I want to wish you luck with this. I thought about it quite a few quilts back and decided that I would just as soon have two quilts to give away rather than fight the headache of trying to match all that up. If I were to decide to try it, I would definitely do it as a Quilt as you go. You can do that even if one of the quilts is a solid piece. By adding one row at a time onto the back, you would only be matching up 1 seam at a time.
For me a better idea would be to make a second quilt top with a totally different pattern with extra large borders on each side. That way, it would give me room to load it on my long arm and I would use a pantograph on it. The pantograph only has to line up with the preceding row.
I mostly do my quilts with a solid back, even if it is several pieces of the same fabric. Most of the time, my quilting thread contrasts either with the top or the backing, so I get an artistic element when the quilt is turned over and I considered them as reversible. Everyone who receives them loves them. Of course, it's mostly my family so far and they love anything I give them.
Last edited by Barb in Louisiana; 08-30-2015 at 02:59 PM.