Backing
Your Gypsy Wife Quilt
Whether you followed the
pattern or extended your strips, you’ll most likely need to piece your quilt
back. The exception is purchasing specially designed fabric that is 108” wide
and carried by most local quilt shops (LQS) on a limited basis or on line.
I’ve just completed piecing 15 tops this
past year and have pieced the backs in a variety of ways. This article will
contain some basic information. You may, however, want to take some time to
surf the web and see the variety of options available. Since I’m a relatively
novice quilter (okay maybe moving towards a moderate skill level), I stuck with
easy options for most of my lap quilts that I’m making. My Gypsy Wife, however,
is for my bed which is full size. So, I’ve added fabric at the top and bottoms
and will use two borders (a thin one and I think piano keys but we’ll see).
Buying background fabric uses those math
skills! Since 4-5 yards of fabric can add up quickly to the cost of your quilt,
you want to make sure you calculate accurately what you need.
Let start with the traditional way to
piece the backing fabric of your quilt.
Using fabric that is purchased 42-44
inches wide, these are your options – either a slim side piece or stacking two
pieces together.
When using
either of these options, you’ll want to consider whether or not your fabric has
a directionality to it. These two options lend themselves best to a
non-directional print where your actual quilting will blend in with the
background fabric. A busy backing hides less-than-perfect
quilting stitches on the back of the quilt – again helpful if you are new to
the quilting task.
When
using a plain fabric, the quilt pattern you choose will show more clearly. As a
result, you’ll want to consider more carefully, the quilt pattern you choose
and the thread color. As you can see from these two examples, the thread can
either blend in or contrast with your backing.
If you are relatively new to quilting,
you may want to visit with a local quilt guild, an experienced long arm quilter
or the folks at your LQS about options for your Gypsy Wife.
There are other options where you may
choose to feature your orphan blocks or a pattern using left over/complementary
scraps from your quilt. This is where you can either let your creativity run
wild or tackle a simple pattern that allows you to easily complete the backing.
This
graphic from “bits of everything” gives a couple simple ideas to more complex
ones. On my “Orange Peako” quilt by Aardvark (below), I mimicked the front
strips with a strip on the back much like the first pattern in the graphic
(left).
You
can even use a variety of different sized blocks or strips.
You’ll find lots of inspiration on
Pinterest and the web. Check out this McCalls article on quilting company’s
website- ttps://www.quiltingcompany.com/tuesday-tutorials-quilt-backing-ideas-mccalls-quilting-blog/
Whatever
you choose to do, be sure to allow for a little extra fabric, especially if you
are sending your quilt off to a long arm quilter. Sh/He will need the extra to
mount your quilt. Most quilters agree that it's best to have at least 3 to 4 extra
inches of backing and batting extending beyond all sides of the quilt. That
means your backing should be at least 6" to 8" wider and taller than
your quilt top, more if
you prefer (and even more backing if you plan to fold it and
bring it to the front of the quilt to create a self-binding. That type of
binding is not as durable as double fold binding but is an
option for quilts that won't receive heavy use.
Reference
Tuesday Tutorials: Quilt Backing Ideas
https://www.quiltingcompany.com/tuesday-tutorials-quilt-backing-ideas-mccalls-quilting-blog/
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