My mom quilted that way all the time. She sewed the fronts together (RST) and when she did that, she pulled the backing and batting away; then she turned one side of the backing over the other side and hand stitched the backside seam. I think she may have trimmed the batting and one side of the backing to make it smooth as there was never any lumps or bumps on the back of her quilts. In fact she prided herself in having the back look as nice as the front!! Her hand quilting was amazing....very tiny stitches.....I haven't reached that point yet!!