Creative quilt backing ideas using fat quarters from your stash

Yesterday on QUILTsocial, I showed you the importance of pressing seams in the correct direction when making a quilt. I used my OLISO PRO^TM TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron – Tula Pink^TM to press all of my seams and CLOVER 2501 – Silk Pins (Boxed) – 36mm (1³⁄₈″) to pin the rows together before sewing, and my quilt top turned out perfectly.

Today I’m making the backings for my two quilts using fat quarters from the FABRIC CREATIONS Fabric Bundle (5pcs) – Summertime Paris – 45 x 53cm (18in x 21in) as well as leftover pieces from making the blocks for the quilt tops.

Step 1 Cut up the leftover block pieces.

I want to use up as much of those receiving blankets as possible, so the first thing is to use my OLFA RTY-2/GP5 – Printed Handle Rotary Cutter 45mm and my OMNIGRID Ruler – 6″ x 12″ (15.2 x 30.5cm) to cut up the leftover pieces from the strip sets and pink fabrics into pieces that are all the same width. The largest I could get out of all of them was 4½”, so that’s the size I used.

Step 2 Sew the pieces together into pairs.

Next, I’ll chain piece these pieces together into pairs. Chain piecing makes the process go faster and saves thread.

Step 3 Sew sections into one long strip.

Now, I’ll cut the threads between each of the sections, press the seams to one side and then sew the sections together into one long strip.

Step 4 Sew the fat quarters together.

Now I’ll sew the fat quarters together into rows of three. I’ll use the gray ones on the back of the teal quilt and the pink ones on the back of the pink quilt. By sewing together the shorter sides of the fat quarters, the rows are all approximately 60″ long.

I’ll cut the long, pieced strip into two strips that are 60″ long as well and cut up the remaining receiving blankets into strips, which I’ll sew end to end to make 60″ strips.

Here are all these pieces hanging on one of the rails of my longarm so that I can visualize what the backing will look like when sewn together. Adding up all these sections, my backing will be about 70″ long – perfect for my 50″ x 60″ quilt top!

Here’s the backing for the pink quilt after all of the sections have been sewn together. The fat quarters from the FABRIC CREATIONS Fabric Bundle (5pcs) – Summertime Paris – 45 x 53cm (18in x 21in) are so fun and cheerful. I’m sure that my friend’s niece will just love it.

And here is the backing for the teal quilt using the gray fat quarters from the FABRIC CREATIONS Fabric Bundle (5pcs) – Summertime Paris – 45 x 53cm (18in x 21in). For this backing I also used leftover blocks from the quilt top and strips of the leopard print receiving blanket.

My next job is to load these quilts onto my longarm and machine quilt them. I’ll use a spiral design that I love on both quilts. It’s quick and easy and fills in any sized area very nicely. Here’s a little video that shows how I execute this design on my longarm:

I’m really happy with how these two quilts are turning out! The backings that I made using fat quarters from the FABRIC CREATIONS Fabric Bundle (5pcs) – Summertime Paris – 45 x 53cm (18in x 21in) are so fun and make the quilts almost reversible. Tomorrow I’ll trim the quilts and tell you 7 things you should do after trimming your quilts.

This is part 4 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 3: Why pressing seams in the right direction matters when piecing a quilt top

Go to part 5: 7 essential things to do after trimming your quilt for a perfect finish