That is another lesson I learned from my DH, whose hobby is woodworking. Measure twice, cut once. Unfortunately, I did not always heed his advise and have one quilt that has a 6 inch wide strip of different fabric on the back. Thought I was the first one to think of this idea--cut the too-short backing in 2/3-1/3 pieces, embroidery stitiched my quilt info on the alternating fabric and sewed it between the other two pieces. It gave the backing an interesting look.