ckcowl

In my 40+ years of making quilts I think I’ve only made three with a white backgrounds, one was a blue & white quilt the other two were customer request appliqué quilts with turkey red, olive green, deep yellow for an 1863 bed & breakfast. All other quilts have had all kinds of backgrounds, colors & prints

Wonnie

I use white for all my quilt backgrounds for two reasons:

............I like the crispness it gives to all the other colors

............It's easier to see my pencil markings to quilt

I did one quilt with a grey background because it was an appliqued night scene but it was really hard to see my markings and, when it comes to black, forget it! I can't even use black when I crochet because it's just too hard to see the stitches to determine where I'm at in the pattern!

zozee

Tartan, that background isn't "screaming yellow" to me. It looks like warm butter. Either way, it's the perfect background color for all your colors.

zozee

I used a sky blue background once which was ideal for my butterflies appliqued all over. I like the look of white with modern layouts, and black certainly makes colors "pop" , which I think we have the Amish for that timeless trend.

Now that I think of it, is "timeless trend" an oxymoron?

RedGarnet222

When I was a child we used to travel by car a lot. In the south there would be beautiful quilts hanging on the front porch for sale waving in the breezes. Most of them had pastel backgrounds in blue, pink, greens or yellow instead of the white or beige.

ekuw

I use other solid colors that match; so if my quilt is predominately green, I'll use a light green, etc. I try to use mainly stash when making quilts, so I usually have to buy the background since I have mostly fat quarters & smaller pieces. Instead of trying to find a fabric that matches its always easy to find a KONA color that works :-)

Faintly Artistic

I never used white until recently and I like it for some things. Makes everything look fresh and crisp. I tend to mix neutrals in a quilt to give them a little more life. Haven't tried black yet, but would like to. I saw a Granny Square quilt on Pinterest that had dark brown as the background...very cool! I have definitely broadened my horizons this past year or so!

cathyvv

No. I use what looks best to me for background in a quilt. Black, white, blue, red and so on. Sometimes I use a blender print if I think it works best in a quilt.

cashs_mom

I think "other colors" are often more effective as backgrounds. Last weekend I saw a raffle quilt done in the "Dogs in Sweaters" pattern. She had used lime green and the background and it looked great!

IceLeopard

Almost never. Only once, for a block exchange, and that was a WoW. My preference is a charcoal-on-black print, but sometimes solid black, blue, sage green, gold, or chocolate brown. DH complains about that last. "Too gloomy and depressing!"