I love pieced backings for all the reasons described above, but honestly, once I’ve finished piecing the front, I’m often not in the mood to spend more time on it, and want to get to the quilting as quick as possible.

So sometimes, I’ll piece the back BEFORE the front! I’ll take a length of backing fabric, co-ordinating scraps and orphan blocks from stash, and fashion something.

Then I still have excitement to make the actual quilt top, and can breathe a sigh of relief when the top is done.

This is a great idea. I have lots of orphans and usually make my quilts no bigger than 70" x 70". So I'm thinking of making several backs in advance. Thanks for the idea!

What's kept me from trying this is the likelihood that the design will be wonky when sandwiched. Is there some clever way of centering it or keeping it kind of straight?

hugs,
charlotte

It’s not really clever, but you just make a backing that’s not designed to be centered or symmetrical!

for example, I’ve done a backing that’s solid, but has a strip of orphan blocks about a third of the way from the edge. It’s obvious it’s not meant to be centered, but a few inches this way or that won’t make a difference.

I don’t try to make it a reversible quilt, just add some interest (and economy) to the back.