I made a crib size quilt that is 48x64 inches and now trying to figure put how to piece the back. Does anyone have any great patterns to help me.

Here are a few ideas.

If you have a large piece, you could use that as a center back and simply add wide border strips to top and bottom.

Again, if you have a large piece, you can slash it diagonally and sew a wide strip of contrasting fabric in-between.

You could cut 24 individual pieces 12-1/2 inches square and piece them together 4 blocks wide by 6 blocks long. If you need a little extra width, add a border strip to each side.

With pieced backs, my philosophy is to keep pieces large and minimize the number of seams. Also, consider pressing seams on the back open so you don't have areas where you will have to quilt over two crossing seams pressed in the same direction. (Disregard if you are planning to tie instead of quilt.)

Thanks for your ideas, they're great choices. It seems that this may not be a topic that most of us have a good answer.
Janw

My problem isn't with the piecing...its with making sure the back stays "squared up" with the front. I can't seem to do that to save my life. On Heartsong..one of the strips on the back looks as crooked as a dog's leg :oops:

Same here, and that's exactly whyI dread doing it.

I just buy enough fabric to make the back with 2 pieces...
Or buy a twin size sheet!
Or go to FATBACKS.com (?) and go that way...
Or...

http://www.carriagehousequiltshop.co...ategory_id=259

Hope this helps
Kirsten

http://www.quiltology.com/how-to-piece-a-quilt-back/

scroll down to the bottom to check out the pages of ideas for quilt backs
http://www.primitivepiecesbylynda.com/quiltbacks.html

Fold your backing in half and press. You only need to press at the edges; not all the way down the entire length. Now fold again and press so that you have a fold line in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Do the same to your quilt top. Cut your batting a little larger than the top and the back a little large than the batting. Using the folds as a guide, you can line up the quilt top to the backing to make sure it's all straight. If you don't like the idea of pressing folds, you could just mark the center points at the top, bottom, left and right with a chalk pencil.

key4unc silly ? great tips but how do you see the fold lines through the batting?
I`ve been wondering about this too as I`ve never pieced worried about getting it straight.
Marking the edge you could fold back the batting and get a good idea I guess.
Gale

Great tip!!

grma33 asked "but how do you see the fold lines through the batting?"


You don't--LOL. If the batting is slightly larger than the quilt front but smaller than the backing, you can use a ruler to help line up the fold lines. That's also why you only need to press or mark at the edges of the quilt.

THanks got it din`t relize to cut the batting smaller than the back.
Need another coffee!
Gale

Thanks for the great tip! On this last one..I thought I had it centered...horizontally and vertically before pin basting. I think that it still shifted some because I handled it sooo darn much. I think if I had ironed some fold marks, I probably would have noticed it before I quilted that area. Thanks! DUH....such a simple solution :roll: :oops:

Not smaller, larger

Actually I always fold all 3 layers and put a safety pin at the center of all 4 sides of each piece. Then when I sandwich them I line up the safety pins, but this does not seem to be fail proof to keep a pieced back from shifting.
I've done the piecing, where I lay 2 pieces rt. sides together and then sew down both side seam, and the cut up the center of 1 side. Also added a wide strip between two 42-44 widths and sometimes put wide bands at the top and bottom. But the biggest problem is still shifting.
I decided to go out and buy a 108 " back to cut this quilt's back.

Thanks auntluc, that was very entertaining and great ideas.