How to back a quilt
7 ways
Backing a quilt can be an after-thought when you’ve made a patchwork quilt. But it is well worth thinking about your quilt back in advance and making some good decisions. They might just save you money and effort and help you finish your quilt!
1 Bargain Backs
It takes a lot of fabric to back a quilt because you’ll need the back to start out 6 to 8” bigger than your patchwork top. It might not be affordable, at full price, to use quilting cottons as you might have done to make your patchwork. Look out for sales at your local fabric shop or online stores, especially of remnants / ‘bolt ends’ of larger cuts which are often sold off at cheaper prices to make space for new stock. Remember to check the sizes before you buy and shop small and local where you can.
2 Extra Wide
Fabric bolts of quilting cotton are usually 44” wide. Depending on the size of your quilt, you’ll probably need to sew at least two pieces of fabric together to make the quilt back big enough. Thankfully, there are more and more extra wide bolts of quilting cotton available on the market. At 108” wide they are perfect for bigger quilts if you love quilting cotton designs and there’s no need for pattern matching!
3 Simple Solution
An easy, cheap and quick way to back a quilt is to use ready-made bedding. Flat cotton sheets are perfect and there are hundreds of options to choose from. Look out for decent quality cotton but not necessarily the finest, as you might buy for your bed. Fine, high thread-count cottons might not be such a good match to medium weight quilting cotton, if you used that for your patchwork top. If you’re in the UK, I’ve bought flat bed sheets from High Street brands like M&S, Ikea, H&M home and La Redoute because they are great value and generally a bit more modern in terms of pattern and colour.
4 Plan Ahead
Before you choose between a plain (“solid”) or patterned fabric for your quilt back, think about how you plan to quilt. Quilting stitches will show more on a plain back. If you’re new to quilting, or practising your hand-quilting or machine-quilting technique, you might prefer a patterned back for more subtle stitches or you could match your quilting thread colour to the backing fabric (make sure it’ll work on the top too!). If you’re planning to get help from a long-arm quilter, a plain back can be a real show-stopper with a beautiful design.
5 Texture
Using a brushed cotton sheet as a quilt back adds lovely texture as well as extra warmth – perfect for cot quilts and throw quilts. Dunelm has a small but great value range of brushed cotton sheets in several colours which work brilliantly. Availability can be more seasonal so look out for sales at the end of the winter season.
6 Party On The Back
Quilt backs don’t have to be made from the same fabric. I often piece quilt backs to use up off-cuts of fabric. I don’t tend to piece as elaborately as I would for a patchwork top and sometimes keep it really simple. That said, it can be fun to play with a quilt back! I like to do something interesting with the top section of the back so that I can turn it down on the bed for a little extra pop of patchwork.
7 This Way Up
If you’ve pieced your back or used a directional fabric (one that has a right way up), think about whether you want it to line up square with your patchwork top. That can be a bit tricky to get exactly right but, if it will bother you, it’s worth thinking about. If you plan to send your quilt off to a long-arm quilter, be sure to tell them if you want your backing fabric oriented in a particular way.
I’d love you to add your own tips for backing quilts in the comments below so we can share ideas.
How do you back your quilts?