mhollifiel

I am with your new perspective, JJ. Our little charity bee completes about 200 quilts per year. I am the "backer/binding" provider. I keep an eye out for good wide backing sales but I also seek thrift store finds. Some on this board have used blends for backs successfully but, so far, I have found ample, high quality 100% sheets in fantastic condition in my searches. I am picky about flannel sheets as they seem to show wear faster than regular sheets. Nevertheless, I have had some fabulous and even "beefy" flannel backing sheet finds! On occasion, I have found juvenile sheets that are novelty prints and obviously outgrown quickly as tastes mature. These make quite successful quilt backings and likely will be used as much on one side as the other. Don't overlook duvet covers. The tags for fiber content are in the corners of the opening side. Lots of them are 100 cotton and you get two sides! Things I avoid are sheets that are worn and thin, stained, have ragged edges, are limp, and are faded. I have even found cotton shower curtains that have worked successfully. And I have found good quality fleece and fleece blankets that work well but I watch out for stretch and poorer quality fleece. I have also used 100% cotton corduroy with success.

My Back Prep method for our various quilters is as follows:

I fold the top into quarters, top to bottom and side to side. I measure the side and bottom and double the folded measures to get the size of the top. I round off fractions. Then I measure the prospective sheets backing. I cut a back from the backing adding 10+ inches to each measure length and width. Next I fold the backing exactly as the top, top to bottom and side to side in quarters and lay the top atop the back matching the center points with the extra backing extending side and bottom. I carefully tuck the extra backing between the top and the backing on the side and on the bottom making the top and back appear the same size. (Some of you will notice immediately that the sheet and backing trimmings are ideal for bindings as our binder will not have to piece WOF nearly as often as regular yardage saving her lots of time.)

At this point, I place the cut binding (with an extra strip) into a sandwich baggie (we recycle these) down at the bottom edges and then roll the top and bottom gently together top (pretty) side out. The binding is now in the center of the roll. This roll is secured with a selvage strip tie. For the few large quilts we do, I usually fold the combined top and backing once more to keep the roll from being too cumbersome.

This may not work for everyone but it does for us. I make an effort to preserve the pressing of the top and the back throughout this process. The top out allows our quilters to choose colors or patterns they like. So far, there have been no complaints and we've been at this for several years and are all still a great team.

Back to topic! (Sorry) The volume of quilts we do makes it easier to match tops to backing fairly successfully. It helps that our standards for "matching" backs aren't high. I have added orphans as well usually in a strip down the center but that seldom happens. It's a rare quilt top that isn't happy with just any old warm and cozy backing that will put finished to our quilts!

coopah

In the past, I have coordinated my quilt backs with the front. Sometimes yardage, and sometimes the 108inch backing fabric. The backing fabric is generally not as finely woven as quilting yardage, but looks fine when quilted and is less expensive. My son is the end of our family line, so we won't have anyone to appreciate quilts passed from generation to generation. (I have some from my great-grandmother.) So for my latest quilt, I went to WalMart and bought a sheet for backing. It remains to be seen how that works out. Most quilts I make are utilitarian, so a sheet may be the best way.

quilterpurpledog

I appreciate this thread because of the new ideas (to me) shared. I personally like to piece into my backs fabrics from the front. Sometimes I make extra blocks and other times I stitch strips together and make an inset panel with them. I never put this panel in the center of the quilt. In this case I use a coordinating fabric for the remainder of the back. Other times I use a neutral solid on the back. This obviously makes the quilting stand out. I do think backs aare important and deserve significant thought.

bljackson58

I have pieced some of the backs to my quilts. I like to use up the left over fabric squares, and I also like to machine embroider my quilt labels. I piece a strip the width of the label and then add it to one side of the back or near the bottom. My favorite was using all the little left over 3 inch squares and making an off center upside down cross design for a baby quilt. I almost always ask myself "why am I making this so difficult" because I have no pattern and don't think it through logically before I do it. But they turn out great.

cat-on-a-mac

I've done a bit of everything, but since getting my longarm, I have come to prefer using unpieced backings. It's much easier to get them square and avoid puckers on the back, as was mentioned above. I don't mind purchasing wide backing fabric, as I use the leftovers for other things. For donation quilts that my group does, though, I often have to piece the backing to make the best use of the materials we have. But then, I usually just piece together smaller pieces of the same fabric.

Doggramma

I personally don’t like the extra work of piecing the back so I like to use wide backs.

Mdegenhart

I buy a print I love that goes with or matches the top fabric all at the same time as the rest of the fabric.

Snooze2978

I've done all the above. On a couple baby quilts I used cutoffs on the border and then added the remaining ones on the back just haphazardly. On a recent quilt I added the background and the border fabric as the backing, making the darker at the center. Most times I'll buy backing fabric choosing the color I want to stand out so for this purple/yellow quilt I'm working on presently I picked a purple backing for it. On a blue/green/white quilt I chose a blue backing. On one I'm getting ready to quilt made up of mostly dark fall colors with beige neutals I chose a grey backing I had on hand. I also know she allows her dog to sleep with her so thought a darker color would hide any stains from the dog.

joe'smom

I wait until the top is done before I start considering the backing. In my mind, it is as important a design decision as any fabric in the top, because it is a part of the whole. When I had a LQS close-by, I would take the top to the shop and choose a backing. Now that I shop on-line, I put a photo of the top up on the screen while I browse for backings. I keep an eye out for clearance fabrics, of course, and have had some good luck there. I don't have large enough pieces of yardage in my stash for backings, but I did twice put together backings from large-ish pieces of stash yardage, and I have a couple of backings planned that will be comprised of larger pieces from stash.

Anniedeb

Sounds like it's just really a matter of personal choice. I don't view the back as "just" the back. To me it's an integral part of the quilt too. All my backs are picked to match the front, even when I'm doing a small wall hanging. I've not ever pieced a back yet either, I just buy the wide backs. I have a top finished now that I'm toying with the idea of piecing the back, because I made several different sized blocks, and they all didn't go into the finished top.