Schill93

As the front of my quilt is mostly busy fabric, quilting is not seen as well. Also, as my quilting seems to look better from the front, I was considering using just a tonal fabric on the back, and quilting from the back to the front. At least I would be able to see what I'm quilting better when I can see my thread. I am at a stage where I need as much help as I can get. I am considering an all over pattern, so I don't think that would effect the front blocks. Having never done this, am I missing something? Only thing I can think of, is that I would be giving up my seem lines to use instead of measuring and marking.

What say you?

quiltingshorttimer

I have done one quilt from the back and had no problems. Since I'm working on the long arm I did keep good track of the difference in the sizes of back vs. front. I had a backing that had a great floral design.

Tartan

​If you are doing an all over pattern you can quilt it from the back, go for it!

Iceblossom

If your thread tension is good on both sides, no problem quilting from the back. There was a mini-movement of sorts for awhile where you would follow a large print on the backing for the quilting design. Works great with large florals!

Doggramma

I’ve quilted on the back mainly because I’ve liked the pattern on the backing. And it was easier doing an allover design without worrying about where the seams were. It’s probably just me, but I continually checked the front side to make sure it looked ok. I know what you mean about seeing it. I just finished quilting with white thread on white background, and I kept running over other lines because I had a hard time seeing.

NZquilter

Sounds like a good idea!

joe'smom

I had a very busy front and purposely bought backing fabric with a design I could echo. It worked great!

Iceblossom

Another use for quilting from the back if you want to use a fancy thread, like something fluffy. Many machines can deal with a fancy thread in the bobbin since it doesn't move through much stuff but have a terrible time sewing with it as a top thread.

Jingle

This conversation came up a few years ago on this board. I was going to try it but, I haven't yet.

EmiliasNana

Yes, I have done that successfully for the exact reason you mentioned. The top was too busy for me to see where I needed to go and where I had been. As long as your tension looks good from both sides, it will be fine.