What do you use for the back of your quilts?
 

Usually I just buy some quilting fabric and sew it together to fit the quilt. Typically I would buy cheaper fabric for the back since I wasn't doing any piecework and would only buy medium quality if I felt the piece was special and a gift. I have made enough quilts that now I feel like buying at least medium quality for all quilts...

But do you all use quilting fabric or something else? Ive heard you can buy quilt backing which is just wider. I went to Fabricland (quality is halfway between Joannes and a quilt store) last week and asked for this and she gestures to a dozen rolls. There was a bright orange that I loved...the tag said "100% cotton sheeting" and I bought it without thinking much or really examining it.

I get home and omg does it ever feel cheap and strange! Almost feels like the fabric of a tent? It's also quite stiff...I'm worried that it will be hard to quilt, my machine only has 5" of space so is challenging enough.

Does anyone use cotton sheeting for the back? I'm worried to use it as I put more effort in this bedquilt than I usually do and don't want to ruin the quilt.

What do you put on the back? I make bed, lap and baby quilts, all meant for active use.

ps would you just get rid of this fabric? I kind of want to but feel quilty wasting it...

I would wash the orange fabric you bought and then decide. They may have put a lot of sizing in it that will wash out so it feels softer. Also it may shrink a bit, and it may not be color fast....so I would toss it in the washer and dryer, see how it looks and feels and then decide. I have bought fabric that I have done that to...some turns out...some I toss...one red batik I bought bled every time I washed it and I washed it three times. I ended up putting it in a garage sale with a note on it "not colorfast" and a price that was about 10% of what I paid for it. I usually just use quilting cotton for the backing....but I am not a matchy type person so what I often do is look at the clearance/sale section of the quilt shop and if I see a fabric with enough yardage that tickles my fancy...I will buy it even if I don't have a top yet for it. So I have a stash now of potential quilt backings and mostly I have been satisfied with one that will work and even a few times where it was amazing how good it looked. I especially like to keep my eye open for flannel material that would work as a backing as my family loves flannel even if it is just on the back of the quilt. I just can't pay full price for flannel for a backing for a queen or king sized quilt.

oh...and I have had mixed results buying the extra wide backing for quilting. Some of it has been fine and some is definitely of poorer quality. One thing I have learned with the extra wide backings is to buy a good amount of extra at least a half yard but maybe even a full yard to be safe as often it seems to be wound on the bolt crooked and is not straight at all. One quilt shop I went to always torn extra wide backings as the owner felt that it made the backing straighter and not as much fabric was needed.

I quilt on a long arm and prefer using wideback--with pieced backing I've found that if someone has pieced with some length of grain and some width of grain going different ways that you sometimes get puckers on the LA. But I would also suggest you wash it--I find that some widebacks have of sizing in them to make it easier to get on the boards without stretching so much. The wideback won't be any harder to quilt on your machine than any other backing--if you cut the backing so that it's right for you quilt.

One tip I'll share that I've learned from others--the backing is really the foundation of your quilt, a good backing will make it easier to quilt and make the quilt last longer too.

Ugh I hate the idea of washing and drying the fabric. I live in an apartment and an extra load is annoying...im very frugal.

If a bad backing makes for a bad quilt, I probably shouldn't use it, I really love the quilt I made. Maybe I'll go back and see if they have backing in better quality and if not I'll just piece from quilting fabric

I usually use either a sheet or 108" wide muslin.

I sometimes use good quality wide backs, but normally I use quilting quality cotton. I often piece the back using leftovers from the front of the quilt and supplementing as necessary with matching pieces from stash. I used to find that wide backs weren't the same quality as quilting cotton, but lately I've had no issues with them.

I nearly always buy sheets for backing. They are less than a third of the price of quilting fabric. Some are up to 50pc poly and they quilt up fine, but higher poly content I will not touch.

Usually, I use what's left over from the front, and try to keep the grains going the same direction. I've used a wide back only once (before I had a long arm). I had a hard time keeping it straight when pin basting. Did quilt one on the long arm-no problems. Over time some wall quilts sag. To hopefully prevent that I use the straight of grain up and down and quilt ~ every 2 inchs.

I use flannel often that I buy at Joannes when they have their fall sales, and large selection, I cannot afford to use LQS flannel for backing. I realize the quality of a LQS flannel is better than Joannes, but unfortunately it is out of my price range for backing. I have used minky and fleece too. I also have bought flannel sheet sets that are good quality at my local thrift shop and yard sales and have used them as backing.
I typically use quilting fabric for backing when I want cotton.
I have read about using a flat sheet for backing too, which is made for several washes, would be durable, and less expensive than quilting fabric.

Like Tartan posted, it depends on the size of the quilt. If it is a large quilt...queen or more, I will purchase wide backing. I have a modest stash but when I do scrappy quilts, I will always try to put together a back with pieces from my stash. There is a LQS near me that has a sale room where I can easily find fabric for backings...

I buy JoAnns Legacy 108" muslin on sale, usually try to get a full bolt, and use this for all of my quilt backs. Washes well, easy to quilt, and to me, looks good when done.

I am always happy if I can find a nice cotton flat sheet at my local thrift stores. I go in those stores, head straight for the linen section and will buy up whatever sheets I like. If I don't use them for a quilt back, I use them to make pants for a local shelter. I look for 100% cotton, but am not opposed to a nice blend - but despise working with sateen, so avoid that like the plague.

Muslin a good quality muslin is not too dear and provides a wonderful feel, I love Joann’s Legacy Premium Muslin it’s very soft and quilts up beautifully, comes in a wide variety of widths in addition to being a great value when purchased with a coupon! I buy it by the bolt and use it very often for the back of quilts.

I agree with Dunster! Wide backs are better than they used to be! I also buy great fabrics on the sale shelf and use it on backs and I love using my leftover fabrics from the front.

I have used new cotton sheets for backs of very large quilt. My preference is wide quilt backing fabrics. If I am planning a very large quilt I will by 120" just to be sure I have what I want. As time has gone on with my quilting I have been getting smaller and smaller. The larger quilts are getting harder to handle for me. Now If I am making a larger quilt the 108" backing fabrics are what I order. I find them to be perfect for the money spent.

I don't go skimpy for my quilt backs. Think of all the work we put into our creations! I just won't take that chance.

I usually buy the wide backing fabric for my quilts but if I have a large bit of fabric I have used in the top then I just piece the backing with most of that fabric. In fact, sometimes I have extra blocks I have made from the front and I piece those in the backing too. I think it is worth the money to buy good quality fabrics and they last a lot longer too. Good luck to you with your new fabric and hope it works out for you.

I use a coordinating print from the fabrics used in the quilt. The edges of the fabrics are serged and then washed to allow the first shrinkage to happen. Print designs are matched across seams. Seams are stay-stitched first and then I use a 1/2 inch seam. Press the seam to one side and then top-stitch close to seam line.

The extra effort and details are worth it to me for my quilts.

When I have my preferences and budget, I prefer to buy extra wide backing for my quilts. I've found that it is often not-on-sale and so you can often use those Joann coupons for them to bring the price down. That doesn't always work though, whether it is timing or a fabric style choice. I joke about being inherently cheap, it's not a bad thing -- my goal is that my backs cost less than $20. I can't always get what I want for that price and price isn't always my number one concern, but it's top 3!

I do prefer to buy backs I can actually feel/smell, but sometimes to get what I want I take risks and order on-line... I have used sheets before, I take each on it's own merit. That is, sometimes a heavy stabilizing sheet is exactly what you want for that top, and other times it is not! Or that particular sheet just has a super nice feel and thread count and will be delightful no matter how you use it.

I typically look at piecing yardage before sheets though. More and more as part of my design process/concept of the top also includes some degree of piecing on the back. Sometimes that is just because I wanted to use up fabric, other times because my backing maybe wasn't quite big enough, sometimes yes -- I'm treating the back as a giant block. Another reason for piecing is I'm really trying hard to use stash. I rarely bought anything over 3 yards long myself, and that's just about half an average back.

I do look at backs and bindings as one more place to add fabric to my top. I do like using wild and crazy and often large scale prints for the backs. Most of those I get at the thrift store, if/when I find 6-8 yards of a cotton quilting fabric (big enough for a back!) for under $20, I snatch it up. Has to be pretty awful/"taste specific" for me to not find value in just that amount of yardage alone, but as wild and crazy as I may go there are fabrics I still don't get.

I use sheets a lot. Walmart Mainstay brand works well and they come in lots of colors. They are a cotton poly blend. But I find them as good as medium quality quilt fabric. And they are economical.

when I first started quilting I used plain muslin, found out when I used colored thread every mistake really showed up. So I found that if I use a really busy busy print my oops did not show up so much. I use thread to match the back, so back must blend in with the top. I also do both machine and hand quilting in the same quilt, yes I know not done so much, but it is what I like to do. My one hard fast rule in quilting is that "in quilting nothing is written in stone!" So do what you like to do and just have fun!

Quilting fabric, 100% cotton print so my mistakes don't show up as much. I don't particularly match it to the front of the quilt. I have not yet tried the 108 inch backing fabric available.

I like to use the 108 inch wide backs. The ones I use are the quilt shop quality fabrics. Otherwise I choose a quilting shop quality fabric from my stash, usually something that I have in a bigger amount. In my earlier quilting years, I didn’t have a lot of money. So I would go to estate sales or garage sales and get old sheets. Unfortunately a lot of them were so worn out that they started to rip through after the quilts were washed a few times. I’ve used new sheets too which hold up much better.

I like the wide backs fabrics for backing. I don't want to spend a lot on them as I either make donation quilts or give them away. Sometimes I will use quilting cottons and add borders to them. I buy my own quilting supplies for the above quilts and i don't know how they will be treated.

I didn’t see anyone mention fleece for backing. I make many kids charity quilts & been satisfied with using it. No batting used or needed. Fleece makes a great self binding when trimmed to 2” then folded twice to front.

I just put a french fuse interfacing on the fleece I am using for a backing. Didn't know if I should use a batting or not.

I live in NM and right now hot hot hot!!! Backing for our quilts is a flannel sheet...preshrunk. I don't care that the quilting is not noticable so the piecing is the focual point.

I get wide backing from Marshall Dry Goods, they have a website, the Dream Cotton is very nice have used many times.

Oh this is a good point! I usually just stitch in the ditch so a busy print will help hide things more!

Last night before work I stopped by the fabric store just to look and found a bunch of clearance cotton fabric for $5 a metre, which is really cheap here. I compared it to the cotton sheeting I purchased and the quality was much better, although not great quality by any means. But the quality is good enough for me! I bought enough for two quilts, but I'm going to go back today and buy enough for 3 more quilts and toss it in my stash

If you're shopping at Fabricland, you must be in Canada. At my local FL, they currently are discontinuing their Heritage Cotton series which was their quilter's cotton solids. They were $20.00/m and are going for $8.00/m and they have a lot of colours available. You'll need to piece it but it's a good quality for a backing. Either way, I would wash and dry it first, personally. Be sure to look for the Heritage cottons, as they have a number of lines for sale at $8.00/m.

I have also gone to Valu Village and bought 100% cotton sheets for the backs of charity quilts and they have always turned out well, but if this is special, I'd go the way I mentioned above.

Watson
PS...Save the cotton sheeting...you never know if one day you'll want to make a string quilt or something and need a foundation fabric or a backing for a charity quilt.

I use wide backing fabric about 99% of the time.it is quilting cotton and comes in a vast array of colors, textures and prints. Most of mine come from fabric dot com, quilting twins (which has a bunch of new ones on their site) and Backside quilting.

the sheeting you purchased just needs to be prewashed- the stiffness is due to the sizing added. It will feel and look much better once it is washed and dried. When I get a fabric like that I usually add a cup of white vinegar to the wash which not only freshens but also softens the fabric

Yup I saw those too! I almost bought some and then the $5 rack caught my eye. I'll make sure to check out the $8 one again, they were better quality and not much more

Okay, since so many have said it I will try washing and drying the fabric and see if that changes my opinion!

Another thought. If the quilt is a wall hanging, the priority is that it will hange without stretching. So a good quality is necessary.

If it's a throw or for the bed, the back will show so it matches/compliments the front.

I buy the prettiest wide backing that goes with the quilt top. I think the back of the quilt is as important as the front. For utility quilts I use pieced together left over fabric to make a design, not to look just pieced together to fit. I rarely use plain color backings. I want really pretty fabric for my backing. To me using something for backing that is not a pretty design on it's own is not honoring my work.