A Quilter's Path: Back(s) to Quilting!

Hi, all! Happy National Quilting Month!

I'm baaack!

It's been a long time. I've been so busy quilting and just haven't made the time to post anything. But this blog is really my Quilting Journal, the one place where I keep photos of my quilts and the process I went through to make them. March is National Quilting Month, the perfect time to get back in the saddle and share the journey along A Quilter's Path. This post is a composite of several unfinished posts from 2018...

What is your favorite part of quilting?

There are those who love the beginning -- discovering an inspiring view or idea or even a captivating pattern, or finding a beautiful fabric that cries, "Take me home!" Some find relaxation in cutting and piecing. For others is the quilting process itself, making lovely designs that please the eye in themselves and that add depth and movement to the quilt. There are even people who enjoy just sitting in front of the TV, sewing on the binding, and feeling the satisfaction of a quilt COMPLETED!

I guess for most of us, it's the whole process. Otherwise we'd probably never finish our quilts! I don't much enjoy the actual quilting, probably because I still haven't become skilled at the kinds of quilt designs that I want to make. Otherwise, I love it all. But one of my favorite parts is rarely mentioned -- finding the perfect backing.

The back is part of the quilt, too!

We're all familiar with the photos of gorgeous quilts, draped over the corner of a door, over a fence or railing, wrapped around a young child. Sometimes you get a peek at the back in these photos, or perhaps the quilter has folded back a corner for you to see it. But think about it -- when you turn down the bed or toss a lap quilt over your knees, you always see the back!

I love finding the perfect backing for my quilts. I made one quilt -- one very important to me, the one for my son and daughter-in-law for their wedding -- where I used a plain muslin backing. Lots of people use muslin for the quilt back -- it never detracts from the top, shows the quilting, and is inexpensive. But in the end I was disappointed. If the top was so important, why didn't I bother to find a nice fabric for the back?

To me, the right backing material complements the top. If the back has to be pieced, that's even more opportunity to have what is effectively a two-sided quilt. Here are some of my favorites.

I made this panel quilt for a niece's baby boy in Ireland. The African theme suggested warmth, something often lacking in Ireland!

So I made the backing with a warm flannel in the same colors as the top. It showed off the quilting nicely, too. Aligning the back with the top so that the quilting aligned correctly on both the top and the back was something of an effort, but in the end, I was quite happy.

This lap quilt was for my best friend and her husband -- and their dogs! The photo was taken before the quilting was done. I stitched the names of all their dogs over the years in the horizontal sashings.

Of course, there was no shortage of dog-themed fabrics that could be used for the back. The one I chose added a little pop of color that was missing in the brown and dark red top.

Sifting through old posts, you can find my *very* gradual progress on my Otsego quilts -- a pair of twin-sized quilts that in my earliest quilting days I optimistically designed, poorly cut, and struggled to sew. Over the years I would pick one up to work on, usually during a retreat, when I forced myself to push on by taking only that project along. But once I got home, back it went in the UFO bin.

This summer I finally finished both tops. It took a while to find a backing fabric that I loved -- found it at Hobby Lobby in Gaylord, Michigan. Perfect.