Who says your quilt back needs to be one piece of fabric. Why not add interest by making it pieced back? It’s a great way to use up scraps or orphan blocks. While adding interest to your quilt.
One method for piecing a back is to use up leftovers from the front. Maybe you have extra blocks. You could set them in a row. Or scatter them through out the back. With Crystallized I was testing the best method for making the block. So I had a few imperfect blocks. Rather than throw them away, I put them on the back. I like to think they auditioned for the front but didn’t get the star role. Instead they are in a supporting role.
I used the leftover strips from making the half square triangles for Sunshine on a Cloudy Day to create a splash of color on the back of the quilt. It made the perfect home for them. While saving my scrap bins from overflowing.
When your backing is not quite wide enough to cover your whole back adding a scrappy strip can solve your problem. It is a good idea to offset the strip. When a quilt is loaded on a long arm things don’t always line up as planned. Offsetting will make it look like it was planned rather than a mistake. I used this method on the back of Citrus Spin
Looking for more tips on creating a pieced back? Want to see how I do it? Here is a little video to help you out.
I appreciate this post. I have been piecing quilt back out of leftover blocks, fabrics from the front, coordinating fabrics for years and love to turn them over for the surprise. Thank you for the article. Gave me new ideas!