Thread: When planning your backing design......

Generally the only thing I take into consideration is the direction of the backing seam(s) in relation to how I'm going to load the top. In both of these examples, I used leftover blocks pieced into the backing.

The pink and blue quilt I loaded sideways -- I wanted to do a feather down the length of the left and right border and my stops and starts aren't too whoopie yet, so I needed the seams to run the length of the quilt. The pieced blocks were off-set so those seams didn't stack on each other as I rolled the backing onto the frame. As you can see, I just wacked off the left hand block where the quilt ended. The backing had a floral strip which also was wacked off.

The multicolored quilt where the backing matches the border was loaded onto the frame "normally" - top edge first. The pieced section was centered, but as discussed in other threads on the board, getting something centered vertically (meaning in this instance between the leading edge of the quilt and the bottom edge of the quilt) is next to impossible. I also just wacked the blocks where they fell.

Both of these quilts have my swirly freehand loopy flowers, so it didn't matter where the piecing landed.