{"id":11765,"date":"2012-01-10T06:50:09","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T13:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/?p=11765"},"modified":"2016-11-29T17:55:56","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T00:55:56","slug":"pieced-backs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/pieced-backs\/","title":{"rendered":"Pieced Backs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not too long ago, Frances<\/a> asked, in one of her podcast episodes, about making pieced backs and whether there was a tutorial.<\/p>\n

I didn’t look for one, but I knew I had a back to make soon (for the Stepping Stones<\/a>), so I thought about taking the opportunity to make a tutorial.<\/p>\n

As I have mentioned in the past, once the top is finished, I am done with the project and want to move on. I love piecing. The other parts, such as making the back, making the binding and label, quilting are all dull for me. However, I have found that the Finishing Fairy does not visit my house and I have to do my own finishing or finish by checkbook.<\/p>\n

My first step was figuring out how I make the pieced back. The basic premise is easy: sew pieces of fabric together until you have a piece large enough to accommodate the quilt.<\/p>\n

What I realized is that it isn’t quite as easy as a step 1, step 2, etc tutorial. I sew bits and pieces together as I am making the quilt that end up larger when I am ready to sew the back together. You aren’t going to have the same size pieces as I have. So, this will be more like a guide rather than a tutorial.<\/p>\n

I am a firm believer in not buying new fabric just for the back. Yes, it would be easier, but I have a lot of fabric and I might as well use it. I try to use the largest pieces possible as well as the pieces I have sewn together while making the quilt.<\/p>\n

The first thing I do is make a label. I make my labels using a word processing program (Google Docs would work just fine) and then I print the piece out on paper backed fabric. I have also used the stitch letters on my sewing machine to write out a label.<\/p>\n

The label will be sewn into the back, so as soon as I peel the fabric off the paper I start sewing. Know your paper backed fabric\u00a0 and ink so that you know whether the ink will wash out immediately, over time, or not at all. I use fabric backed paper from Dharma Trading Company and my regular ink jet printer.<\/p>\n

Tip #1<\/strong>: larger pieces make the back go together faster<\/p>\n

When I made the back for FOTY 2010, I purposefully used really large pieces. That was the best back experience of my life, because it went together really fast. I suggest you start out this way with pieced backs so you don’t lose your mind. This is your fair warning!<\/p>\n

Tip #2<\/strong>: As with blocks, sew from smallest to largest.<\/p>\n

I start with the label and surround it with fabric until I have about 1.5′ from the right hand side of the back and about the same from the bottom.<\/p>\n

I sew the label into the back so if a quilt is stolen, the label cannot be ripped off without ripping out the quilting.<\/p>\n

Tip #3<\/strong>: Plan to leave extra fabric around the edge if you want to longarm. 4″ on all sides is usually sufficient.<\/p>\n

Once I have one corner completed, I sew across the bottom of the quilt back until I have a piece the desired width. I make the width generous as I don’t want to go back when I think I am finished and have to sew on a strip to a long edge.<\/p>\n

Tip #4<\/strong>: Coordinate your backing fabric with the fabric pieced into the front.<\/p>\n

I use fabric that will coordinate with the front, though it isn’t necessarily the same fabric. If I have a lot of leftovers that I don’t think I will use in another quilt, such as in Stepping Stones<\/a>, then I will use the leftovers for the back.<\/p>\n

Tip #5<\/strong>: Leaders and enders techniques make the process of sewing the back go faster.<\/p>\n

Where possible I will sew smaller pieces\/shards (not schnibbles! I am not advocating doing something that will send you to an insane asylum) of fabric together using Bonnie Hunter’s leaders and enders technique<\/a>. Now, I have not<\/span> taken a class from her, so visit Quiltville<\/a>, Bonnie’s blog<\/a> or buy her books to learn her methods. My idea is that I put pieces\/shards through the machine after the regular pieces for my top so I can get those to ironing board for pressing faster (discussed previously in this post<\/a>). Also, this alleviates the need to put a scrap piece of fabric through the machine to keep your feed dogs from eating your triangle corners. Finally, it minimizes scraps added to the scrap pile.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/a>
Red Journal – Closed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I have discussed on different occasions, I call the end result of sewing bunches of scraps together randomly mosaic quilting<\/em>. I use the leaders and enders method to facilitate the mosaic quilting result. I made the entire cover of the red journal by using the leaders and enders method to get a mosaic quilting piece. I enjoy sewing like colors together to make new fabric. If I have nothing else to do or I can’t think or I am stressed out, it is a good activity.<\/p>\n

How does this relate to pieced backs?<\/p>\n

\"Mosaic<\/a>
Mosaic Quilting for Pieced Backs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I do the same thing, but on a larger scale. When I am finished piecing the top and am definitely working on the back, I find pieces that fit together and sew them. When I am piecing the top, I sew the smaller pieces into larger pieces and then use the larger pieces for the back.<\/p>\n

\"Mosaic<\/a>
Mosaic Quilting for Pieced Backs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tip #6<\/strong>: Skip sewing small pieces together if you have not done so prior to finishing the top.<\/p>\n

I just want to finish, so if I have not sewed smaller pieces into larger chunks prior to starting the back, I skip it. It drives me crazy to have to stitch little bits together for no other reason than making a back. Why this doesn’t bother me when I am using them as leaders and enders, I don’t know.<\/p>\n

Tip #7<\/strong>: Backstitch<\/p>\n

Any seam that will be on the outside of the quilt or not crossed by another seams gets a few back stitches. All of my handling rips out those stitches and then I have to go over them before giving them to my longarmer. To alleviate the process I backstitch. I backstitch more than just the outside seams as sometimes I don’t know what will become an outside seam.<\/p>\n

Finally, I sew chunks the same width as the first chunk (with the label) until I have a piece the same size as the top with an additional 4″ on each side. Depending how how small the pieces are, the back can take me 4-6 hours. I am slow, and get cranky when I do this.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, you can just buy a big piece of fabric and put it on the back. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not too long ago, Frances asked, in one of her podcast episodes, about making pieced backs and whether there was a tutorial. I didn’t look for one, but I knew I had a back to make soon (for the Stepping Stones), so I thought about taking the opportunity to make a tutorial. As I have … Continue reading “Pieced Backs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[401],"tags":[16,325,353],"class_list":["post-11765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-401","tag-finishing","tag-mosaics","tag-process"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}