Backing for quilt
 

Hi fellow quilters,
Quick question. Do most of you have one seam or two seams on the back of your quilt when you are piecing it. And if you have one seam, do you usually put it in the middle or put it off to the side?
Thanks for your input!

Depending on the size. Mostly I go with one seam in center.

I try not to use a center seam, but sometimes (time constraints) I just sew up 2 pieces and have 1 seam. I have been finding good deals on wide fabric so I don't have to use a seam at all. My favorite!

When I tied quilts, I would have one seam going down vertically. With a longarm, it doesn't load nice that way, so I will do 2-3 seams going across the quilt horizontally.

Gabeway,
If you make baby quilts, do you put the seam in the middle?
What do you do when you make queen sized quilts?
Thanks.

PABerard,
You usually put three pieces if you can't find one piece big enough. Do you use have your seams on back going horizontally or vertically?

1 or 2 seams depends on how much fabric I have for backing. Usually 1 seam that I try to get close to the center as possible! I have heard that the seam should be off center since there would be then less stress on the seam. I usualy do not buy 90" backing but rather get 45" and 5-6 yds and cut the fabric widthwise and then sew 45" ends together. A piece of fabric 45x 6yd (216") cut and sewn this way would yeild a peice 90 x 108 which is enough to back my usual size quilt of 80x95. the seam goes crosswise on the quilt. The quilt does not care which way the seam goes. I have a really hard time centering backing that has multiple fabric in it so I try not to do this. Also the way I sandwich my quilts is to lay one edge with a little hanging down on the plywood board I have on my table, clip it down with binder clips, lay batting and top on and pin.(except I is 505 spry adhesive) This means that I do not work from the center out when sandwiching but rather about 2/3 and then I move sandwich and pin the other 1/3. This way I am only moving and re-anchoring the sandwich 1 time instead of 2 times. Easier? try it and see.

I don't really care where the seam goes, and often I piece the back to the point that it's almost like a top so the seams go all over.

I have heard that there shouldn't be a seam in the center, but I don't understand why. Why would there be more stress in the center of a quilt? Are people playing tug-of-war with it? Even if they were, won't the quilt break at the weakest link, which could be off-center? (Just teasing of course.) My feeling is that after the quilt is quilted, any seams are pretty much hidden and are certainly stabilized. If it mattered at all on a bed quilt (say you thought the area with the seam might be rougher), wouldn't you want that seam in the center so that neither person under the quilt would be directly under the seam?

As far as longarming, I just turn the quilt so that the main seams are horizontal while the quilt is on the frame. It does make the backing lay better that way. I don't care whether the quilt is right-side-up, upside-down, or sideways on the frame. I understand that some designs might be easier to quilt if the quilt is in a certain orientation, but most of the time it wouldn't matter (and it never matters for the quilting I do).

I do care about how the fabrics on the back look if I'm using multiple fabrics there, and I try to arrange them in a pleasing manner, but if there's just one fabric, I just make sure I don't have a seam so close to the edge of the quilt top that it will cause problems when I trim the backing and start to bind it.

The group I belong to are encouraged to almost piece the back, but to put some blocks on th back instead of wasting fabric.

Many people say you shouldn't join the seam in the middle as this is the area that get the most wear.
I can't remember where I picked this tip up (probably somewhere on here, lol) but if I need to join 45" wide fabric for backing, I firstly unfold the pieces to be joined, then iron out the centre seam.
I then place the two pieces right sides together, selvage to selvage and sew seams, forming a 'tube'. It's up to you whether you sew 1/4" or 1/2" seams or trim the selvage. Press seams open or to the side, as you prefer.
Then, with sharp scissors cut the 'tube' up the centre - you'll probably still be able to see the original shop fold to guide you.
The joining seams will now be even on each side and you will have a large section in the middle.