When planning your backing design......
 

Do you consider how the quilting will affect the design on the backing?

I have only made 5 quilts with creatively pieced backings, and they have turned out fine. Just wondering what you all do.

My current quilt will be stitched in the ditch (outer square edge of each D9P block), but I have a strip on the back I want to do which includes 3 of the remaining blocks. Of course it is impossible to line front and back up perfectly for the stitching to hit the back in the exact same spot. Do you worry about this at all?

I have not been too creative when it comes to backings. So far when I used up the leftovers, it has turned out fine. I sort of plan of how I would like to see it and then I accept the way it really turns out. lol

I don't worry about it at all. When I had pictures on the back, I tried to miss the girls' eyes, but other than that, what happens, happens. My focus is the front.

Nope. I figure the top is where all my effort goes, because that's what people see.

I love to piece backs. i don't usually stitch in the ditch when I do. i am one of those "fussies" and would be upset if the back and front didn't match up in that case. i usually have a swirly all over done when I piece the back if the project if very big. But my friend say "it is the back"

i rarely give a thought to the back except for the color of thread that i use.

I don't worry about the back either. Whatever it is, it is. I put a striped fabric on the back of a quilt for a friend...at her request. My SID from the front didn't match up at all. Neither of us cared.

Dina

I've never attempted a specially pieced backing. I usually am just more conscientious of the color of thread and the quilting pattern. If I were going to do something special for the back of a quilt I would probably appliqué something so I could have control over placement and stitching.

I do because 99% of the time I bring the backing fabric around the front as a final border for the whole quilt. Sometimes I make a wide border and other times a narrow one. So the backing fabric has to look good with the front of my quilt.

No way do I try to line up my backing for quilting stitches to hit a block on the back just as dead on as it hits the front. I treasure what is left of my sanity!!

Oh, I do so agree!! The only time my back and front work this well together is when I do QAYG.

Generally the only thing I take into consideration is the direction of the backing seam(s) in relation to how I'm going to load the top. In both of these examples, I used leftover blocks pieced into the backing.

The pink and blue quilt I loaded sideways -- I wanted to do a feather down the length of the left and right border and my stops and starts aren't too whoopie yet, so I needed the seams to run the length of the quilt. The pieced blocks were off-set so those seams didn't stack on each other as I rolled the backing onto the frame. As you can see, I just wacked off the left hand block where the quilt ended. The backing had a floral strip which also was wacked off.

The multicolored quilt where the backing matches the border was loaded onto the frame "normally" - top edge first. The pieced section was centered, but as discussed in other threads on the board, getting something centered vertically (meaning in this instance between the leading edge of the quilt and the bottom edge of the quilt) is next to impossible. I also just wacked the blocks where they fell.

Both of these quilts have my swirly freehand loopy flowers, so it didn't matter where the piecing landed.