Split Nine Patch...Backing Pieced

To jog your memories here is the Split Nine Patch quilt I finished piecing a couple of weeks ago. It is approximately 54" x 66". Some of you may not be able to figure out where the blocks are in the quilt so have posted an EQ6 drawing of what the block looks like.

Each section of the block is 2" (finished size) making the blocks 6" finished. I decided to piece my blocks like this but I have seen this block with the center square made up of half square triangles too with half dark and half light fabrics. If you piece the blocks with the extra half square triangle you get more precise diagonal lines where my look a little jagged which is the look I prefer. (Actually if you really want to know the truth - I just didn't want to piece any more half square triangles!)

I did show you a tentative layout of the fabrics I would piece for the back of the quilt a while ago. It did look like everything would fit together but there was a gap so had to change my plan. The backing is now pieced together and needs to be squared up a little before I baste the top and batting to it.

To keep you all from eye strain trying to figure out what that light print towards the upper left is I have taken a photo of it so you can get a closer view. Yes, it is fabric with hippopotamus on it! I purchased about a half a yard probably 20 years ago and never used it. The colors go with the other fabrics I chose for the back so it is getting used here. A little different style of fabric from the rest of the backing fabrics but who cares - I like it and that is what counts.

Before any of you ask why all the different fabrics I will tell you. I have no larger pieces to chose from for this backing and want to rid myself of all these older fabrics. Since this will be machine quilted all those seams won't matter so why not is what I say.

Mystery Update.....I do have the project for my friend done so will post about it when I get the OK from her. It turned out wonderful!

Until Later,
Lynn

Pieced Backing

Since this is a year of using my stash and the fact that I don't have many large pieces of fabric I am piecing the backing for the Split Nine Patch quilt.

I have laid out the fabrics I want to use for the backing. I lay them out over the top to make sure I have it large enough to make the backing then I will starch and iron the pieces and square them up before I stitch them together. Will show you when I get that done.

Does anyone else piece their backing like this? If you do please give me any hints you may have. I am thinking since I am machine quilting this piece all the extra seams really won't make much difference.

Until Later,
Lynn

Widening or Lengthening Backing Fabric to Fit Quilt

One of the things that I forgot to tell you in the last blog entry is why I sew the strips in the backing on an angle to lengthen or widen the fabric to fit the quilt. There are two reasons I do it this way instead of perfectly straight across or vertically.

The first reason is because if you do it my way you don't have to be so careful when layering the quilt to get it straight on the backing. With my method you can be off a little and it will never be seen but with adding a strip parallel to the sides you need to be much more exact and keep that strip you added very straight and parallel to the top and sides as you layer the quilt.

The second reason is that it takes less fabric to add more width to the backing. Yes - I said exactly what I meant. I will show you an example using orange copy paper. This first photo is of the copy paper before I cut it. (Pretend it is a piece of fabric you want to use for a quilt but it is too narrow to fit the quilt.

First you make a diagonal cut lengthwise across the fabric (orange paper). The cut can be at any angle but make sure each end of the cut lands somewhere on the top and bottom of the fabric like the cut on the paper below.

The next photo shows a ruler laid on the space (pretend I stitched a strip of fabric in this cut area.) It measures 1 1/2"

Now comes the interesting part, remember I said it took less fabric to widen the backing if you put it on an angle? Well look at the next photo with the ruler laid on the area that would have the strip stitched in. It measures 1/8" less than the first measurement. This isn't much but remember this is a small piece of paper and not a large piece of backing for a quilt. Think in terms of a backing to make a large quilt and a larger strip could be stitched in and it would be a bigger difference in measurement.

Another thing to note is the longer the cut (stretching it out and starting closer to the corners farther apart) the larger the difference in the two measurements will be and the more width you will get out of your strips. Look at the two photos below for this example. How you might interpret this into a real quilt is if you need a bigger amount to make the backing wide enough you might want to make your cut longer and cut almost corner to corner. I would caution you with this though, try not to make your cut the same difference from each of the corners and you won't have to be so particular on how you layer your quilt. (My examples are a little too even for my tastes.)

Notice the ruler above measures 1 1/2" and the one below is 1 1/4" so it is a greater width gained by making the cut at a bigger angle. Does that make sense?

The above examples are how to make the backing wider and the one photo below is how to make it longer to fit the quilt. You just cut from the right to the left sides. The same thing applies as to the longer the cut, the more you will gain in width from your strips.

I hope this explains some of what I did on the Linus Quilt backing. I cut both ways on that backing. First I inserted the blue strip. I cut some of the length I added off so that is why it isn't placed exactly on the left side or right side. After stitching that strip in I re-cut it the other direction and added the white colored strip. Makes an interesting back and made my red fabric big enough for the backing of this quilt.

As you can tell I didn't have enough of any of the light fabrics so they are pieced and I had to piece the length of blue too to make it long enough to fit in my cut. If anyone asks about this interesting back I will just tell them it is a design element not that it was necessary to make it big enough. I like to use a contrasting fabric from the main backing fabric to make it look like I intended to do it that way. You could use backing fabric to insert but the contrasting fabric is more interesting I think.

Any of you math whizzes out there probably already know this and I am sure there is some geometry theorem that explains all of this but it has been too many years since I studied geometry. It works for me and that is what is important!

Have most of my stuff ready for convention now - can't wait until Thursday.
Lynn