The older quilts that I have (from my mother-in-law) ALL HAD WHITE BACKS - mostly feedsacks or muslin. I don't think my MIL ever used anything but white. Everything that she quilted was by hand. She did piece on her machine while I knew her.

I vote muslin and they are precious quilts....love them.

I love backing quilts with muslin! I buy mine at Joann's on sale. I've bought it at $2.50/yard! Love love love how the echo quilting would look, too.

Good luck!

That scrappy lantern is just beautiful.....oh please handquilt these....It will take ages but they are so worth it.

Someone did an awful lot of beautiful piecing. I can hardly wait to see then quilted. Good luck. I know you'll be having a lot of fun doing it.

Priceless tops! I agree with other's here that muslin and hand quilting will continue with the older style patterns. I think I would batt them according to where they will be used and "if" they will be used. I think I would probably lean toward the 80/20 blends. I like a thinner look for the older type quilts.....

Those should be backed with muslin. I agree with the others. You can get it in the natural color or bleached. I love them all. You have a big job ahead of you, but you can do it. They will be heirlooms.

I am especially in love with the lantern top! Just wonderful!! What treasures you have.

I guess it depends on what area your family comes from, because my ancestors never used plain muslin on the backs of their quilts. They used feed sacks for sure, but they were the print ones, and usually the ugliest ones they had went on the backs. I guess before the print sacks came out they might have used plain ones but I haven't seen any of those.

Also, my people almost exclusively tied their quilts. I guess getting them done and in use was more important than creating something very fancy. We are talking Oklahoma/Arkansas farmers with lots of kids here, and I'm sure that makes a big difference than someone with more leisure on their hands. Smiles and hugs.

I tend to agree with everyone on the plain muslin backing. I do want to say one thing though. Wash that at least two times and dry it on a very hot dryer to make sure the shrinkage occurs before you start all that hand work to quilt. I have seen the crosshatch background in the blocks and a loopy bead in the border that looks good on these. Or the echo quilting around the images and the quarter inch away from the edges straight lines around the blocks. It might be productive to visit a vintage quilt show or site on line to examine what they had done.

I hope that your family realizes how much work you are in for. Maybe teach one or two of them to hand quilt and make it an old fashioned quilting bee! How cool that would be to have the newer family members stitches finishing them together.

Definitely agree. The quilts are truly amazing and someone put lots of love into creating them. Muslin was my first thought for the backing. You'll be fine and please do post the pictures of the finished works of art.