Sandi, save your muslin for small wallhangings! Although there is no rule that you can't use that in a quilt sent into a show, you will get higher points from the judge if the back is interesting too! The backing, borders, and binding are all just as important as the main body of the quilt. If you have a lot of muslin to use up, make sandwiches out of it and use that for practicing free motion quilting!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

Whenever I'm in the quilt shop, I check the 50% off sale section for backings and choose ones that I really like. Then, whatever ends up on the back will be a good quality fabric as well.

Renee

Thanks for the responses. I had not thought about a tone on tone fabric for the backing. I like that idea. Thanks Margo. I've used muslin on a few of my wall hangings and it is cheap and works well, but not sure if a show judge would like it. I eventually want to enter something in a show. Maybe this BOM? LOL, I better let a long arm quilter, quilt it. I like the name shadowing. I didn't know what to call that peek a boo effect from the backing. Sandi in FL

i try and use some type of print that will hide the quilting as i am not the best quilter in the world

I often choose a backing for a bed quilts that has nothing at all to do with the top, but is something that the future owner of the quilt also likes. That way you get two quilts for the price of one. Example: Nautical themed quilt top and when you turn it over there are thousands of ladybirds, a lucky symbol where I come from.

For wallhangings I use whatever is within easy reach or on top of a pile of fabric, because the back of a wallhanging will rarely be seen.

I have a friend who uses fat quarters that relate to the very intricate quilt top. She then makes a simple Turning Twenty back for her quilt.

For big quilts, I have to purposely buy the backing as I don't have pieces that big in my stash. I just go with something the coordinates with the front. I've been quilting my own quilts on my domestic machine a long time so little prints or large prints, it doesn't matter to me. I do think about the thread I want on the top, some bobbin thread that is close in range so as not to show ever on the top (and vise-versa), and then think along those lines for color of my backing fabric.

Most wallhangings get a pieced back to use up some leftovers. I usually throw in some pieces from the top to coordinate, too.

Sandi, busy doesn't have to mean dark colors or even many colors. A light colored tone-on-tone or something with a muted design would work well on the back of the BOMs if you are worried about shadowing. Any solid fabric will show the quilting stitches more, whether they are done by machine or by hand.

However, this is the fabric that I used on the back of mine, and nothing shadows through. I used a Hobb's Heirloom (80/20) cotton batting.

(I used the background fabric as a "focus fabric" to help me choose the 50+ fabrics that I used in the quilt. These are the ones I started with, but I added about that many more.)

I would love to hear responses to this also. I'm almost finished with my 2009 BOM yes, I know I am slow This will be my 2nd large quilt that I will have finished. Most of my others are small wall hangings. My mom and the quilt shop owner helped me pick out the fabric for the first one. I don't think I want something with a lot of color in the backing as the BOM has those areas of cream fabric and I would be afraid the colors would show through. But, I've always read and heard to pick a busy fabric for backings as that will hide quilting problems. I'm still undecided if I will quilt it myself or have a long arm quilter do it. I want to have heirloom type quilting on it and I understand that is pretty expensive as it is time consuming for the quilters. Any advice is well appreciated. Thanks. Sandi in FL

How do you choose the quilt back? I seldom get the backing that fits well with the quilt top. I don't usually like the extra-wide fabric made for this. Sometimes I use a busy floral. Sometimes I take leftover blocks and incorporate them into the backing.