Barb in Louisiana

I want to wish you luck with this. I thought about it quite a few quilts back and decided that I would just as soon have two quilts to give away rather than fight the headache of trying to match all that up. If I were to decide to try it, I would definitely do it as a Quilt as you go. You can do that even if one of the quilts is a solid piece. By adding one row at a time onto the back, you would only be matching up 1 seam at a time.

For me a better idea would be to make a second quilt top with a totally different pattern with extra large borders on each side. That way, it would give me room to load it on my long arm and I would use a pantograph on it. The pantograph only has to line up with the preceding row.

I mostly do my quilts with a solid back, even if it is several pieces of the same fabric. Most of the time, my quilting thread contrasts either with the top or the backing, so I get an artistic element when the quilt is turned over and I considered them as reversible. Everyone who receives them loves them. Of course, it's mostly my family so far and they love anything I give them.

Jeanne S

I love to piece my quilt backs but I never try to match up designs or seams with the front---that would drive me crazy. I may coordinate the back with some leftover blocks and fabrics from the front but in a much simpler overall design. The quilting stitching focuses on the front piecing and just "falls where they may" on the back!

annesthreads

Lovely fresh colours in this quilt. Good point about bulk when quilting: my machine isn't very tolerant of that, so I may have to rethink. Thankyou.

annesthreads

Are you quilting on a home machine? Does the additional bulk of seams on both sides ever give you any problems?

annesthreads

Thanks for all the replies. It sounds as if I may be making a lot of work and trouble for myself! The most useful point that I hadn't thought of is that there'd be more bulk for my machine to cope with when I was quilting. And it's not partcularly good at that. Though at least the pieced blocks would back the 4-patch rather than those using the small squares. I think I may sandwich some orphan blocks and see if my machine will cope before making a decision.

citruscountyquilter

I piece my backings all the time. In fact I've never made a quilt that I didn't have a seam in the back. The back has always been quite different from the front however. I wouldn't try to match the front to the back. You do want your seams on the back to be as straight as possible however. When sandwiching your quilt if you mark the batting and the backing with the center edge and the center middle of each piece it helps to match things up. I use a frixon pen or you can run some basting stitches as reference points.
To match up the center which you can't see through the layers try taping two straws to your table in the shape of a cross to mark your center point. You'll bee able to feel the lump through the fabric layers depending on how you are basting layer the the quilt together. You'll be able to see the center markings on the edges. Since I glue baste I put my batting down first and then lay the backing over that and then fold the backing back to put the glue on half the batting and then do the other half. In any event the straws keep me on track to keep the centers together.

carolynjo

I don't have the patience nor the skill to match the backing seams to the front seams. I feel lucky that I can finish a quilt at all. It would NEVER match for me in this lifetime!

BluegrassGurl

Your quilt is gorgeous Feline Fanatic!

Teri D

Using something like the straws as a tactile reference point is a clever idea that I'm going to steal! Thank you! I also purposely make my pieced backings a bit "wonky" so being "off center" looks like it's planned (which it is!).

OCquilter

I also think the fewer seams, the better for the back. My favorite back was on a split 9 patch. I made the back blocks about 3 times the size of the front blocks. It looked really cool. Of course, the quilting was based on the front.