Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts makes backs for her quilts using the leftovers from the quilt top. She calls them the “After Quilt”.
I love that idea, but when your top is made of scraps, there are NO leftovers to work from.
That was the dilemma that I found when I was planning a back for my 2-inch scrap…..
So, I opened all of the curtains on my “WAY TOO LARGE” fabric stash and started thinking about fabrics that I probably would never use……
…..mostly the small florals that made their way into many of my first quilts…..
It was time to use them up!!!
Many years ago I tried making a backing using 12 inch squares from my stash but it looked HORRIBLE. I eventually un-basted the quilt and remade the back.
I did NOT want to do that again!!
I started out by pinning the quilt top to my design wall and then starting to add fabrics…..
THIS reminded me too much of that disaster back, so I decided that it needed a focal point. Maybe this larger piece of blue fabric…..
While it did help, it still needed more. How about some orange…..
At this point you can see a bit of my floor. It was eventually covered with all of the fabrics that I auditioned and rejected!!
I decided that this was a good starting place and I would first piece the edges that would abut the orange…..
As I pieced, I carefully squared up each edge so that the back would lay flat when it was basted.
This is one of the MOST important parts in this process.
When I looked that top of the backing, I knew that it needed something between each of those tiny-flower fat quarters….
Now it was starting to take shape…..
I like planning it on top of the quilt top so that I can be sure that it is big enough. The last part to do was the bottom section.
My first instinct was to mirror the top section, starting with these fabrics….
…eventually adding borders on each side to make it wide enough…..
IMPORTANT……… Again, as I put it together, I measured and squared each section that was going to be attached to another section!!
So, here is the finished back…..
I took it one step further and placed the top on TOP and then trimmed off some of the uneven edges…..
And just like that, my “After-Quilt” (Back) was made. I decided to go ahead and baste it but sadly realized that I didn’t have enough batting……
Of well basting can wait for another day. After all, it will take me that long to clean up my studio again…..
There is more to come on the saga of the backing and basting of this quilt…… keep coming back!!
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