10 inches larger and wider, so put the pieces you want on your back in the center sections of the quilt - not all the way out to the edges.
• Try not to have too many bias seams, as those will stretch and get wavy on the back side of your quilt.
• If you are having special quilting on your quilt it might look really weird on the back of your quilt, if you have completely different design blocks on the back.  I would suggest an overall quilting if you do a pieced backing.  That will look best on both sides.
• Ask yourself will my pieced backing enhance or distract from the beautiful front of the quilt?  This is important as you have put a lot of work into your quilt top and you want to be happy with the finished quilt.

You have several options when creating a pieced back out of your leftover scraps. 

• Make more blocks.
• Sew the pieces together in a new block design.
• Sew the pieces together in rows.
• Add another solid color. Use it to border the leftover pieces and partial blocks.

I chose to sew mine together in rows with the solid strips of blue in between each of the pieces.

Then I added long blue strips in between the rows and added some to the ends of the short rows.

Then auditioned fabrics to attach to the sides. I liked this one best.

I added a large long strip to each side. The wider strip on the right to off center the rows.

I started quilting it today and hope to finish it by tomorrow.  I will post photos later in the week of the completed quilt.  I am taking this quilt with me for show and tell, this weekend, to a quilt retreat in Belmont, Wisconsin.  I started the mystery quilt at that retreat 2 or 3 years ago. The quilt Retreat is hosted by Quilts by Barb. 
Previous posts about my Think outside the BLOCK Quilt.

I had fun sewing the pieces together to create a backing, but on most of my quilts I use the Extra wide backing fabrics.
I carry 30 backing fabrics in stock and they can be ordered through my online store.  On weekdays, I ship out your fabric within 24 hours. You can order a sample package of all 30 fabrics (5 inch squares) for matching your colors. 


Back to quilting...
Marcia


Linked with:
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 Extra Wide Fabrics
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