Saturday, October 23, 2010

Fun with Quilt Backings

It all started when I didn't have quite enough fabric left to make a backing for my quilt.  It was an ivory tone-on-tone and I didn't want to buy more, so I put a wide strip of gold right across the middle of the backing and called it "done!"  Not real clever, but I kind of liked it.  














The next few times I just wanted to use up scraps and not spend a lot of money on fabric for backings.  Hmmm, a little more interesting this time. 























Okay, now it's getting intriguing!  It's starting to look like a reversible quilt.  This time I played a little more with arranging the scraps.












I just finished piecing two backings for quilts I want to complete at Retreat in a few weeks.  I had fun with these.


The blue backing was another one where I just wanted to get rid of scraps.  You know...fat quarters I don't really like, fabrics people gave to me after they found a sack of material in their attic or basement and thought I could use it, pieces I picked up off the swap table at quilty get togethers even though I didn't need them....that kind of thing.























I'm really liking the pink backing.  I decided to use up some pretty small scraps on this one, and I've been wanting to try my hand at some Crumb Quilts.  It was fun.

























Here's a close-up of the crumb part:























One negative to piecing a backing is that it takes a long time, usually an entire day.  So I don't do it a lot, but it is a fun way to use up scraps, make your quilt a little more original, and feel like you're being creative. 

And speaking of being creative, one day soon I'll show you the fronts of these quilts!

5 comments:

Mimi said...

Oh...what a tease. I am thinking you have quite a few of those pieced backs and they are all looking really good to me.

Heather said...

Love the pieced backs! I keep going back to the black white and gray one. It is really striking! Great inspiration!

Anonymous said...

Sandy, I'm proud of you! You are starting to think like me and piece your backings with leftovers. One drawback, you won't have any scraps "to get rid of any more". Darn, I'll have to "buy my scraps" at the shops, I guess. :) Not! I like them all, but the ones with purple in them are my favorites! Dar

Eileen said...

Great idea. I just finished a t-shirt quilt and instead of going out and buying more fabric, I pieced the back together. It looks similar to yours. I haven't quilting it yet so I don't know if that will pose some problems but right now...I'm liking what I'm seeing. Thanks for sharing!

Sandy Panagos said...

Thank you for posting, Eileen! I am really liking this kind of backing -- it's kind of like "playing" with scraps!